Former Trump ambassador to Japan launches Senate bid in Tennessee
Source: Politico
Bill Hagerty, the former ambassador to Japan under President Donald Trump, launched a run for Senate in Tennessee Monday, two months after Trump endorsed his prospective campaign.
Hagerty, a businessman who served as Trump's Tennessee Victory chair during the 2016 campaign, is running for the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander. In an interview with POLITICO, Hagerty said he had discussed the prospect of running for Senate with Trump for months after Alexander announced his retirement. Hagerty earned Trump's endorsement earlier this summer after former Gov. Bill Haslam declined to run.
"He's looked at all the candidates in this race and he's decided to endorse me as the candidate best able to put forward conservative Tennessee values in the U.S. Senate," Hagerty said in the interview.
In an announcement video, he called serving in the Trump administration the "honor of a lifetime" and said he felt called to run for office, attacking the "Democrat socialist agenda" and the freshman House Democrats known as "the Squad."
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/09/bill-hagerty-tennessee-senate-bid-1713925
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