Tennessee Education Association Pushes Crossover Raiding By Democrat Voters Supporting Incumbent Rep. Ramsey

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has sent out a mailer supporting Republican Representative Bob Ramsey (District 20 – Maryville) to voters alerting them that they can vote in the Republican primary election, regardless of political affiliation.

The mailer, sent out to voters in Ramsey’s district, states that the GOP Primary is open to all and reminds voters that early voting is available through July 30th and that the Republican primary voting date is August 4th. 

The mailer states, “Rep. Bob Ramsey has a 100% voting record with TEA, a pro-education legislator we must keep!  Please take a few minutes and vote for Bob!”

The TEA goes on to highlight some of what Ramsey supports that aligns with their own agenda.

• INCREASED SALARIES & PROFESSIONAL PAY

-Putting state surpluses into educator pay and higher base salaries.

• PAYING LESS FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

-Pushing for more state funding to make premiums fair and affordable.

• FIGHTING VOUCHERS AND CHARTERS

-Opposing privatization and state-controlled rural and suburban charters.

• STOP ATTACKS ON WHAT AND HOW WE TEACH

-Standing up to those who push high-stakes testing and attack our integrity.

Although allegations that crossover voting is having a severe impact on elections in the Volunteer state is seemingly being ignored by many in positions of authority, this mailer serves as proof that Democrats and left-leaning organizations are, in fact, encouraging crossover voting (also known as crossover raiding) by Democrats in Republican primaries.  

Many concerned Republicans charge that this is a tactic to secure the election of the weakest or least Conservative Republican candidates in our Red state.  

The Tennessee GOP’s State Executive Committee’s (SEC) District 26 chairwoman, Kathryn Bryson, said,  “The motive for crossing over and voting in the other party’s primary is most often to elect the weakest candidate who might then lose to your own party’s nominee.”

SEC’s District 20 Chairwoman, Michelle Foreman, told us that efforts have been made by the Tennessee GOP to close primaries but their efforts were stymied in the Tennessee General Assembly.

“I sit on the TNGOP State Executive Committee and voted to pass a resolution (to the General Assembly) to close our primaries. That resolution passed the SEC by an overwhelming vote but the bill did not go far in the legislature,” Foreman said.

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has actively been involved in lobbying against charter schools, school choice and partisan school board elections, among other efforts by Republican lawmakers to better the school system in Tennessee.

The consistent answer the TEA has to Tennessee school’s poor academic performance is to funnel more money into the system, an act that many Conservatives and Republicans feel is the wrong course to take.

Regarding the TEA’s pick for Republican Representative For Maryville, District 20, incumbent Bob Ramsey made the Top 5 RINOs in the Tennessee House in The Tennessee Conservative’s 2022 RINO Report & Freedom Caucus Awards.

The report defines RINOs as, “Republicans who actively worked with left-leaning corporations and interest groups to kill Conservative legislation for their own political benefit, voting with and governing like Democrats when it mattered most in the last legislative session. They are beholden to special interest money, which puts them at odds with the political will of Republican primary voters they claim to represent. These lawmakers and public servants may occasionally vote with Conservatives, but on the whole, they display a pattern of behavior that is contrary to the will of Conservative primary voters.”

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During the last legislative session, Representative Ramsey’s actions earned him his place on the RINO Report.

Starting with the ‘The Parent Bill of Rights Act’ – legislation sought to require Local Education Agencies to permit parents to have access to certain information, including the names of instructors, titles available in the school library, teacher manuals, and curriculum and sought to require parents to provide written consent before a student can participate in any extracurricular activity, family life lesson, field trip, school assembly, or guest speaker event.  In addition the legislation sought to prohibit certain healthcare practitioners from providing medical treatment to a minor without parental consent or an appropriate court order.

However, the legislation was killed in the House Health Subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Ramsey by failing to receive a second before even being allowed to be heard.

Another bill killed in the House Health Subcommittee, chaired by Ramsey, was the Healthcare Recipient Rights Act.  

The legislation sought to ensure that patients are allowed visitation by family members and advocates in the case of an inability to make one’s own medical decisions.  In addition, it would have required informed consent for treatments that are authorized for emergency use only.

Chair Bob Ramsey had promised the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Todd Warner, that he would allow testimony supporting the legislation.  However, when the time came for the bill to be heard, Ramsey announced that no action would be taken because they had run out of time.  

Ramsey sponsored legislation (HB0946/SB0148) in the last session that sought to sneak in vaccinations for minors without parental consent.  

With language broad enough to include the HPV vaccine, HepB vaccines, and two risky drugs approved for adolescents and adults to be taken to prevent HIV, the legislation sought to authorize “certain healthcare officers and providers licensed in this state to provide consultation, examination, diagnosis or treatment to a minor to prevent STDs, without the knowledge or consent of the parents of the minors.” 

In addition, Ramsey sponsored legislation that sought to authorize Dentists to administer HPV vaccines and voted against a resolution to make the Holy Bible Tennessee’s official state book.  

The TEA’s endorsement of Representative Bob Ramsey and their mailer encouraging crossover raiding follows another mailer sent out to Democrat voters in Knoxville’s District 7 encouraging them to vote in the Republican primary for incumbent Senator Richard Briggs, another legislator who made the TOP 5 RINOs in the Tennessee Conservative’s RINO Report.

In a recent survey, conducted by The Tennessee Conservative, 97.92% of respondents stated they feel that Democrats should not be allowed to vote in Republican primaries.

97.11% replied that they feel the Governor, House Speaker and Lt. Governor should work to pass legislation that would close GOP primaries to prevent Democrat crossover voting.

97.81% said they feel the State GOP Chairman should be more outspoken and proactive about preventing Democrats from voting in Republican primaries.

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