As The Tennessee Star reported Wednesday, the gubernatorial candidates have engaged in a venue-filled, final days sprint across the state to rally votes for today’s primary.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Candidate schedules, in no particular order, are:
Beth Harwell
Beth Harwell announced she will hold a watch party at 6:30 p.m. CT tonight at ThreeOneThree Facilities, 701 Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville.
More information is here. Harwell’s campaign website is here.
Diane Black
Diane Black’s campaign announced she will host a watch party tonight. The party will be at the Symphony Ballroom of Loews Hotel in Nashville at 6:30 p.m. CT. The address is 2100 West End Ave. To RSVP, email [email protected].
Her campaign website is here. Black’s Facebook page is here.
Black released the record-high amount of voter contact conducted by her campaign. Her team has knocked on 503,186 doors and made 460,806 phone calls in all 95 counties, according to a press release.
Bill Lee
Bill Lee planned to start Election Day in Spencer from 11-11:30 a.m. The address is 179 Veterans Square, the Old Courthouse. Van Buren County was his campaign’s first-ever stop.
Lee will hold an Election Night Party at 6:30 p.m. CT at The Factory in Franklin, 230 Franklin Road.
His events page is here. More information also is here.
Randy Boyd
Randy Boyd began a “95 Hour Sprint to Election Day” Monday with more than 20 public events across the state and a statewide tele-town hall Wednesday evening.
Boyd’s election day stops leading up to the watch party are: 8-9:30 a.m. ET, South-Doyle High School, 2020 Tipton Station Rd, Knoxville; 10-11:30 a.m. ET, Powell High School, 2136 W Emory Rd, Powell; and Knox County Meet & Greet Lunch, noon-1 p.m. ET, Harvey’s Pistol & Pawn, 5305 Clinton Plaza Dr, Knoxville.
Boyd’s campaign website is here.
The Election Night Party will be in Knoxville at 7 p.m. ET tonight at Jackson Terminal and is free and open to the public. The address is 213 W. Jackson Ave.
More information about these events may be viewed here or on Facebook.
Most political pundits in Tennessee say the race remains too close to call, with Boyd, Lee, and Black running neck and neck, and Harwell a distant fourth in most polls.
Boyd’s last minute strength is heavy media buys, particularly in West Tennessee.
Lee has seen a surge in momentum in the polls and among grassroots Christian populist supporters around the state over the past month.
The Black campaign says it has the best ground game to get out the vote. A spokesperson for the Black campaign tells The Tennessee Star they have placed 130,000 phone calls in recent days and knocked on 500,000 doors throughout the course of the campaign.
Chris Walker, an advisor to the Lee campaign, disputes the Black campaign’s claim of a superior ground game.
“When Bill kicked off his campaign, he said he was going to run one of the most aggressive grassroots campaigns in Tennessee, and he has done just that,” Walker tells The Star.
“He kicked off his campaign hitting all 95 counties in the first 95 days, and he’s finishing it by hosting over 100 town hall meetings over the past several weeks, including having over 600 people at his 100th town hall in Fairview yesterday. In short, Bill continues to focus aggressively on winning over every vote he can until the polls close,” Walker concludes.
The Harwell campaign is counting on a last-minute surge in support, based on her firm support for the legalization of medical marijuana.
