NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Lamar Alexander became the latest U.S. senator to fend off a tea party challenge in a primary race Thursday, defeating a state lawmaker who had used a familiar tactic in trying to cast him as an out of touch insider. 
 
 In this July 22, 2014 photo, Joe Carr appears with radio show host Laura Ingraham at a rally for Carr in Nashville, Tenn. Carr has cast Sen. Lamar Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, as out of touch with... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this July 22, 2014 photo, Joe Carr speaks at a rally in Nashville, Tenn. Carr has cast Sen. Lamar Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, as out of touch with an increasingly conservative electorate during... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Aug. 5, 2014 photo, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., left, talks with voters who came to his campaign stop at a restaurant in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, is seeking to... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2014, file photo, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, speaks during a legislative planning session sponsored by The Associated Press and the Tennessee Press Association in... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Aug. 5, 2014 photo, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., campaigns in a restaurant in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, is seeking to fend off challenger Joe Carr in Tennessee's... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Friday, July 25, 2014, file photo, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, center, and wife Honey, left, talk with Grayce Cabage, who has known Alexander all his life, after he announced the start... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Aug. 5, 2014 photo, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., walks to a campaign stop with his daughter, Leslee Alexander, left, and granddaughter, Taylor Irwin, in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Alexander, a 74-year-old... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this July 22, 2014 photo, Joe Carr speaks at a rally in Nashville, Tenn. Carr has cast Sen. Lamar Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, as out of touch with an increasingly conservative electorate during... (Associated Press) 
 
 Gov. Bill Haslam, left, and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander react to remarks by U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. during a get out the vote rally Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014, in Knoxville, Tenn. Alexander is being challenged... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this July 22, 2014 photo, Joe Carr speaks at a rally in Nashville, Tenn. Carr has cast Sen. Lamar Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, as out of touch with an increasingly conservative electorate during... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this April 16, 2014, file photo, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, presides over the state Senate in Nashville, Tenn. Ramsey has spearheaded an effort to oust three Democratic Supreme... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this July 22, 2014 photo, Joe Carr greets supporters at a campaign stop in Nashville, Tenn. Carr has cast Sen. Lamar Alexander, a 74-year-old incumbent, as out of touch with an increasingly conservative... (Associated Press) 
 
 Meanwhile, scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais' bid to hang onto his seat was too close to call. Unofficial returns with all precincts reporting showed him with a lead of only 33 votes over state Sen. Jim Tracy, who had raised far more money. A recount was possible. 
 
 Alexander's win dealt another blow to national tea party momentum after the stunning primary win over Republican Rep. Eric Cantor in Virginia in June. 
 
 In Tennessee, State Rep. Joe Carr had high-profile endorsements from tea party-allied figures, but he could not overcome Alexander's fundraising advantage and 40 years in Tennessee politics. He had about 38 percent of the vote with 24 percent of precincts reporting, compared with about 52 percent for Alexander. 
 
 In heavily Republican Tennessee, Alexander is strongly favored to win re-election in November. He maintained a moderate tone in his victory speech, touting his ability to craft compromises. 
 
 "If we want to change Obamacare, we're going to have to pass something. If we want to fix the debt, we're going to have to pass something," Alexander said. "And to do that we're going to have to work with other people to get it done." 
 
 So far this year, the argument that sitting senators have lost their connection with voters hasn't been a winner. Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Pat Roberts of Kansas have all held off tea party-backed challenges. 
 
 Republican Kathy Leake, a 65-year old nurse in the Memphis suburb of Bartlett, said she would not shy away from voting for a qualified tea party candidate but had nothing against Alexander. 
 
 "I didn't see any of the others that had anything else to offer any better than he was ... I'm just sticking with him," she said. 
 
 Alexander sought to avoid any chance Carr or Flinn could cast him as an insider by locking down key endorsements and spending the final few weeks of the campaign on a 35-stop bus tour around the state stressing his ability to get results in a divided Senate. 
 
 The senator's stance resonated with voter Larry Harrison, a clinical services director in Nashville who considers himself an independent. 
 
 "Carr goes way too conservative for me," said Harrison, who cited Alexander's experience and temperament in supporting the incumbent. 
 
 "I think he's got a more moderate view, and I'm a more moderate person myself," he said. 
 
 Alexander, 74, has served two terms as the state's governor and two terms in the Senate. 
 
