The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●TN-Sen: Well, well, well... after ruling out a Senate campaign to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker in late September, former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen reopened the door on Monday when he told the Associated Press that he is considering it after several people implored him to do so. A wealthy former mayor of Nashville, Bredesen would easily be the top choice of many state and national Democrats after ending his tenure with broad popularity in this conservative state. Indeed, in his 2006 re-election bid, Bredesen won a 69-30 landslide and carried every one of Tennessee's 95 counties. That campaign marked the last statewide race Democrats have won in Tennessee.
Campaign ActionOf course, even if Bredesen does run again, it will be dramatically harder for him to win next year. Tennessee has become increasingly hostile to Democrats up and down the ballot since 2006, with Donald Trump carrying it by a brutal 61-35 spread. Voters are also typically far more willing to split their tickets in state races than in federal ones, and Bredesen would face attacks tying him to unpopular national Democratic leaders. Republican ex-Gov. Linda Lingle tried this same move in Hawaii's 2012 Senate race, but she lost by a huge margin in that deep-blue state, even though she had won her 2006 re-election race in a landslide.
The 73-year-old Bredesen would also be running his first campaign in 12 years, but he still brings a lot of advantages in a state where partisan realignment has devastated the Democratic bench in recent years. Bredesen would almost certainly start out with a powerful fundraising network and widespread name recognition, and he would immediately draw interest from national Democrats who are eager to put a third GOP-held seat into play in their longshot bid for a 51-seat Senate majority next year. Iraq War veteran James Mackler has been running for the Democratic nomination for months, and several notable Democrats have also expressed interest. However, Bredesen will likely weigh heavily on their decisions on whether or not to run.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, former Rep. Stephen Fincher has been conducting a statewide listening tour while he considers whether to join the primary. Fincher recently stated that he's "very optimistic" and expects to announce between Tuesday and Friday of this week whether or not he'll run.