Former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander moved a step closer to joining the Senate last week, when he defeated his opponent in Tennessee’s gop primary.
With about two-thirds of the vote counted at press time, he had secured 54 percent of Republican votes to win the party’s nomination, defeating U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant.
“It means more support for schools and more support for local control of how that money is spent,” Mr. Alexander told supporters election night, according to The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville. Mr. Alexander, who served two terms as Tennessee’s governor from 1979 to 1987, was education secretary from 1991 to 1993 under the first President Bush.
Mr. Alexander, 62, now faces off in the general election against Democratic Rep. Bob Clement, whose father also was governor of the state. If elected, Mr. Alexander would be the first U.S. education secretary ever to serve in Congress.—ERIK W. ROBELEN
