NASHVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee Democratic Party said Friday that it's disavowing the nomination of Mark Clayton to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, saying the little-known candidate belongs to a hate group.

Clayton received twice the votes of his nearest competitor in a seven-candidate Democratic primary Thursday, despite disclosing no fundraising activity.

The party said in a statement Friday that Clayton is associated with a known hate group in Washington, D.C., and the party "disavows his candidacy."

Clayton is vice president of Falls Church, Va.-based Public Advocate of the United States, which calls itself a conservative advocacy group. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the organization an anti-gay hate group.

Clayton did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The Tennessee Democratic Party says it is weighing its options on whether it can disqualify him as the nominee and remove him from the b allot.

Party spokesman Sean Braisted said the party is examining its options about whether Clayton should remain on the ballot as the Democratic nominee.

"At this time, we want to make it clear that Mark Clayton does not speak for the party or Democrats in Tennessee," he said in an email. "We aren't taking any options off the table at this time."

In 2008 the party was able to remove a candidate who narrowly won a state Senate primary, claiming irregularities made the outcome "incurable uncertain." A federal appeals court upheld the action in a ruling issued last month.

Clayton said before the election that personal privacy issues were his top concern in the race, and that he considers fusion centers as examples of how people are being "over-identified by the government and tracked."

Clayton, 35, said he works as a flooring installer and for a moving company, and that he has also been employed as an insurance agent.

"Sometimes the money gets a little thin so I work a job here and there," he said.