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The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
Ted Boyatt, who orchestrated the Blount County Republican Women’s cancellation of Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands which led to the ousting of their president, Heather Fair, has been hired by the General Assembly as an analyst.
Blount County resident Mark Pulliam alerted The Tennessee Conservative to the new hire stating that, “the notorious Ted Boyatt, the thuggish Nashville lobbyist wannabe, has been hired by the legislature as an analyst.”
According to Tennessee Stands founder Gary Humble, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville-District 75) made the hiring decision.
Boyatt is listed on the General Assembly website under “Research Staff.”
According to Pulliam, two years ago, the Blount County GOP brought Boyatt in to serve on the Credentials Committee for the biennial reorganization meeting, even though he was not a Blount County resident.
With Boyatt’s addition to the Credentials Committee, at least a half dozen conservatives were turned away on “spurious grounds,” Pulliam stated.
“For this Boyatt is REWARDED with a cushy government job? The GOP leadership is RINO to the core,” Pulliam said.
The Backstory:
In September 2022, in response to an email sent to the “friends and members” of the Blount County Republican Women’s Club where Boyatt aggressively urged the group to rescind “divisive” Conservative Gary Humble’s invitation from local speaking engagements, the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women issued an ultimatum to BCRW’s President, Heather Fair.
Boyatt’s email, which was laced with half-truths and lies, was cc’d to the Tennessee GOP chairman Scott Golden and the Tennessee Federation for Republican Women’s president, Linda Kollman.
Read Boyatt’s email and Gary Humble’s response HERE.
Following Boyatt’s email, the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women (TNFRW) determined that by inviting “controversial figure” Gary Humble (Founder and Executive Director of Tennessee Stands) to be a guest speaker, the president of BCRW, Heather Fair, was in violation of TNFRW’s bylaws.
Fair, nor us at the Tennessee Conservative could determine which portion of the bylaws TNFRW cited as just cause for the ultimatum and we reached out to the TNFRW’s President, Linda Kollman, for clarity on the situation but never heard back.
NFRW offered Fair three choices to “rectify the situation”:
1) Resign immediately.
2) Rescind Humble’s invitation to speak, and Fair would be allowed to remain as President of BCRW.
3) Neither resign nor rescind the invitation, but then BCRW is subject to censure, possible fines and/or closure by the TNFRW
Fair said, “I absolutely do not want any repercussions for the club or BCRW members, so option #3 was never even a consideration.”
“Rescinding the invite or censoring Gary goes against my principles and I refuse to do either,” Fair explained.
Standing by her principles left Fair with only one option, to resign immediately, which she did on September 22nd, 2022.
Fair said, “A third-party, bully outsider has been allowed to weaponize TNFRW bylaws and infringe on the 1st Amendment Rights of an invited guest. With that reality, I see no value in retaining my current post nor any affiliation with TNFRW or NFRW.”
Following Fair’s resignation, the vast majority of the club’s leadership and almost half of the active members followed suit and officially resigned.
However, the establishment’s cancellation of Humble’s speaking engagements didn’t stop the true conservatives of Blount County from having their event.
Gary Humble said, “We are not going to let the GOP establishment cancel conservatives. We are going to have our own event…”
The event, which took place at The Station in Louisville the same night Humble was previously slated to speak at the meeting of the BCRW was a huge success with 175 people in attendance.
For more on this saga, please refer to our past articles HERE.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
2 Responses
We talk bout the “swamp” in Washington but it appears our own “swamp” is as deep and nefarious. Citizens from all over Tn. have to stop electing legislators just because they bring a few bucks into their districts. It’s a well orchestrated game with them. It’s time to start electing people who work for us as a whole rather than special interests.
IMHO, Cameron Sexton is RINO TRASH as are his supporters in District 75.
We NEED LOTS more like Humble, LOTS less like Sexton.