TN House Speaker Cameron Sexton Faces Residency Allegations After Purchasing $600,000 Nashville Home
Image Credit: Cameron Sexton / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
After participating in efforts to expel three Democrat representatives for disorderly conduct on the House floor recently, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville-District 25) is now under media fire for possibly violating election laws outlined in Tennessee Code.
Last week, Reporter Judd Legum of Popular Information released a series of articles questioning whether Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton actually lives in the district he represents.
These articles were followed up by short-form videos on the topic posted to Popular Information’s TikTok account.
Sexton has been accused of not actually living in Crossville as a representative for District 25, but of instead residing in Nashville full-time. If these accusations are true, Sexton could be illegally representing Crossville.
Tennessee attorney John Spragens stated, “He’s not the first speaker to do that – just the first to expel members while his own house is not in order.”
Allegations like this were bound to come up with the Tennessee legislature being heavily scrutinized because of their behavior in the aftermath of a school shooting in Nashville last month.
Legum alleges that although Sexton supported expulsion of “The Tennessee Three” for violating rules of decorum, he himself “may be in violation of the fundamental rules of the legislature” in accordance with Article II, Section 5a of the Tennessee State Constitution which states that “Each district shall be represented by a qualified voter of that district.”
This means Sexton could also be in violation of Tennessee election laws regarding determination of residency outlined in Tennessee Code § 2-2-122.
On an archive of the Tennessee General Assembly’s website which Legum calls Sexton’s “official website,” the Speaker’s home address is listed as 186 Homestead Drive, a four-bedroom home in Crossville.
According to public property and tax records, Sexton actually sold that property back in October 2020, before purchasing a far smaller two-bedroom condo in Crossville.
To The Tennessee Conservative’s knowledge, Sexton has only claimed to still live in Crossville and has not specifically claimed to currently reside on Homestead Drive. In fact, the aforementioned condo was listed as his place of residence when he filed for reelection in 2022.
While downsizing on the housing front is not anything extraordinary, this does not seem to be the reasoning for Sexton’s condo purchase.
Reportedly, Sexton and his wife Lacey secretly purchased a second home in West Nashville for close to $600,000 in September of 2021 through the establishment of an anonymous trust titled the Beccani Trust.
Cameron Sexton’s name does not seem to appear on the related documents. However, his wife’s signature appears on the property deed as an “affiant.”
Legum explains that while Lacey Sexton’s signature is not printed out on the documents, the signature matches the one she used to sign her husband’s nominating petition when he was running for reelection in 2022.
All of this despite Tennessee Code § 2-2-122 clearly stating that “there can be only one (1) residence.”
Additionally, the lender associated with the purchase of the Nashville home is the Crossville branch of One Bank of Tennessee where Sexton works in Business Development and sits on the Board of Directors.
Of course, the purchase of property in Nashville does not automatically mean Sexton and his family are taking up residence outside of his district, but here’s the kicker, the Speaker’s youngest child is currently enrolled year-round in a Nashville school.
Again, this information does not contrast well with TN Code § 2-2-122 which says, “The place where a married person’s spouse and family have their habitation is presumed to be the person’s place of residence.”
Allegations regarding misuse of taxpayer funds were also brought up with Popular Information claiming that while Sexton is living in Nashville, he is still receiving the higher per diem rate allocated to legislators living farther away from the Capitol.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that Tennessee’s 2022 per diem rate for legislators residing within 50 miles of the Capitol was $61/day and for legislators residing more than 50 miles from the Capitol it was $295/day.
Sexton has also been accused of falsely claiming dollars for mileage incurred while traveling from Crossville to Nashville and back for legislative business.
Per diem reports show that he has claimed higher mileage rates in years past but in 2023 has only collected reimbursement dollars for the 12-mile roundtrip to the Capitol from his Nashville home.
Consequently enough, this information only seems to prove that Sexton is currently living at his Nashville property.
Chief Investigative Reporter for Nashville’s Channel 5 News, Phil Williams, reported that Sexton argues, “as Speaker, he has to be in Nashville so often that it’s easier to have his family here.”
According to Williams, Sexton defended himself by citing another part of TN Code § 2-2-122 which states that “a person does not gain or lose residence solely by reason of the person’s presence or absence while employed in this service of […] this state.”
As with many political scandals, the whole ordeal seems to display a severe lack of transparency. If Sexton’s actions regarding residency and claiming a higher per diem rate are defendable and do not violate Tennessee statute, why has there been such a lack of transparency with the people he is supposed to represent?
The Tennessee Conservative did reach out to Speaker Sexton for comment on this subject matter but has yet not heard anything back.
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.
To purchase a home discretely is common for public figures due to privacy concerns and due to legal protection in lawsuits.
Privacy issues are clear when we consider that his Nashville home is in a Dem district and think back to the Antifa/BLM protests (of which Jones was a leading activist) and back to the left’s willingness to protest at the homes of our SCOTUS Justices. “Lawfare” is all too common a tool of the left as well as against anyone perceived to have a few dollars to spare.
