FRANKLIN, Tennessee—Fox News called the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee for Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) at 8:05 p.m. Central over her Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen. Minutes later, Politico followed suit and called the race for Blackburn as well.
The two have been competing for the seat currently held by the retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).
With 15 percent of precincts reporting, Blackburn had 61.7 percent of the vote to Bredesen’s 37.1 percent.
Heavily Democratic Davidson County (Nashville) and Shelby County (Memphis) have not yet reported their results.
Early voting returns suggested Bredesen might have had a better night than the final results indicate.
Election day turnout in Nashville/Davidson County, a heavily Democrat area, was slightly higher than the 2016 Presidential election.
The promise of that heavy turnout, however, turned illusory for Bredesen, as every one of the state’s 95 counties appeared to experience very heavy voter turnout.
The final outcome was consistent with the two final polls of the race, which showed Blackburn in the lead by an average of 8.5 points.
As Breitbart News reported Monday, Bredesen was counting on two big things to pull off the upset, “(1) the sheer volume of spending by his campaign and Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC on behalf of his candidacy, and (2) an increased turnout from younger voters, energized by pop superstar Taylor Swift’s endorsement of his candidacy.”
In the end, those two factors apparently did not deliver sufficient votes for Bredesen to win.