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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Launched in April of this year, “nonpartisan” group The Best of Tennessee, is Knoxville-area attorney Chloe Akers’ second attempt at forming a political group to back moderate political candidates in Tennessee elections.
Back in March of 2023, Akers founded The Liminal Plan, a political action committee (PAC) established to “fight extremism” and back moderate political candidates in support of abortion access, Medicaid expansion and gun safety legislation in Tennessee.
Akers initially garnered attention from the news media for her abortion or “reproductive healthcare” activism concerning law that went into effect in Tennessee following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Fighting back against legislation that restricted abortion access in Tennessee is what prompted Akers to try her hand at forming a PAC.
“It’s not related to a political party because what we’re trying to do is bigger than a political party. We’re creating a movement for moderates. And it’s not a political movement. It’s a policy movement,” Akers said about The Liminal Plan just a few months after its founding, adding that Tennessee’s “potentially cataclysmic problem” is “a broken democracy.”
When The Liminal Plan was done away with in favor of The Best of Tennessee, Akers was criticized by some of The Liminal Plan’s donors for spending $134,307 of the approximately $440,000 she raised for the organization, on consulting services with her own firm.
Reportedly, The Liminal Plan did not spend a single dollar on backing candidates before the PAC was closed down.
“I’m not feeling good about the donation,” said Knoxville GOP political activist Madge Cleveland who donated $5,000 to the PAC. “There was a real lack of transparency with The Liminal Plan. For a while, nobody could reach (Akers), and then, she just showed up with a new group.”
Before the shutdown, a majority of The Liminal Plan’s remaining funds were transferred to The Best of Tennessee.
According to Akers, The Best of Tennessee “is rooted in data and research and analytics” and is “not some organization that’s just up here with some theory.”
“We have a culture of politics that is so hyperpolarized, that no one in the middle, no regular everyday Tennessean, wants to be a part of politics anymore and can you blame them?” asks Akers. “Because of this culture of hyperpolarization, we’ve lost the vast majority of folks in the middle who don’t want to participate.”
“We are going to drive an aggressive campaign to straight up shift the culture around politics,” she continues. “Instead of talking about policy where everyone tends to shut down, we want to drive a conversation around strong leadership.”
The organization consists of three different parts, The Best of Tennessee, Inc. which is registered as a 501(c)4 nonprofit to increase voter turnout; The Best of Tennessee Victory Fund, a PAC for recruiting and backing candidates who will make “effective leaders”; and The Best of Tennessee Action Fund, a Super PAC for using independent expenditures to back candidates.
Akers stated in a press release that the new board of directors is an example of “how Republicans and Democrats can come together to prioritize what’s best for Tennessee as a whole instead of all-or-nothing partisan politics.”
Former Republican state senator for District 14 in Tennessee and currently the state’s Director for Rural Development, Jim Tracy, as well as Former Hamilton County Mayor, Jim Coppinger, will both serve on the board for The Best of Tennessee.
Coppinger was one of countless GOP politicians who pushed mask mandates and other highly questionable Covid-19 restrictions and policies during his last term.
Other board members include Mike McWherter, the 2010 Democrat nominee for governor and son of Former Gov. Ned McWherter (D-TN), Susan Miller Bush, Gerald Coggin, Jeff McGruder, Elliott Moore, Jim Seabury, Susan Simons and Founder of Republican fundraising firm Kaegi Resources, Kim Kaegi who is reportedly leading The Best of Tennessee alongside Akers.
Conservative voters may want to keep The Best of Tennessee in mind as they sift through campaign contribution lists for GOP candidates.
In all likelihood if the group chooses to fund a candidate, they consider that candidate to be “moderate” and in support of not so conservative policies like abortion access and gun control.
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.
5 Responses
Indeed, the centrist extremists are trying to organize statewide, as if the bushels of money dumped on centrists/tepid conservatives by big business and the various chamber of commerce organizations is not enough. We conservatives have about one month before early voting and six weeks before the Republican primary to “put up” in the form of helping conservative candidates or we might as well shut-up for the next two years unless those candidates at least give their opponents a scare.
Moderate=dimmercrap/RINO.
Sadly, you are correct!
Let’s not mince words, they are commies working for the same goals, RINO = Controlled Opposition, and ANY & EVERY DEM is a full on commie these days. Let none of their words fool you, they are masters of manipulating the language and remember, they hate all of us and view us as nothing more than cockroaches to crush under their boot. Only the useful idiots, “BLM, ANTIFA, the LGBTQRSTUV mental cases are seemingly spared of any real justice now as they destroy, loot, burn and murder, they are just tools… ( brownshirts if you will ) and the moment they aren’t useful anymore, they will get eliminated as well. Read any communist takeover in history, they all start slowly and end the same….with MILLIONS DEAD in the name of “fairness & democracy.” This won’t be any different except the technology makes things even more terrifying. Better vote for the outlaw the commies are terrified of because if they win by cheating again…..our beautiful country is finished.
Killing babies is not moderate.