NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Congressional candidates in key races made their final cases to voters Thursday as Tennessee's primary campaigns drew to a close.
The toughest primary contests were waged in two House districts, where freshman Reps. Diane Black and Chuck Fleischmann were looking to hold on to their seats.
Tennessee voters also decided more than 60 legislative primaries and settled some local school issues in Thursday's voting.
In the 3rd District in East Tennessee, Fleischmann faced Weston Wamp, the son of former Rep. Zach Wamp, and Scottie Mayfield, an executive with the dairy company that bears his family name.
Edwinea Murray, a retired Tennessee Valley Authority worker who lives in Hixson, said she voted for Fleischmann because she was disgusted by the tone of rival campaigns.
"They were slamming their opponents in the commercials more than anything," she said. "I think a lot of that is unnecessary."
Also in Hixon, stay-at-home mom Donna Chapul, 44, said she voted for Mayfield.
"I like the fact that Scottie grew a business," she said, borrowing a popular Mayfield campaign talking point. "He's a household name. What better can you get?"
Chattanooga entrepreneur Nick Macco, 26, said he voted for Wamp despite considering his father's 16 years in Congress "a negative influence."
But ultimately, Macco said, Wamp ran the most "solutions-oriented" campaign, citing the 25-year-old's emphasis on reforming entitlements for "the debt-paying generation."
"Also, the negative campaigning back and forth toward the end between Mayfield and Fleischmann was nauseating," he said.
In the 6th District east of Nashville, Black faced Lou Ann Zelenik in a rematch of a tight race of two years ago.
The campaign featured a heavy rotation of negative TV ads that appeared to wear on voters, many of whom expressed frustration with the tone of the campaigns and what they viewed as the self-interested actions of politicians.
Cheryln Rader, a 63-year-old self-described "Bible-thumping, gun-toting" conservative from Millersville, said she was so disgusted by the negative ads of both Zelnick and Black that she refused to vote for either.
"I've been getting so much trash on my TV, in my mail," she said. "I didn't like the mud-slinging, I don't like it at all. Tell the truth about yourself, tell the truth about your opponent."
Both races saw an influx of large amounts of outside money in the form of independent expenditures, leading to cries of foul play by their targets.
Committees funded and controlled by Zelenik's former chief fundraiser, Andrew Miller, spent nearly $233,000 to oppose Black. That's about $55,000 more than Zelenik herself reported raising for her campaign from outside sources, though she also contributed $215,000 of her own money.
Meanwhile, a group called Citizens for a Working America spent $165,000 on television ads opposing Mayfield, according to disclosures with the Federal Election Commission.
One of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats was also up on Thursday, though incumbent Sen. Bob Corker had a large fundraising and name recognition advantage over his four Republican opponents and seven little-known Democrats.
Republican U.S. Reps. Phil Roe and Marsha Blackburn and Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper had no primary opposition. Reps. Jimmy Duncan, Scott DesJarlais and Stephen Fincher and Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen far outpaced their primary challengers in fundraising and organization.