Outside Money Pours In To District 1 Race In Attempt To Rescue Crawford’s Seat From Challenger Jessica Means (Op-Ed By Angie Vogt)

Image Credit: Jessica Means / Facebook & John Crawford / Facebook

Note from The Tennessee Conservative: Editorial statements in this column are the sole opinion of the author; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff of this publication.

Submitted by Angie Vogt –

Early voting has launched across Tennessee and along with it the full force of campaign spending from the out of state elites trying desperately to hang on to the career politicians they are invested in. Money is flooding into the District 1 race in order to save at least one of those seats held by Rep. John Crawford, who was  Tennessee Conservative’s “RINO of the Year” for 2023 and 2025.

Crawford’s tireless challenger, County Commissioner Jessica Means, has earned an enthusiastic army of voters, and that is exactly where her campaign cash has come from. 

In June she held an expense-free fundraiser. It was held at a popular wedding venue in her district (donated by Mountain Lake Farm), with local wrestlers providing entertainment (donated by Netpro Studios), and complemented with a full dinner and dessert meal for 150 people (donated by Good Batch Mama). The event was emblematic of the Means candidacy and what people across the country are longing for from their representatives: a candidate who is supported by the people she represents. 

It is no accident that so far this primary season across the country, 125 state level incumbents have lost their seats. When voters hear how the RINOs in Washington, D.C. are undermining passage of the SAVE America Act, a natural response is to look for the same trends locally and start cleaning up their state house. Voters want someone invested in their own hometown and whose values are not for sale to the highest bidder. It is clear that County Commissioner  Means is that candidate in District 1.

Conversely, while door knocking, many people took immediate interest in Means because they had never met John Crawford. In fact, a common sentiment was, “I wouldn’t know him if I saw him. Tell me more about her.” Crawford has spent his ten years in office unopposed, and as a result, has lost touch with the people he serves all the while accumulating a  campaign war chest of $240,000).

Now that early voting is upon us, Crawford’s investors are getting desperate and flooding the internet and voter mailboxes with farcical ads painting Jessica Means as a sinister collaborator with Kamala Harris.  They laughably describe Jessica Means (a mother of six) as an “anti-parent, pro teacher’s union shill.” The ads demonstrate how disconnected Crawford’s people are from the voters of District 1 who have seen Commissioner Means working hard for the past four years in their own backyard. They feel personally connected to her and could easily recognize her if they saw her, one of the reasons The Tennessee Conservative News endorsed Means for this race.

Tracking down the original source of Crawford’s money is a labyrinth of special interest connections far removed from upper East Tennessee. I doubt even Crawford understands who he is taking money from. As an example, the so-called “Education Voter Guide” circulating on the internet is funded by a dubiously named PAC, The American Federation for Children Victory Fund (AFCVF). That PAC is funded by billionaires who live in California and Texas. They happen to have chapters everywhere, so they can make the money look like it comes from Nashville, but make no mistake: the policies being forwarded into our red state come from far away. 

PACs like the AFCVF roll out easy money to give to candidates available for easy influence. On Crawford’s Q2 campaign report, I counted twenty-six total PAC donations; only one could be considered local. The others are from Nashville, Memphis, Washington, D.C., Dallas Texas, and one hefty $5,000 donation is from the Tennessee House Majority Leader’s own PAC.  

Jessica Means is not interested in what the career politicians in Nashville and Washington, D.C. want. She is interested in protecting her home town values from outside interests who want to change our rural red state into an urban blue state. 

People are fed up with what they see in Washington D.C. as Thune and  McConnell obstruct a conservative agenda and serve the interests of their globalist benefactors. The voters of District 1 are awake and rejecting the intrusion from outsiders. They will not sit silently while he attempts to cruise back to Nashville to do the bidding of the House Majority Leader and his good ole boys. Jessica Means works for the voters of Northeast Tennessee, not the billionaires in California and Texas.