By: NewsChannel 5 Political Analyst Pat Nolan - They’ve run to the left of him. They’ve run to the right of him. They’ve run against the messy, scandalous divorce case he went through some years ago before even he got into politics, but now Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais has won re-nomination to another two year term.
He turned back a young, self-financed opponent Grant Starrett who spent almost a million dollars of his own funding charging DesJarlais was not conservative enough for the district.
The voters backed DesJarlais by a 52 percent to 43 percent majority.
The South Pittsburg Republican has now been set to face Democrat Steven Reynolds in November.
Thursday night, Starrett released the following statement:
"I want to thank the tens of thousands of Tennesseans across the 4th District who supported me in this race.
We waged a vigorous campaign of ideas about the future of this country: talking about reforming welfare, rebuilding our military, and fighting for life. We waged this campaign across more than 130,000 doors in the 4th District, with personal outreach being the hallmark of our true grassroots effort.
We spoke with tens of thousands of our friends and neighbors face to face at their doorsteps and in their living rooms over the course of this campaign, and I'm grateful for their prayers, support, and vote of confidence to be their next Congressman. While it was not enough, I'm proud of our campaign, and I'm incredibly grateful for everyone involved.
I just called to congratulate Congressman DesJarlais, and I wish him the best in his work as a Representative for our district."