Unfortunately, I’m in the 5th, which hasn’t elected a Republican Congressman since Ulysses Grant won his 2nd term in 1872 (now the longest Dem-held seat in TN).
We tend to get sacrificial lamb candidates against a truly ineffective and strange incumbent in Jim Cooper (sadly, a far cry from his father, Prentice, who was a Conservative Democrat Governor many, many decades ago. Because Prentice was a seg, as many Dems were in the 1950s, Jim seems to think he needs to atone by being a liberal panderer. Funny thing is, he’s managed to piss everyone off with his flakiness. The right hates him and the left does, too. That he’s never drawn a serious Dem challenger is astonishing given how weak he is with their base).
It’s curious, if not bizarre, watching the ads for the 6th district, with Corlew and Rose battling it out while no mention of Matheny at all. I wondered who the hell those two were to begin with. Perhaps Matheny has remained quiet as to allow those two to destroy one another, although I found a more troubling reason... Matheny doesn’t have much money. Apparently, he only has $264k. Those two other guys have way more... Rose has $3 million (!) while Corlew has $1.5 million.
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/election?id=TN
It bothers me enormously when the workhorses get outspent by these guys who decide they want to write a check and buy the office out of the blue. It’s one thing in a district where we have a lack of farm team candidates, but not when you have someone who has EARNED our trust via hard work.
You have my sympathies having Cooper as your representative.
If I recall correctly, DesJarlais is the first Republican elected in our district since the Civil War so it CAN be done. Don’t give up hope. Y’all just have to find the right person.
Ya know, as many times as I’ve seen the Corlew and Rose ads on tv, I never knew which district they were running in. I’m troubled, too, by how much the others have raised vs. what Judd has. I’m going to have to dig to see who’s giving to their campaigns. I can’t help but wonder if the State GOP is pulling their crappy stunts again this election that they pulled two years ago. They were throwing support behind liberal candidates running as “R”s and might be doing it again.