If he goes to his home in Crossville on the weekends and during the weeks in which he has no official business in Nashville then I don’t see a problem as the situation is no different than a sitting governor spending the majority of his time in Nashville or a US Senator or Representative spending most of his/her time in Washington DC.
Many Representatives/Senators even move their families to the DC area so as to not separated and downsize the home back in the district for financial reasons (expensive to keep to homes!).
That is simply the nature of the job to be in Nashville the majority of work weeks well beyond when in session.
The per diem is for all whose legal residence is more than 50 miles from the Capitol. The majority of those who live 100+ do not commute daily. They stay in Nashville meaning their daily drive is not a round trip from their home. It sounds like wise financial management to invest in a property in Nashville rather than staying in a hotel with the per diem provided.
As to driving from his home in Crossville to the Nashville … if he is living in Crossville, has state business in Nashville and drives to Nashville for that state business, then he can deduct the milage even if he stays in the home he bought in Nashville. Where he stays while in Nashville and whether he owns the home or not is irrelevant.
It seems the questions boil down to where Representative Sexton spends his time during the non session time in which he is not doing official state business.
–>> How many weekdays when not in session has he been required to be in Nashville for official state business? Multiple days on a weekly basis?
–>> Where does he live during the summer and fall when not doing business in Nashville for the his state job/official responsibilities? (And that is where the questions of his children’s school enrollment come into questions unless he lives in the district away from his spouse/children during non official state business work days.)
Obviously, the night before/after his works a day in Nashville is also understanding to be in Nashville as one can drive from Crossville early in the morning but that would make a long day and not a commute one would want to make on a daily basis + would give him less time to serve as there are often early morning breakfast meetings and their state business frequently includes dinners and evening meetings.
The fact that he bought a 2nd home in Nashville is irrelevant just as is under whose name he bought the home and for what reasons (again, privacy concerns are legitimate for safety reasons, especially in Nashville and with children in the home). Investing in a property locally rather than living out of a hotel for months at a time and then frequently throughout the rest of the year is a financially wise move as well as being smart for his whole family.
As for transparency – he sat down with Phil of Channel 5 within a few days of this coming out and answered questions.
The left’s focus on Sexton buying a Nashville house to use while in session and while in town for his job as speaker has caused me to wonder how Democrat state senators and representatives from Memphis (or other distant TN state Dems) handle the in town living arrangements. Have any Dems purchased properties in Nashville with their $300 per day while in session and to save costs + be more comfortable as well as being a wiser investment than spending the money on hotels? This may or may not be wrong (depending on where they live the rest of the year but it might help the Democrat activists calm down and get some perspective on Sexton’s living arrangements.
I do admire the grassroots effort that went into investigating and gather facts on Sexton buying a house in Nashville. (I saw the grassroots Dems crowdsourcing investigation happening in real time and tried to call Sexton’s office so that he could get ahead of the leftist narrative by putting out a clarifying statement if so chose and at least know that this was coming but no one took my repeated calls.)
With state rep and state senate expenses being examined I hope some conservative journalists & grassroots activists are applying the same sunlight to the Democrats.
The same applies to other issues as well. I LOVE the sunlight being shown on donations and who actually supports some of our state Republican legislators + reports on their voting records, including votes in the committees. This is vital, impactful work. I fully support Republicans holding Republicans accountable … but what are the Democrats in Tennessee doing?
I would like to see this same sunlight on the Dems – especially their donors, out of district v. in district, PACS v. independent businesses v. individuals. Maybe posting an article laying out the idea, the links to investigate and then crowdsource the work? I have seen that done repeatedly (especially pre 2021) on conservative grassroots websites as most are run by people in their “spare” time so crowdsourcing the research is an important way to be more effective.
It was inspiring to see the leftist grassroots crowdsourcing, talking and working together on social media to research Sexton even while they repeatedly came to wrong conclusions (such as if he didn’t commute daily he was “lying” & cheating … as if all state legislators go home every night to their districts across the state while in session! smh! They also seemed to think the per diem was based on direct receipts etc.).
Maybe we Republican voters can learn from the grassroots efforts on the Sexton story and realize how must impact we can have when we spend some time digging!
As the article points out, but the other comments ignore, the issue is not that Sexton owns a home in Nashville and a condo in his district. As Sexton pointed out, Tennessee law says that is not determinative (understandably so). The issue is that Sexton’s family appears to live in the Nashville home. According to this article, his youngest son goes to school there and in 2023, he only has billed for travel from his house to Nashville to work. Under Tennessee law the presumption is he lives with his family. Maybe he can overcome that presumption with other evidence. So far he has only said that he “lives in Crossville. We’re here 5 months out of the year. Then we go back on the weekends and so forth.” That mostly does not really address the specific allegations and having your kid enrolled in Nashville schools does not seem consistent with living in Nashville for 5 months.
As for some of the other comments, I agree with the other comments and also hope this leads to other, similar investigations both with residency issues and campaign finance. I think voters on both the left and right should agree with that and if they don’t? Well…we can ignore those people.
He must be overplayed or bought off.