Democrat Bruce Dotson wants Tennessee 2nd House District voters to know he is an honest, Christian gun owner who has worked hard all his life, reports Hank Hayes.
But despite those assets, Dotson knows he’s a long shot to defeat GOP incumbent state Rep. Tony Shipley in the November general election in a Kingsport area district that leans heavily Republican.
Dotson, a retired mechanic and president of the AFL-CIO’s Upper East Central Labor Council, said he’s not getting monetary support from the Tennessee Democratic Party even though he is a member of the party’s executive committee.
“My race is not targeted (by TDP), which is not unusual for this end of the state,” Dotson noted. “In order to get help from the state party or even the state AFL-CIO, you have to prove you can win before they are willing to put a lot of money into it. The state AFL-CIO is going to put out some mailers, but those will go to union members.”
Dotson’s campaign reported having $1,782 cash on hand before the Aug. 2 primary election, when he won the Democratic nomination with about 500 votes. In contrast, Shipley reported having $18,256 cash on hand, including a number of political action committee contributions, before recording a 10-vote win in the GOP primary over former Kingsport Alderman Ben Mallicote out of about 6,800 votes cast.
Dotson agreed with Shipley’s recent assertion that numerous Democrats voted in the Republican primary and almost propelled Mallicote to victory.
“What I’ve heard people say down through the years is ‘I’ll vote in the Republican primary, and I’ll vote for the weakest or worst candidate. That way we’ll have a better chance as Democrats,'” Dotson explained. “But I discourage that. What that does is you end up with … the worst candidate, and I don’t like to see that. I did have people tell me they did have people vote in the Republican primary — people I’ve got on a list as being Democrats. I’m sure that was a factor. And Mallicote was the best candidate.”