美国国家公共电台 NPR In Tennessee Senate Race, Democrat Tries To Show He Can Overcome Political Tribalism

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Tennessee has emerged as one of the most surprising Senate battlegrounds this year. Former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen has a chance to flip² the open seat held by retiring Senator Bob Corker. But his opponent, Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, is emphasizing how the race could decide control of the Senate. As NPR's Jessica Taylor reports, that's left some voters struggling with whether they can cross party lines.

JESSICA TAYLOR, BYLINE³: At Phil Bredesen's hour-long health care roundtable in Covington, Tenn., last month, the words Republican, Democrat¹ or Trump⁴ didn't come up once. Instead, Bredesen spoke⁵ very little as he encouraged the dozen women gathered in a hospital conference room to simply tell him their stories.

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PHIL BREDESEN: Basic thing I'm trying to accomplish here is this. When you talk with people, health care often comes up as an issue.

TAYLOR: Erica Glass, a full-time⁶ student and mother of three, spoke about how difficult it's been getting care for her 5-year-old daughter Hadelynn, who was born with a birth defect. Glass voted for Trump in 2016 and is still undecided in this Senate race but said she liked how Bredesen listened to her concerns.

ERICA GLASS: A lot of people want to hear the negative of things instead of focusing on the positive and how it can benefit them. So I think if we can just all be more positive and be more open-minded, it would probably benefit everybody a little bit better.

TAYLOR: Glass is exactly the type of voter Bredesen will have to sway if he wants to have a chance to beat Blackburn. Bredesen was first elected governor in 2002 and then won re-election in 2006 in a landslide⁷, carrying all 95 counties. But even voters who like him as governor say there's a big difference in choosing a senator. Here's Faye Stubblefield, a Robertson County commissioner⁸ who was at an event for Blackburn earlier that week in Portland, Tenn.

FAYE STUBBLEFIELD: I voted for Bredesen for governor. I thought he was an excellent governor. I think he did great things for our state. However, Washington's a different animal. Washington - you don't necessarily vote for what you think is best for the people. You vote party lines.

TAYLOR: Bredesen says he knows he has to convince voters he'll continue the independent streak⁹ he cultivated as governor.

BREDESEN: Party for me as an organization I belong to. It's not a religion. I don't think that I will go to hell if, you know, Chuck Schumer doesn't like what I say about something or other.

TAYLOR: Bredesen has been holding small events on local issues including health care as well as trade and tariffs¹⁰ that have affected¹¹ Tennessee's agriculture community and even on Asian carp, an invasive species that's harmed the West Tennessee fishing industry. And there areas where he agrees with President Trump like on rolling back regulations. To him the famed mantra that all politics is local still holds true. But Bredesen also isn't naive¹² about the heavy lift in front of him. He knows how far the Democratic Party has fallen in the South.

BREDESEN: The Democratic Party, my party, has been getting too elitist and a little too distant from the concerns of, you know, the very down-to-earth people that have always been the base of the party. And I made President Obama unhappy during his election when I suggested one time that he spend more time in Walmart and less time in Europe.

TAYLOR: Sara Gangaware voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and attended the roundtable with Bredesen. She's voted for Republicans in the past but is supporting Bredesen this fall because she thinks he'd best carry on the centrist, pragmatic tradition that other Tennessee senators recently have, including the retiring Bob Corker, who's had plenty of praise for Bredesen.

SARA GANGAWARE: It is a serious problem that people are so blindfolded¹³ by party issues and they make decisions based simply on a party. If you get right down to it, it's almost gang-like activity.

TAYLOR: On the campaign trail, Blackburn hammers home that Bredesen would vote with Democrats¹⁴ while she would vote to support President Trump's agenda.

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MARSHA BLACKBURN: Tennesseans want somebody who is going to stand with President Trump and build that wall. I will build that wall with President Trump.

TAYLOR: But even in such a polarized environment there are signs that Blackburn could be toning down her rhetoric¹⁵ to appeal to that middle that Bredesen is courting. Her opening general election ad released this week didn't even mention that she's a Republican. Jessica Taylor, NPR News.

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