From DC Not Tennessee!!!!!!!
^^^^^^
This. Gore had been in D.C. for 8 years, and he wasn't really associated with Tennessee anymore. Even when he was a "Tennessee guy", that was the pre-1994 Tennessee as you note, and the politics of the state changed completely right after he left. Had he remained a Senator there it's not even certain he would have been re-elected. But by 2000 he was certainly a D.C. guy. Early in the season his campaign HQ was based on D.C., and he then moved it to Tennessee in what was widely praised as the correct decision but also seen as a crass political move.
