NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal judge will consider Thursday whether to stop Tennessee from certifying the vote in this month's U.S. Senate Democratic primary election.

Fourth-place finisher Larry Crim sued the Tennessee Democratic Party, its executive committee and state chairman, Chip Forrester, plus the Tennessee Division of Elections in federal court on Wednesday and asked for an emergency ruling. Federal Judge Kevin Sharp set a hearing for Thursday morning to consider whether to stop the vote certification.

The state party has disavowed the winner of the Aug. 2 primary, Mark Clayton, because of his anti-gay platform. Party officials said Clayton wasn't a Democrat because the only time he has voted in party primaries was when he ran for Senate four years ago.

Clayton got nearly 50,000 votes, or twice the number of his nearest competitor, in a field of seven little-known candidates to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Bob Corker in No vember. Crim came in fourth with just over 17,000 votes.

State Election Coordinator Mark Goins said last week that there isn't enough time to hold another primary.

Crim's lawsuit also seeks to overturn the Senate primary and asks the judge to order a new one to take place by Sept. 15.

The petition contends that the party committed fraud because it could have kept Clayton off the ballot by meeting an April deadline to tell the state he wasn't a bona fide Democrat under the party's by-laws.

Michael Rowan, the attorney representing Crim in the lawsuit, appeared in support of Clayton following his surprise primary victory. In an Aug. 7 press conference, Rowan stood beside Clayton and pilloried Forrester's disavowal of the nominee.

"I find it a travesty that Chip Forrester certifies him to be a candidate for the U.S. Senate as a Democratic candidate, and then literally before lunch the next day goes out and berates this man," Rowan said.

"And a ll he did was try to do what he could do for America," he said of Clayton.