CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi took aim at “mobs in the streets,” the Chinese government, Washington establishment Republicans and illegal immigration on Tuesday in a video-conferenced presentation to the Clarksville Kiwanis Club.
It was a big week for Sethi in his Republican primary campaign to push ahead of President Donald Trump-endorsed candidate Bill Hagerty, who has held a slim lead in the polls over Sethi as early voting begins in Tennessee.
On Monday, Hagerty resigned from the board of a futures brokerage firm that made posts on social media in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The company’s posts were reported over the weekend, then quickly drew fire from Sethi.
Sethi, a Nashville physician, has been casting himself as an outsider, but one aligned in spirit to the incumbent Trump, whom Sethi supported in the 2016 Republican primary.
He criticized Hagerty on Tuesday as a “hand-picked Washington insider” tied to “establishment Republicans and career politicians.”
Sethi, a physician, talked about his immigrant parents — legal immigrants, he emphasized — who taught him to love his country, and specifically of his father, who once told him, “It doesn’t matter what’s in your bank account. What matters is the difference that you make.”
That wisdom and their example helped drive him to pursue medicine, to become a Christian, and later to run for office, he said.
The open Senate seat presents what Sethi called “a generational opportunity to make a difference.”
“For years now, the Washington Republican establishment has said that they would repeal and replace Obamacare. Meanwhile premiums and deductibles have risen, and we have to do something.”
When asked specifically who he was referring to in calling out Washington establishment Republicans, he didn’t respond with any specific names.
He called for competition-based, patient-focused health care policy plan.
“If you are sick and tired of the same old, same old, and you want a different path — a different sort of leadership in Washington — I’m asking for your vote.”
For more on Manny Sethi, go to www.drmannyforsenate.com.
Early voting for the Aug. 6 State Primary and County General Election begins Friday, July 17, and continues through Aug. 1. To vote, go to the Montgomery County Election Commission office in Veterans Plaza on Pageant Lane.