 Also on the Tennessee ballot Thursday is embattled Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a physician from the small south Tennessee town of Jasper who won re-election in 2012 despite revelations that he once urged a patient he was dating to seek an abortion. 
 
 After the election, court officials released transcripts of divorce proceedings that included DesJarlais admitting under oath that he had eight affairs, encouraged a lover to get an abortion and used a gun to intimidate his first wife during an argument. 
 
 Last year, DesJarlais was reprimanded and fined by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in May for having sex with patients. But the congressman has since doubled down on his tea party credentials and has dismissed the details about his personal life as "old news." 
 
 In the state's majority black 9th Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, a white and Jewish Memphis native, defeated attorney Ricky Wilkins. Wilkins, who is African-American, had sought to highlight ethnic and racial differences between Cohen and his constituents in the district, which Cohen has represented since 2006. 

 Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander trumpeted his GOP primary victory over a group of tea party challengers on Thursday as a vindication of his brand of deal-cutting pragmatism. 
 
 Meanwhile, scandal-ridden GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais finished just 33 votes ahead of his primary challenger in the 4th Congressional District — a razor-thin margin in a too-close-to-call contest that is likely to be drawn out over the coming days. 
 
 Alexander led state Rep. Joe Carr, the most serious of his six opponents, by 9 points, 50 percent to 41 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. 
 
 (Full primary results here) 
 
 It was a closer race in two GOP-held House districts. 
 
 DesJarlais edged state Sen. Jim Tracy, who has outspent him 3-to-1, by the narrowest of margins. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press had DesJarlais ahead by that 33-vote margin, or a tenth of a percentage point, 44.9 percent to 44.8 percent. 
 
 DesJarlais’ performance came despite a sordid personal scandal. The challenger’s closing ads highlight 2012 revelations that DesJarlais, a medical doctor before joining Congress, encouraged his ex-wife to get two abortions and had affairs with his patients. DesJarlais has a staunchly conservative voting record and has attacked Tracy for supporting the Common Core educational curriculum. 
 
 In the neighboring 3rd District, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann narrowly defeated Weston Wamp, the son of former Rep. Zach Wamp, 51 percent to 49 percent. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: The latest race ratings) 
 
 But it was the Senate race that garnered most of the pre-primary attention. 
 
 The senator celebrated along with Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who faced only nominal primary opposition and is coasting to a second term. 
 
 “In one of the largest Republican primaries in a conservative state, Tennesseans have nominated a get-it-done governor and a get-it-done senator,” Alexander said in a victory speech. “Both Gov. Haslam and I are conservatives. We both know how to give a pretty good conservative speech. But we also both know that our job is not over when the speech is finished. It is really just starting.” 
 
 Every Republican senator has now survived his primary challenge this cycle — the first time since 2008 — provided Wyoming Sen. Michael Enzi, who lost his main opponent when Liz Cheney ended her bid earlier this year, wins his primary later this month, as expected. That is a major coup for the party establishment, which declared war on the conservative outside groups that backed insurgent candidates. 
 
 The senator said Washington is dysfunctional because there are too few elected officials focused on “getting things done.” 
 
 (All the polls, all in one place) 
 
 “We are going to have to pass something in the Congress, and we need senators who know how and are willing to work with other people to do that,” Alexander said, according to prepared remarks. “If we want to make it easier to find a job and less expensive to buy health care, if we want to regain control of the federal debt and our borders and our local schools, it will take all of us working together to get it done.”
– Another boost for the GOP's Senate hopes: Lamar Alexander has defeated a Tea Party challenger in Tennessee and is now strongly favored to win re-election this fall, reports Politico. State Rep. Joe Carr had sought to portray Alexander as an out-of-touch Washington insider, but that approach has failed to defeat any GOP senators in primary challenges this election cycle, the AP notes. In the state's 4th District, GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais—who admitted to having sexual relationships with patients and co-workers and encouraging his wife to have abortions—has a lead of just 33 votes over his primary challenger. In Montana, meanwhile, Democratic Sen. John Walsh is dropping his election bid following reports that he plagiarized his 2007 master's thesis at the US Army War College, the New York Times reports. The party has until Aug. 21 to find a replacement for Walsh, who was appointed earlier this year to replace Max Baucus. The "research paper from my time at the US Army War College has become a distraction from the debate you expect and deserve," Walsh said in a statement. A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee says its candidate, Steve Daines, will defeat "whichever Band-Aid candidate Democrats can convince to get in the race."