It is not enough to write and support good legislation. We – the people of Tennessee – have to elect and support candidates who believe in conservative issues and who can be trusted to carry and move legislation to the floor or to help us stop or amend bad legislation. That process requires hard work, dedication, financial support of candidates and TFA’s PAC, volunteering and, most importantly, showing up to and legally assisting others to vote.
This year, there will be approximately 17 state senate races, 99 house races and a governor’s race. We will have a new governor and a new speaker of the House by the end of the year. We expect that 5-10 senate races may be either “open” or “in play”. We expect as many as 30 or so house races to be “open” or in play.
Getting the right people to run and making sure that they win in these races is critical.
It is critical to the battle that has been taking place in Tennessee over the last 8 years where the “Republicans” have dominated the House and Senate with super majorities but it was unfortunately the case that it was the “Establishment Republicans” who held the legislative offices (like Beth Harwell) and committee assignments who have worked so hard and diligently to kill the good 2nd Amendment legislation in the last 10 years.
TFA is non-partisan. TFA will support any conservative that is strong and dedicated on the issues that are TFA’s focus. It is a fact that some conservatives are not “Republicans.” It is also a fact that many “Establishment Republicans” are not true constitutional conservatives. It is also a fact that some incumbent “Republicans” are serious problems – like the one this week who apparently involved the courts and TBI merely to investigate a claim that a challenger did not live in the district (rather than raising that issue as an eligibility challenge in the election registry).
The fact is, however, that the Republican party has a super majority and TFA’s legislative success turns on either having enough of our friends in the Republican caucus to control it or electing enough other legislators in other parties to force our issues forward to the floors (which was how we did it when Naifeh was in control).
Yesterday there was a special primary election in Senate District 14 to elect a Republican candidate to participate in a general election for state senator. There were two candidates in the Republican primary. One is a proven conservative. TFALAC (the PAC) financially supported this candidate. The other candidate was financed by and had all the endorsements of the Establishment Republicans (as well as Planned Parenthood supporters and other traditionally “non-conservative” interests).
In a district where there are approximately 200,000 citizens, what did we see yesterday?
A total of 7,276 people voted in the “Republican” primary- approximately 3.6% of the population. Of course, since the Republicans in the legislature have refused and failed to close the primaries in Tennessee for the last 9 years, there is no telling how many of those were actually Republicans and how many of those were Democrats, liberals, progressives, or dead!
How does yesterday’s vote compare to 2016? Well, in the 2016 general election 71,341 people voted in that same senate district – approximately 10 times as many. In the 2016 Republican primary in that same senate district 13,252 voted.
The conclusion is clear – there are more than enough conservatives in every senate district and in every house district to change the composition of state government — if they will support conservative candidates and actually go vote.
Tennessee’s conservatives do not have to continue to suffer from the “policies” of Establishment Republicans which policies ignore the 2nd Amendment, ignore the 10th Amendment, ignore the 4th and 7th Amendments, needlessly raise gas taxes on Tennessee families, increase state spending by approximately $10 billion in 8 years, implement “CommonCore” under another name, try to expand Medicaid, bow to federal authority, offer instate tuition to illegal aliens, ignore terrorists risks, pander to big business and big government with taxpayer funds and all the while disburse the propaganda that “they” are the conservatives!
No, Tennessee conservatives do not have to suffer this fate because there are enough conservatives in Tennessee in every house, senate and congressional district to change the composition of government if they will only get serious about elections, running, electing conservatives, donating, volunteering, and most importantly voting.
Obama said it with “Hope and Change.”
Trump said it with “Make America Great Again”.
Both slogans embodied the same message – we can do it if you will do your part as a voter.
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