(Note: these learning modules encompass the actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students. Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)

LEARNING MODULE: WEEK 13, Tennessee- Moderate Parties

No test question is expected on Tennessee, so you can just sit back and relax, and enjoy learning.

Tennessee has a history of statesmen Senators respected across the nation. In the 1950s, both of the state’s U.S. Senators were racial moderates, Democrats Estes Kefauver and Al Gore Sr. Both were New Deal economic liberals who refused to sign the 1956 segregationist Southern Manifesto. Kefauver was such a maverick that he took on the Communist witch hunter demagogue Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy, and he chaired a special committee investigating organized crime, which angered many Democrats as he found a linkage between crime and big city Democratic machines (Kefauver's national prominence led to his selection as the party's Vice Presidential candidate in 1956.). The economic and racial liberal Al Gore Sr. finally lost re-election in 1970, as a conservative Republican blasted him for opposing the Vietnam War, opposing Nixon’s anti-ballistic missile system, and opposing two southern nominees to the Supreme Court. Republicans had their own star in Howard Baker, elected to the Senate in 1966 (the third GOP southern senator after Tower and Thurmond). From traditionally Republican mountainous East Tennessee, Baker was a fresh face with boyish good looks and charm, intelligence, honesty, and a mild-mannered and soft-spoken demeanor. A moderate conservative overall, he was a racial liberal who supported the 1967 fair housing bill and the extension of the Voting Rights Act. Baker became famous for seeking the truth during the Watergate hearings, asking “What did the President know, and when did he know it?” His Republican colleagues elected him GOP leader, and he briefly was a presidential candidate in 1980.

Tennessee Democrats have had some pragmatic and skillful political candidates. Gore’s son Al Gore Jr. was one of them, following his father’s footsteps to win a Senate seat in 1984. Al Gore wisely distanced himself from his national party (Reagan went on to win 59% of Tennessee’s vote that year.), as he talked about how as a four-term congressman he had just worked on solving people’s problems on such non-ideological issues as setting baby formula nutritional standards, toxic waste cleanup, and arms control. Gore pointed out that President Reagan had signed three bills that he had cosponsored, including one that strengthened penalties for repeat offenders. Gore as Senator held open meetings for constituents in every county, maintained a moderate liberal voting record, and swept every county in winning re-election with a 68% margin. Perhaps as Vice President he became too identified with the liberal national Democratic Party, as he aggressively defended President Clinton during the impeachment trial, and then went on to lose the 2000 presidential election by failing to carry his own state!

It is impressive that despite the modern South being so dominated by Republicans, Tennessee Democrats have been able to elect two, 2-term governors in recent decades. Ned McWherter, an 18-year state legislative veteran and House Speaker, was a fiscal conservative who balanced the state’s budget without gimmicks, shored up the state pension plan, and was conservative on bond bills. For eight years before his 1986 election as governor, McWherter made speeches across the state, amassed IOUs by backing Democratic candidates, and visited every county to build a campaign organization. Democrats united behind him with a Unity bus tour with his two defeated Democratic primary rivals plus African American Congressman Harold Ford (who had a formidable Memphis organization). As governor, McWherter improved education (smaller class sizes, more technology in the classroom), developed a TennCare program for the working poor, built more roads, and attracted new industry to rural areas. Democrats won the governorship in 2002 with Phil Bredesen, a businessman and 2-term mayor of Nashville, who had led his city to a Best Places to Live rating by improving education by hiring more teachers and building new schools. As governor, Bredesen raised teacher salaries, preserved health care for children under Medicaid, created a new state health program called Cover Tennessee, and attracted new industry as Tennessee became the North American headquarters of Nissan.

