Image Credit: Adobe Stock & the Tennessee Republican Party
The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
Last week, a few days after Christmas, a decision was made by the Tennessee Republican Party (TRP) to allow candidates who were previously removed from the Republican Primary ballot for school board in districts 7 (Brentwood) and 9 (Franklin), In Williamson County to be restored, and allow them to run in the upcoming primary as Republicans.
Prior to this decision, both candidates’ statuses had been successfully challenged, based on TRP bylaws, which state that in order to run as a candidate in a republican primary you have to have an established history of involvement in the party on either a state or county level, as well as a voting record that proves you have voted in 3 of the last 4 Republican primary elections.
Two other candidates, Rick Wimberly and Donald Fischer had already withdrawn from the race, however, their statuses as bona fide candidates had also been challenged.
All candidates found not having met the required bona fide status criteria were removed from the ballot by the TRP at that time.
However, appeals were submitted on behalf of Claire Reeves and Michael Carter, which were reviewed by a TRP subcommittee.
The Tennessee Conservative reached out to Steve Allbrooks who is one of the D27 representatives on the TRP, which covers Williamson County.
Allbrooks stated that based on the consistent republican voting track records of both candidates from their previous states of residence, he felt they should not be kept off the ballot and voted to grant them a waiver.
Allbrooks counterpart in D27, Cyndi Miller, did not agree with the decision, and voted to keep the candidates removed.
Based on a local report, TRP chairman Scott Golden explained the reasons behind the reversal of their initial decision to remove both candidates from the ballot.
Golden said, “I think in the case of both Reeves and Carter they had voted out of state,” Golden said. “Our bylaws never truly sync up when we’re dealing with other states and how they do elections.”
Golden also indicated that because school board positions are newly partisan, application of the bylaws, which objectively have been widely considered to be esoteric in nature, application is not always clear.
Golden stated, “There was probably a leniency knowing that this is the first time some of these school board seats have ever become available [in the primary],” Golden said. Going forward, he hopes the TRP standards are clear to candidates.”
Golden added, “I suspect that we are laying a solid foundation that we want two things from our candidates. One is for them to participate with the party of which they are seeking to be a candidate, and two – we want them to vote.”
Critics of the decision have indicated that due to the subjective and somewhat equivocal nature of the bylaws, they have been and continue to be easily used against specific candidates.
Others stated that if the rules can be set aside so easily, based on the arbitrary opinions of 12-14 people in a process that occurs behind closed doors, with very little if any transparency, then what is exactly the point of having rules to begin with?
This issue will resurface again in the future as we head into 2024, which based on this incident, promises to be an active election cycle.
The Williamson County School Board Primary Election will take place on March 5th. This year there are entire slate of new candidates except for one, Jennifer Aprea (D5), the lone incumbent, who is running in the general election as an independent.
The entire school board ballot will include: Tony Bostic (R) and Elmer A. Mobley (D) in District 1; Diane Cochran (D), Dennis S. Driggers (R) and PJ Mezera (R) in District 3; Margie Johnson (R) in District 5; Angela Beaton (R) and Michael Carter (R) in District 7; Darlynne S. Jordan (R), Claire Reeves (R) and Shandus Parish (D) in District 9; and Laura Granere (D) and Tonja Hibma (R) in District 11.
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is a recent escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers. She has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. Outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
6 Responses
The policy obviously means nothing, so why have it. What is more important right now is to change the law on crossover voting in primaries. It is insane that a democrat can vote in a republican primary and vise versa. Tennessee is purportedly a red state. Sadly, the red is merely a patina; when you scratch the service, you find a lot of blue.
Golden added, “… we want two things from our candidates. One is for them to participate with the party of which they are seeking to be a candidate, and two – we want them to vote.”
Notice that Golden’s comment does NOT mention anything about the candidate being a conservative, but that should be the most important question, not who paid there $35 and voted in Republican primaries.
>>The result is that in Williamson, a Leftist who supports the Progressive agenda ran as a Republican and was elected to the School Board – the guy supports CRT, DEI, porn books in schools, voted to hire “Diversity Consultants”, etc. The TN GOP should absolutely NOT allow known Leftists to run as Republicans. In Williamson, it is common for Leftist activists to vote in Republican primaries – they are encouraged to do so because the Dems can’t win, so they have infiltrated Republican elections.
The County GOP’s need a way for people to challenge the Leftists’ conservative credentials so they can be removed from the County GOP. To allow Leftists to run as Republicans is stupid and harms the GOP’s credibility – think about how dumb that is – it is truly shocking, and it needs to be exposed. People assume that if they vote for a “Republican”, that person is either a conservative or a moderate, NOT a Leftist or “Progressive”. It’s easy to fix > change the rules to allow 2 people to challenge anyone’s credentials as a Conservative and then allow the County GOP officials to vote on kicking the person out – this should be decided at the County level, not by bureaucrats who don’t know the people and don’t seem to care. The State GOP should NOT be making decisions for the Counties – the County GOP’s should make those decisions because they know the people. Dear TN GOP > Please don’t be stupid bureaucrats and stop allowing Leftists to run as Republicans!
Same thing happened with county commission in Knox County. A candidate was successfully challenged, yet the SEC members in this county voted to keep him on the ballot. But it’s certainly ok to removed gubernatorial candidates from the ballot, before their deadline to show proof they were qualified. Gotta make sure RINO Lee keeps his seat.
What is equally disturbing is how the names of those who challenged Reeves were leaked to Reeves’ supporters and then used to harass these challengers within their neighborhood. How did those names get released, who was responsible? In 2022, there were similar challenges to conservative candidates, but those challengers’ names are not public knowledge. Why the double standard TN GOP? #WeWantAnswers
It seems that the “rules” (and I use that term loosely) are very flexible when it benefits “certain” people. And it has become abundantly clear to anyone paying attention who “those” people are.
True conservatives need to stand up and work for reform of our party or we will continue to suffer the consequences.
Should one not know who their accusers are? Reeves is a quality conservative candidate that district 9 (and WCS) will benefit from having as its representative. And why does it matter if the names of those questioning her bonafides were exposed? Are they not willing to stand for what they do? There’s no need to hide if one thinks they’re doing the “right” thing, is there?
People close to both groups know this was done as a form of payback from Reeves not supporting the two failed candidates in the last local election.