By J. Holly McCall | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Lookout readers:
Among political insiders, “silly season” is the term for the last stretch of a campaign cycle as races tighten and candidates become more sensitive than they normally are — and that’s saying something.
Opposition mail pieces are landing and websites springing up, tarring opposing candidates. For example, in the 6th Congressional District Republican primary, former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary is airing an ad with a deepfake portrayal of opponent, Rep. Johnny Garrett.
Negative campaigning is as old as politics and seasoned candidates often roll with the punches, giving as good as they get. But Sam Stockard reports lawyers for U. S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn are threatening legal action over an ad calling her out for sponsoring a bill making it easier for patients to get pain medication.
Meanwhile, Adam Friedman reports on the final campaign finance reports before the August 6 election: a few contenders are veritable moneybags while others are shaking out the sofa cushions for change to get them over the finish line.
In other news:
Ad watch: In a lackluster reelection campaign, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty released a more than one-minute ad/short film in which he says that “Memphis fell into a downward spiral” and touts his support for the Memphis Safe Task.
Hagerty doesn’t mention in the spot that agents with the task force, created by President Donald Trump and backed by Gov. Bill Lee, have shot and killed four people in just over two months. But, Memphis probably isn’t the Republican lawmaker’s base of support.
Going nuclear. According to a story in Politico, leaked White House documents show the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Energy is seeking to expand nuclear waste storage sites and guess who is interested? If you said Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, you’d be correct.
And you thought data centers were the worst it could get.
THE LOOKOUT’S TOP STORY
Tennessee’s U.S. House candidates filed their final campaign finance disclosures ahead of the August 6 primary. (Photo: John Partipilo/ Tennessee Lookout)
by Adam Friedman
Candidates across Tennessee’s competitive U.S. House primaries are spending down campaign funds ahead of the August 6 election, Federal Election Commission filings show. State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat, and state Sen. Brent Taylor, a Republican, are both sitting financially pretty in their campaigns to represent the 9th Congressional District
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
From the left, Rob Quinn and John Greer, both doctors, are part of a group of about 40 medical professionals called for a pause to Tennessee’s executions on Tuesday July 28, 2026 in Nashville Tenn. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Adam Friedman
Around 40 doctors and other medical professionals held a press conference Tuesday, calling on Gov. Bill Lee to pause death penalty executions until the state improves the process.
NEWS AND NOTES
Washington says goodbye to South Carolina US Sen. Lindsey Graham | Ashley Murray, States Newsroom
Reflecting Pool damaged before Olympian charged with felony touched it, witness says | Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
Lawyers for U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn are demanding a group pull ads highlighting a measure she sponsored to make pharmaceuticals more available. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Sam Stockard
Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and her gubernatorial campaign are demanding a dark-money group pull a TV ad that calls her “queen pharma mama” and infers she took money to pass federal pharmaceutical law.
COMMENTARY
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, is leading a review of the Smithsonian Institution. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Mark Harmon
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican representing Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, is chairing a committee that has taken as its task the curiously asserted topic, “Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past,” with Burchett claiming the museum has fallen victim to a “woke ideology”
ICYMI
Candidates bank on endorsements as primary draws near | Sam Stockard
Lee signs onto Trump data center cost protection pledge as local communities push for regulation | Cassandra Stephenson and Anita Wadhwani
ICYMI
Tennessee’s biggest drag show is the 6th District Republican primary | Chris Sanders
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