Some Tennessee tea party activists looking for a GOP primary opponent for Alexander NASHVILLE — A week after about 150 tea party activists rallied in opposition to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander's re-election next year, tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said here Monday that he hopes Alexander doesn't get an opponent and wins re-election.
Alexander, R-Tenn., has aroused tea party ire for his votes for the immigration reform bill and other measures opposed by the hard right. Tea partiers also claimed an Alexander campaign ad televised statewide this month falsely implied that Paul, R-Kentucky, had endorsed him. The ad featured Paul speaking at a Nashville event with Alexander to discuss their passage of a bill they co- sponsored to override a Corps of Engineers ban on fishing immediately below its dams on the Cumberland River. Alexander said he never asked for Paul's endorsement and that Paul approved the ad in advance.
About 150 tea partiers carried protest signs and wore red anti-Alexander T- shirts outside of a July 20 rally Alexander hosted in Smyrna for Republican county chairmen. Tea party leaders spoke at their protest and called for a more conservative challenger in next year's Republican primary. Ben Cunningham, founder of a Nashville tea party group, charged that Alexander "votes like a northeast liberal Republican."
But no opponent has publicly surfaced — tea party, Democratic or otherwise. Cunningham said former Williamson County GOP chairman Kevin Kookogey is considering running.
Paul came to Nashville Monday to tour a KIPP Academy charter school with Alexander, state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman and state House Speaker Beth Harwell. Reporters cited the TV ad and asked Paul if he plans on endorsing Alexander.
With Alexander standing alongside, Paul said the tour was about education, not endorsements, but added:
"I'm very supportive of Senator Alexander. He and I have worked together on a lot of issues. I'm very complimentary of how he's been a great senator from Tennessee."
Alexander said he accepted Paul's remarks. "Senator Paul is one of 98 United States senators who hasn't endorsed me, the other two being me and Sen. (Bob) Corker (R-Tenn.). We're not here to endorse each other. What I try to do is earn the respect of my colleagues, and Rand Paul's certainly earned my respect for the way he speaks out and works on education."
Alexander said before last week's tea party rally that he respects opponents rights to express their views but cited his own polling and the last Vanderbilt University Poll indicating he has slightly higher approval ratings among self- identified tea partiers than among Republicans in general. He noted that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, another conservative icon, appeared with him at his Smyrna rally.
"I think his coming all the way here to campaign for me says to conservative Republicans in Tennessee that he's pretty comfortable with me and I hope they are too. I'm going to run as hard as I can to earn the respect of the voters of Tennessee in the primary and general elections and we'll see what happens," Alexander said.
