Tennessee GOP Senate candidate labeled as ‘Massachusetts Manny’ in attack ad
Oh, the horror.
What’s the scariest nightmare for a Tennessee Republican? For one U.S. Senate candidate, it’s apparently Massachusetts.
An attack ad released Monday supporting frontrunner Bill Hagerty called his primary opponent Manny Sethi “Massachusetts Manny” and accused him of being “too liberal for Tennessee.” It cites Sethi’s time on the board of the Massachusetts Medical Society, which supported President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, as evidence that “Trump conservatives can’t trust” him.
Hagerty, the head of a private equity investment firm who was appointed ambassador to Japan by President Trump, calls himself a “true Trump conservative.” He worked on Trump’s 2016 election campaign and served on his presidential transition team, and the president has heaped effusive praise onto Hagerty in an endorsement.
The ad is one among many in the boiled-over battle between the two Tennessee Republicans, unleashed onto the airwaves in the last week as the primary election nears. In his own attack ad, Sethi, a trauma surgeon who went to Harvard Medical School, attacked Hagerty for previously supporting Mitt Romney’s bids for president. Romney was the Republican governor of Massachusetts for a term in the 2000s, and he now frequently spars with the president as a senator from Utah.
The businessman and the doctor have emerged as the two frontrunners in the crowded primary. Hagerty leads Sethi by less than five points in two recent polls, while the rest of the field lingers far below them in the single digits. Three-term incumbent Lamar Alexander is not running for re-election.
Early voting began in Tennessee Friday, but the actual primary election isn’t until Aug. 6. Whoever wins will almost certainly coast to an easy victory against the Democratic challenger in November.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com