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Bill Hagerty defeats Manny Sethi in GOP primary for U.S. Senate

He will face Democrat Marquita Bradshaw in November for retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander's seat.

TENNESSEE, USA — UPDATE 8/6/20 at 9:48 p.m. 

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty has won the Tennessee Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat behind the endorsement of President Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.

Hagerty overcame a challenge from trauma surgeon Manny Sethi to clinch his party’s nomination for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander. He will face Democrat Marquita Bradshaw in November, according to the Associated Press.

Sethi conceded shortly after the announcement, congratulating Hagerty on the victory. 

"I just called Ambassador Hagerty to congratulate him on his victory. Tonight didn’t work out the way we hoped, but I’m so deeply grateful to every single one of you who supported our campaign, and I’m proud of what we fought for. Thank you, Tennessee," he said on Twitter.

Hagerty ignored Sethi for most of the campaign, but in recent weeks the two brawled back-and-forth in TV ads over who was more conservative and loyal to Trump. 

Republicans have held both Tennessee Senate seats since 1994. Hagerty will face Marquita Bradshaw, who won the Democratic primary, in the November election. 

RELATED: Tennessee elections 2020: Marquita Bradshaw wins Democratic primary for U.S. Senate

Update 8/6/20 at 9 p.m. With 11% of precincts reporting, Bill Hagerty has taken an early lead over Manny Sethi.

Hagerty has 52% of the vote to Sethi's 39%.

Original story

Republican voters will find 15 people on their primary ballot Thursday running for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.

Only one can emerge the winner Thursday.

Thousands of Knox Countians already have voted -- through the early voting process that ended Aug. 1 or by absentee ballot.

Polls are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.

Here's a sample of the Republican ballot.

The 15 GOP candidates, in order of appearance on the ballot: Clifford Adkins; Natisha Brooks; Byron Bush; Roy Dale Cope; Terry Dicus; Tom Emerson Jr.; George S. Flinn Jr.; Bill Hagerty; John Henry; Joe Henry; Kent A. Morrell; Glen L. Neal Jr.; John E. Osborne; Aaron L. Pettigrew; David Schuster; and Manny Sethi.

They seek to replace Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is retiring this year.

Five Democrats also are running in their own primary for the seat.

The general election is Nov. 3.

Hagerty and Sethi are widely viewed as the GOP front-runners. They've spent heavily on TV advertising in recent weeks; political action committees also have chipped in with their own ads.

RELATED: August 6 Election: Who's on the ballot in East Tennessee, and where do I vote?

You can learn more about Hagerty here.

You can learn more about Sethi here.

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