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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A couple of weeks ago Representative John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge-District 33) officially challenged his loss against Rick Scarbrough in the August 1st GOP primary race after discovering that over 1,000 Anderson County Republican primary voters were allegedly, not Republicans.
Rep. Ragan lost to Scarbrough by just 258 votes and filed a challenge with the Tennessee Republican Party primary board shortly after the election had officially been certified by the county.
“This action is necessary to defend the votes of Republicans who are entitled to choose our nominees without interference from non-party-members,” said Ragan.
Current state law regarding crossover voting.
Even though state law dictates that registered voters are technically only able to vote in a primary election if they are “a bona fide member of and affiliated with the political party in whose primary the voter seeks to vote,” Tennessee’s primary elections remain open and crossover voting remains a major obstacle for true conservatives who choose to throw their hat into the ring.
While this section of state law does not provide specific criteria for what makes someone a “bona fide” member of a party, Rep. Ragan has argued that there are bylaws held by the Republican Party that define the term for GOP candidates.
This definition establishes that a “bona fide Republican” is a person who has been actively involved in the state or county GOP party and has voted in at least three of the four most recent state Republican primary elections.
Back in January of this year, Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon-District 17) and Rep. Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro-District 34), brought a piece of legislation that attempted to bring more attention to state law by requiring polling locations to display signage on primary election days containing the following text:
“It’s the Law! Please Read…
It is a violation of Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 2-7-115(b), and punishable as a crime under Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 2-19-102 or Section 2-19-107, if a person votes in a political party’s primary without being a bona fide member of or affiliated with that political party, or to declare allegiance to that party without the intent to affiliate with that party.”
Still, TCA § 2-7-115(b) and even the freshly enacted TCA § 2-7-115(c), go largely unenforced in many Tennessee counties.
As it stands right now, Tennessee voters are not required to declare a party when they register to vote and the state keeps an open primary system where voters simply choose whichever primary ballot they want to vote on when they show up to their polling location.
Bills that could have closed Tennessee’s primaries.
Last year, Rep. Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20) and Sen. Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun-District 1) filed HB0405/SB0452 to officially prescribe “a process by which a person must declare a statewide political party or recognized minor party affiliation before voting in a primary election.”
Under this legislation unaffiliated registered voters were designated as Independents and would have been unable to vote in a party primary election.
In the end, the bill was killed by a voice vote led by Chair of the House Local Government Committee, John Crawford (R-Bristol/Kingsport-District 1).
However, Rep. Crawford allegedly miscounted the votes from his committee members, because Rep. Richey went on to state that the Aye votes actually outnumbered the Noes.
“Today I learned a valuable lesson that should not have been a surprise,” Richey wrote in a social media post. “I Introduced HB405 (closed primaries) into the Local Government full committee and it failed. We received 9 ayes and 8 nays…the chair ruled the bill failed from the no majority. Lesson learned I will call for a roll call vote going forward.”
Republican lawmakers Clay Doggett, Greg Martin, Jerome Moon, Jay Reedy, Tim Rudd, and Robert Stevens all requested to have their Aye votes recorded for the record.
Rep. Richey maintained that Kevin Raper, Rebecca Alexander, and Jeff Burkhart voted in favor of the legislation as well even though they did not request to have their votes recorded.
Rep. William Slater (R-Gallatin-District 35) chose not to vote for or against HB0405 in committee.
Another piece of legislation that could have closed Tennessee’s primaries in 2023 was HB1045/SB1144, filed by Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28) and Rep. Kelly Keisling (R-Byrdstown-District 38).
The bill would have required all Tennessee voters to declare a party affiliation the next time they voted in a primary. Voters would then be ineligible to obtain a primary election ballot for an opposing party.
Unlike current state law, HB1045/SB1144 as amended would have actually allowed Independent voters to legally vote in primary elections.
Voters also would have been able to change their registration status up to 30 days before a primary election.
While this legislation would not have prevented crossover voting, it would have made it at least a bit more difficult.
However, HB1045/SB1144 was killed in the House Local Government Committee via a voice vote led by Chair John Crawford who once again, allegedly “miscounted” the votes of his committee members.
Republican lawmakers Jeff Burkhart, Clay Doggett, Jerome Moon, Jay Reedy, Tim Rudd and Robert Stevens requested their Aye votes be put on record, and Representatives Kevin Raper, Greg Martin, and William Slater told The Tennessee Conservative at the time that they voted Aye.
Rep. Slater also told The Tennessee Conservative that he believed the Aye votes were in the majority.
Jumping into the 2024 legislative session, our readers may have noticed a familiar looking piece of legislation crop up, filed by Rep. Richey alongside Sen. Mark Pody.
This year’s HB1616/SB2631 was the latest iteration of Rep. Richey and Sen. Lowe’s HB0405/SB0452 from the year prior.
The legislation would have prescribed “a process by which a person must declare a statewide political party or recognized minor party affiliation before voting in a primary election.”
The main difference between this new piece of legislation and the old one was that HB1616/SB2631 would have authorized unaffiliated voters or Independents to vote in primary elections.
This legislation was eventually placed “behind the budget” and then taken off notice in the House by Chair of the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee, Rep. Gary Hicks (R-Rogersville-District 9).
It subsequently failed in the Senate State and Local Government Committee.
Republican representatives who voted against the bill during the committee process include Dale Carr and John Holsclaw.
The Republican senators who voted to kill the bill in committee were Richard Briggs, John Stevens and Page Walley.
Sen. Ed Jackson was recorded as “present and not voting.”
Will Tennessee lawmakers finally close the primaries in 2025?
Although Tennessee’s 2025 legislative session is still several months away, there has been talk about House Majority Leader, William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44), potentially filing legislation to close the primaries.
The Tennessee Conservative’s Founder, Brandon Lewis, shared his thoughts in a recent video titled, “Should Democrats Be Allowed To Select The Republican Nominees In Tennessee?”
“If you watch what the RINOs do…Conservatives will carry bills, like Janice Bowling’s transgender bill. It’ll get killed by RINOs, and then later when it becomes a big political inconvenience for them and they finally actually decide to listen, only because they’re politically scared and worried about their elections…” said Lewis. “William Lamberth, you know, he’s the one that wanted illegal aliens to be police officers. He brought the bill. […] So this is the guy that’s now gonna go close the Republican primaries? You ought to go back to the people that ran those original bills and let them take the credit for the good ideas instead of running out in front of the limelight.”
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
RINO Crawford, a detriment to TN.
Wow!!! Great article Adelia.
These RINOs need to be defeated AND the TN GOP needs to stop letting the Dems play them for Fools – it’s stupid.
It isn’t that hard – let challenges be made at the County level to whether someone is a Conservative. Leftists and Communists should NOT be able to run as Republicans, even if they paid $35 and voted in Repub Primaries. In my County, a real Leftist was elected to the School Board as a Republican – he believes in every Leftist thing. It’s disgusting. They have a “Brand” to protect.