Tuesday night after the results were announced, the congratulatory phone calls had been answered and the photos taken, Paul Rose stood in a huddle of his advisors and thanked them.
“Without you I wouldn’t be here,” he told the five women, two of whom are his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Kate Krull. “Any one of you could be standing where I am right now and could do a much better job.”
He calls them his Fab Five – the other three are Missy Marshall, Mary Gaither and Marianne Dunavant – and it is to them he attributes the success of his campaign.
As his watch party ended Tuesday, the senator-elect sat in a dark room at Covington’s Liberty Hall recalling his campaign.
He never imagined he’d become senator.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
For Rose, the journey to being elected started right across the street from the event center.
“I was born at Dr. Rule’s clinic, right over there,” he said, pointing west to North Maple Street and a duplex just outside the windows.
“To know where I come from and realize I’m now a senator … it’s a God thing. God has really had His hand in this election.”
Rose has said he felt called to run and followed that call.
He is the first Tipton Countian to be elected senator since Bill Jim Davis, a Pearl Harbor survivor who was elected in 1970 and served three terms.
It being a special election, which was needed to fill the unexpired term of former Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, Rose starts immediately.
He will travel to Nashville on Wednesday and is expected to be sworn in early Thursday morning.
“I’ll be seated immediately and receive the docket, so I have a lot of homework to do between now and then,” he said Tuesday. “Nancy will probably have to do the driving!”
The election was called earlier than most people thought it would be, the Tennessee Republican Party tweeting a congratulatory message just after 8 p.m.
“It surprised me, too,” the Republican businessman said.
Though he’s a Republican who ran in a traditionally red district, he said he had the support of several Democrats in Tipton County.
Voter turnout was low – 12.7 percent in Tipton County – but Rose received 4,936 votes in Shelby County and 4,213 in Tipton.
His opponent, Senior Chief Petty Officer (USN, Ret.) Eric Coleman (D– Bartlett), received 1,247 in Shelby and 499 in Tipton.
Coleman congratulated Rose Tuesday and, through Facebook, wished him well.
“We look forward to seeing you meet/exceed our expectations as a legislator for the entire district.”
Rose will finish Norris’s term, which is up in November 2020.
Though he’s now moving into the world of politics, which is uncharted territory for him, he is not nervous, he said.
“I’m going to Nashville and I’m going to serve with people from all across the state and from all walks of life. I’m most excited about going to work and getting in engaged with the political process, but I know there will be a learning curve ahead.”