So, what happened? Beginning in 1994, Republicans have consistently controlled both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats, and Bredesen has been the only Democratic governor. Indeed, I can remember election night in 1994 when the GOP swept the nation in Clinton’s first midterm election. Both of the state’s Senate seats were up because of Gore’s resignation to become Vice President, and after a station break the newscaster with a somber face announced: “A double killing in Tennessee.” The modern GOP success in Tennessee started not only with the legendary Howard Baker, but with Lamar Alexander’s election as governor in 1978, his re-election four years later, and then his three terms in the U.S. Senate. Alexander was a Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt, who as school newspaper editor had advocated for the admission of African Americans to the school. A lawyer, he had served on Senator Baker’s staff. Alexander ran for governor as a working man, wearing a red and black checkered shirt, and walking 1,000 miles across Tennessee as he talked with and listened to voters. As the corrupt outgoing Democratic administration in their final days began selling pardons to criminals, the Democratic-controlled state legislature rushed to swear in the new Republican governor three days early. Alexander became known as the Education Governor, as he enacted a large sales tax to fund his Better Schools initiatives which included a teacher pay raise and increased funding of higher education. His Master Teacher program rewarded teacher performance, and he established centers and chairs of excellence in higher education. He promoted economic development by offering attractive bids for companies to locate in Tennessee, recruited new Nissan and General Motors Saturn plants, established a technology corridor near Oak Ridge, and promoted tourism by publicizing the heritages of localities. After his two terms as governor Alexander became the President of the University of Tennessee, and then Secretary of Education under the first President Bush. Alexander was then easily elected to the Senate in 2002 and won two 2-1 landslide re-elections. He had a conservative voting record in the Senate, but was known for being bipartisan, supporting universal health care access and the development of low-carbon energy sources. As an Appropriations Committee member, he steered federal money to the state’s TVA, Oak Ridge, and to the state’s other science and technology education and research projects. His retirement in 2020 saw the election as Senator of Republican Bill Hagerty, the state's former Economic and Community Development Commissioner and Trump's former Ambassador to Japan, who easily defeated an African American woman environmental justice activist, Marquita Bradshaw (who had been nominated with 36% of the vote over an Army veteran backed by the national party campaign organization (DSCC).

The saga of the other Senate seat is quite interesting. For eighteen years it was held by Democrat Jim Sasser, but his roll call voting record had shifted from moderate liberal to liberal (the most liberal of the 5 ideological categories), giving Republicans the chance to knock him off with Nashville heart surgeon Bill Frist during their 1994 national landslide. Republicans had a tough contest replacing him in 2006, as Democrats nominated Congressman Harold Ford Jr., a moderate liberal African American who highlighted his religious values and opposed gay rights, partial birth abortion, and illegal immigration. Republicans were stuck with a wealthy real estate developer and former Chattanooga mayor, Bob Corker, a more wooden and boring speaker. The Republican National Committee played the liberal card against Ford with a hilarious but devastating commercial with “real people” making fun of the Democrat’s positions: “Ford’s right, Terrorists need their privacy… When I die, Harold Ford will let me pay taxes again… Ford’s right, I do have too many guns… I’d love to pay higher marriage taxes.” The ad ends with a bare shouldered attractive white female smiling and saying, “I met Harold at the Playboy party,” and then winking into the camera and whispering, “Harold, call me.” (check it out on U-tube by googling Harold Call Me Ad) Corker won a squeaker 51% victory, which didn’t even equal his party’s 4% edge in exit poll voters, and the fact that 90% of each party just voted for their own party’s candidates shows how the American parties even in the South have become very polarized. Corker won an easy 2-1 landslide re-election six years later, and the inept state Democrats ended up repudiating their own unknown nominee who was Vice President of a conservative advocacy group in Virginia which opposed the teaching of gay issues in the public schools and was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Corker served as Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he came up with the plan to let President Obama submit the Iranian nuclear deal to the Senate as a mere resolution instead of a treaty (treaties require a two-thirds vote), thereby permitting Senate Democrats with only 42 votes to filibuster a resolution disapproving of the deal. When Trump became President, he tore up the Iranian deal and dumped on poor Corker. Upon retiring, Corker was replaced in 2018 by our own MSU alumnus, Marsha Blackburn. Congresswoman Blackburn was a Tea Party favorite and conservative who was often on Fox news. She got considerable national Republican support, as Trump and Pence each visited Tennessee three times, and five GOP Senators came to campaign for her (including southerners Rubio, Graham, Tillis, and Cotton). With a big GOP advantage among exit poll voters, Blackburn knocked off former governor Bredesen. Her key committee assignments include Judiciary and Armed Services. Republicans in 2018 also retained the governorship with businessman and political newcomer Bill Lee, who easily bested a two-term Nashville mayor. Lee kept his campaign positive, said he felt called to serve, and promised to be governor of every Tennessean. He visited all 95 counties in the state twice in his RV. This year, Lee was renominated by the GOP without opposition, while the Democrat Jason Martin, a doctor at Sumner Regional Medical Center and former college professor was nominated with only 39% of the vote against two opponents (Tennessee does not have runoffs.).