Demonstrators erupt at Blackburn Senate rally with Graham

NASHVILLE — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, swooped into Tennessee on Sunday for a rally with Republican Senate hopeful Marsha Blackburn, an event interrupted repeatedly by a group of activists who were later hauled away by security, attendees or police out of the Nashville venue.

Interruptions from the seven demonstrators began as state Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden sought to introduce U.S. Rep. Blackburn, a staunch conservative and sometimes GOP firebrand who is squaring off with former Democratic governor Phil Bredesen in a close campaign that's generated national attention.

As several demonstrators began shouting, the Republican throng at country music artist Ray Stevens' CabaRay Showroom chanted back with "USA, USA, USA" in an effort to drown out the protesters.

Protesters were escorted, dragged or carried out.

When Blackburn asked for a moment of silence in memory of 11 people killed Saturday in a Pittsburgh synagogue by a gunman shouting anti-Semitic slurs, one woman shouted "Marsha Blackburn is a white supremacist!"

Read more: https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/politics/state/story/2018/oct/28/demonstrators-erupt-blackburn-senate-rally/481979/