NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Heading into Tuesday’s election, the most expensive fight in the Tennessee governor race has not been between the two major-party nominees. It has been a wave of outside spending aimed at an independent.
Two independent expenditure groups have spent just under $10 million on ads against David Hatley, a Washington County hot tub business owner running as a conservative independent, campaign finance records show. The Choose Freedom Fund accounts for about $6.5 million and the Tennessee Freedom Fund for about $3 million.
Choose Freedom set up its Tennessee PAC on Sept. 18, and within that day it received and spent exactly $4.2 million on ads about legal problems tied to Hatley’s finances in the 1990s, which he has discussed openly on the trail. It took in and spent another $2.3 million on Oct. 13. Its money came from a national political nonprofit, which makes the original donors hard to trace. The Tennessee Freedom Fund has drawn money from Blackburn’s Senate campaign account and from another pro-Blackburn PAC called Team Tennessee.
Hatley, for his part, has put nearly $12 million of his own money into his bid as loans, his Oct. 27 pre-election report shows.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee, is considered the front-runner; Republicans have not lost a statewide race in Tennessee in two decades. Her Democratic opponent is Memphis City Council member Jerri Green, and independent Lauren Pinkston is also on the ballot.
Blackburn skipped the race’s only televised debate, held at Middle Tennessee State University on Oct. 27, and held a rally in Hendersonville instead. On stage, Green promised to scrap the tax on groceries, hold the gas tax where it is and use state money to clear the housing voucher waiting list. Hatley also backed a gas tax freeze and more help for housing, and Pinkston proposed public land trusts for affordable homes and 50,000 new child care slots. All three said the state needs rules for data centers.
Blackburn has said her campaign chose to meet voters directly, pointing to door knocking and dozens of meetings around the state.
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