Rep. Richey Introduces A New Yet Familiar Bill To Close Tennessee Primary Elections
Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –
State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20) introduced House Bill 1616 (HB1616) on December 6, 2023.
In summary, HB 1616 “prescribes a process by which a person must declare a statewide political party or recognized minor party affiliation before voting in a primary election; designates persons who choose not to affiliate with a political party as “Unaffiliated”; authorizes unaffiliated voters to vote in primary elections. – Amends TCA Title 2.”
This legislation was presented to the General Assembly for the 2023 legislative session as HB0405 (sponsored by Richey) and SB0452 (sponsored by Senator Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun-District 1) but ultimately failed in a House committee due to the votes of the Republican supermajority. The senate version was subsequently “general-subbed’, meaning they had no intentions of considering the bill further during the session.
But Richey is not giving up on representing the desires of his constituents.
In 2022, The Tennessee Conservative conducted its own survey of readers and subscribers. Most were affiliated with the Republican Party and were overwhelmingly supportive of bills similar to HB 1616.
Many Tennesseans do not agree with voting in primaries for political parties with which one is not officially affiliated.
The law on primary voting as currently written is difficult to enforce. As reported earlier in 2023 by The Tennessee Conservative, “As the law currently stands, it is a crime to vote in an opposing party’s primary with the sole intent of having an influence over the outcome.” Determining sole intent is difficult and therefore the current law is rarely upheld.
By requiring that Tennessee voters declare a recognized party affiliation or choose to be “unaffiliated,” the guidelines would be clearly laid out regarding in which primaries any given citizen could cast their vote.
Representative Richey is no stranger to the fight for closed primaries.
Back in the Spring session of the General Assembly, Richey’s HB0404 was determined by Committee Chairman Representative John Crawford (R-D1-Bristol/Kingsport) to have failed in a voice vote. However, by Richey’s personal count, the bill actually passed. In response to the voice vote Richey posted to social media, “Lesson learned I will call for a roll call vote going forward.”
When Tennessee lawmakers reconvene in January, this will be an important bill for consideration as the state and country enter a crucial election season.
Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1796
YES, we were warned of the dangers of factionalism in American politics. Washington was prescient.
However, it is axiomatic, If TN is to provide partisan nominating elections ( i.e. primaries) it is only logical that the parties have authority to determine who their members are and who is able to participate in their respective primaries.
Does the writer of this article or any reader know why this bill would not be enthusiastically supported by all Republican lawmakers who call themselves conservatives? Why would any so-called conservative Republican lawmaker want Democrats to have any say whatsoever in determining the Republican nominee for any race?
The only reason that I can think of is that establishment Republicans (aka, RINOs) in Tennessee want to have the option in any future Republican primary race to collude with the Democrats to beat a true conservative. This happened in Mississippi in 2014 in a Republican run-off primary for a US Senate seat.
In that race, the incumbent Thad Cochran, a moderate establishment Republican, was being challenged by a conservative Tea Party candidate, Chris McDaniel. Multiple polls showed that the Tea Party challenger was expected to win the race by at least a five percent margin. However, the moderate establishment incumbent won the Republican nomination.
The incumbent won the run-off primary race by taking advantage of a state law that allowed Democrats who had not yet participated in the election that year to vote in the Republican primary run-off race. During the run-off, the incumbent touted his liberal record in the state’s counties that had traditionally voted overwhelmingly for Democrat candidates. Furthermore, in these Democrat strongholds, the incumbent even went so far as to smear his challenger with an often-used Democrat tactic of branding his challenger as a racist. A bald-faced lie.
The moderate incumbent Republican had won the REPUBLICAN nomination with DEMOCRAT votes. Thus, the self-authenticating RINO was able to retain the seat in the general election.
Excerpts below from an article at DailyTorch.com entitled “Democrats Deliver Cochran Senate Primary Victory in Mississippi” succinctly describe this Republican run-off race:
“Cochran appears to owe his victory entirely to campaigning on liberal causes in Democrat counties, and pulling Democrat voters into the Republican primary.”
“As for Cochran, representing establishment Republicans in Washington, D.C., he has apparently abandoned his base in favor of a win-no-matter-what attitude just to keep control of his seat. It does nothing to advance the cause of the American people or the Republican Party, only his hold on power.”
“Such a mindless, corrupt mentality forever divorces any pretense that Cochran and the Republican establishment care about representing the conservative base of the Republican Party.
https://dailytorch.com/2014/06/democrats-deliver-cochran-senate-primary-victory-mississippi-2/
Dear TCN – Please publish the names of the Repubs who oppose this. We need to vote them out. I’m in Williamson and the Dems vote in the Repub Primaries to elect Libs and defeat conservatives.
We certainly will! As long as they don’t do the dreaded voice vote which makes it impossible to know how they voted. You can check out what went down with this bill last session here – https://tennesseeconservativenews.com/bill-to-close-primaries-killed-in-tennessee-house-committee-by-voice-vote/
THANX!!
Just emailed Crawford, Subject, Closed primaries. Message, ROLL CALL VOTE this year, you miserable RINO!!
My pleasure David. The Open Primary Eight who failed to vote for this legislation during the last session because they LOVE those liberal Democrats barreling into Republican primaries to vote against the most conservative candidates are as follows:
John Crawford – Kingsport, Dave Wright – Corryton, Esther Haynes – East Ridge, Dale Carr – Sevierville, William Slater – Gallatin, John Holsclaw – Elizabethton, Rebecca Alexander – Jonesborough, Michael Hale – Smithville
Let’s make voting against closing our primaries the Third Rail of Tennessee Republican politics by supporting the primary opponents of the Open Primary Eight!
I figger near every RINO in there got many dimmercrap votes and why they don’t want primaries closed.
Most folks in upper northeast Tennessee thought John Crawford was a conservative. Until staying on the Speaker’s good side became more important than representing his constituents! That’s how he keeps the committee chairmanship. Prove me wrong.
Tn “Uniparty” has a spine, it’s on backorder.
Sexton thinks he’s going to be governor, even he can’t raise enough $$$ from the dem o marxist.
There should be 5 parties on a ballot
Conservative
Republican
Libertarian
Democrat
Marxist
The DemonRat RINOs are a real problem in Tennessee. Voting for weak “RepubliCants” in the primary to insure a Democrat win in the General Election is a threat to this wonderful Red state and those that support enabling this should be voted out.
It would be much more difficult to cheat in primaries and will never pass in TN. It would be nice if there was more uniformity/consistency in election dates too, but alas, also most likely a non-starter. Elected officials like to keep voters confused, but do make sure that their guys show up to vote.
It makes no sense to warn of the dangers of RINOs and also to support closed primaries. So you want to force us to vote for the RINO?
DEFUND
TGOP
$$$ Gets Their Attention
Please follow this bill during sessions and call and write the committee members!