Republican Congressman Diane Black won a resounding primary victory over former State Representative Joe Carr for the Republican nomination for Tennessee's 6th Congressional District.
The 6th District runs east from the Nashville suburbs to the Cumberland Plateau.
Early results showed her easily turning back Carr’s upset bid by more than a 2 to 1 margin (64.5% to 30.8%).
Black outspent Carr, but the challenger relied heavily on conservative talk radio to attack the incumbent as a member of the "establishment."
Carr surprised many observers by coming within 9 percentage points of defeating U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former governor and presidential candidate, in the 2014 Senate primary.
While Alexander largely ignored the Carr campaign during that nomination fight, Black went on the offensive against her challenger this year. Black campaign materials targeted Carr for living outside the district boundaries and for being a perennial candidate.
According to NewsChannel 5 political analyst, Pat Nolan, in winning, Black squarely placed herself as a strong potential GOP candidate for Governor in two years.
