In the race for the Democratic nomination for the president, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry won the open primaries in both Tennessee and Virginia with a double-digit lead over the other candidates Tuesday.
From his Virginia campaign headquarters in Fairfax, Kerry quelled concerns about the ability of a New England senator to contend in a nationwide election. “What we showed today is the mainstream values that I’ve been talking about,” he said in a speech covered live by CNN. “Fairness and hope and hard work and love of country are more important than birthplace and boundaries,”
Kerry defeated North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the Tennessee primary with 41 percent of the votes. Edwards came in second with 26 percent of the total votes and Clark received 23 percent. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean came in fourth with 4 percent, political activist Rev. Al Sharpton got 3 percent and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich received 1 percent.
Edwards and Clark, both making campaign stops in Bristol last week, lost Carter, Washington, Sullivan, Unicoi, Johnson and Greene counties to Kerry.
With the support of Sunday’s endorsement from Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, Kerry won more votes in the Virginia primary than the rest of the Democratic candidates combined. He won 52 percent of the total votes while Edwards received 27 percent, Clark got 9 percent, Dean had 7 percent, Sharpton drew 3 percent and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich had 1 percent.
By winning Tennessee and Virginia, Kerry has now won 12 of the 14 state primaries and caucuses held thus far, sustaining his status as the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
Kerry drew support from Del Sandusky and Gene Thorson, former members of his swift boat crew in the Vietnam War, to court votes from veterans across Tennessee.
In addition to being a decorated Navy lieutenant in Vietnam, he was also an anti-war protestor and spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement. In one protest, he threw his combat ribbons on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington.
While campaigning in Nashville last week, Kerry also protested President Bush’s actions in the Iraq War and criticized Bush’s publicized aircraft carrier landing last May.
“We all saw George Bush play dress-up on an aircraft carrier,” he said in an Associated Press report from Nashville. “Well, I know something about aircraft carriers for real. And if George W. Bush wants to make national security the central issue in this campaign, I have three words for him I know he understands: Bring it on.”
After two third-place finishes in Tennessee and Virginia, Clark, who narrowly beat Edwards in his only victory in the primary season in Oklahoma last week, made the decision to withdraw Tuesday from the race for the Democratic nomination.
Kerry scored decisive victories over Edwards, who before the primary said, “The south is my backyard.”
From Milwaukee Wis., Edwards told supporters, according to a Reuters story, that he planned on campaigning for the Wisconsin primary and challenging Kerry in the 11-state Super Tuesday primaries on March 2. Super Tuesday is the date with the largest amount of delegates at stake in a single day during the primary season.
Even though Walter Ott, a 32-year-old assistant philosophy professor at ETSU, voted for Edwards in Tuesday’s primary, he was not surprised by Edwards’ second place finish in Tennessee. “With a second place finish, [Edwards] at least has a shot at being a vice presidential candidate,” Ott said.
Ott voted for Edwards because “he seems more electable to me than Kerry.” Issues that Ott looked for in a candidate were economic policies, willingness to roll back upper class tax cuts and raising the estate tax.
“I think a lot of us just want someone who actually has a chance at beating Bush … Kerry just doesn’t have the personality to do well in a national election against Bush.”
Frank Perkins, a sophomore majoring in foreign languages, believed just the opposite. “I think Kerry is the only candidate that can beat Bush,” Perkins said. “I think it’s time to get somebody that’s smart in the White House opposed to someone who, you know, makes up his own vocabulary,” he said.
Though he did not vote in Tuesday’s primary, he plans on voting in the November election, even if Kerry is not the Democratic candidate.
“I would vote Democrat or Green Party,” Perkins said. “I don’t vote Republican. I’ll vote for the best candidate that’s not Republican.”
BriAnne Claman, who admits she is “kind of a Republican,” is undecided about the stronger candidate. The only Democratic candidate with whom she is familiar is Kerry.
“If it were between Kerry and Bush, I’m leaning toward Bush,” she said. “But that’s not set in stone. I want to wait ’til I hear them speak closer to [election] time.”
On the whole, Claman likes the Republican Party better than the Democrats and that for which they stand. As a Christian, she appreciates Bush’s stand on prayer. Her choice in the president will be based on the issues of abortion, welfare, taxes and education.
Nevada and Washington, D.C., will hold the next Democratic contests on Feb. 14, followed by the primary in Wisconsin on Feb. 17.
Dean, who was considered the frontrunner before the first Democratic contest at the Iowa caucus, has said that he is making his stand in Wisconsin.

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