NYT on Black’s failed effort to land Trump endorsement

U.S. Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) speaks at a Republican event in Nashville on May 7, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)

In a look at President Donald Trump’s influence over the outcome of Republican primaries around the country, the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman unearthed this nugget about U.S. Rep. Diane Black’s failed lobbying efforts in her bid for governor in Tennessee:

This year few Republican candidates, for example, were as aggressive in lobbying for Mr. Trump’s endorsement as Representative Diane Black of Tennessee, who came in third in her state’s primary for governor this month. She approached the president at a White House event, had some of his most high-profile congressional allies weigh in on her behalf, and even deployed some West Wing officials who are friendly to her.

But most of Mr. Trump’s aides wanted him to stay out of the race, and they were able to keep him sidelined in part by reminding him of what Ms. Black said after the video of Mr. Trump boasting about groping women was released in 2016 (“I would’ve yanked my son by the ear if he had talked that way when he was a teenager much less an adult,” she said at the time).

Black finished third in the GOP primary.