Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook , Gage Skidmore / CC & @realDonaldTrump / Truth Social
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
On the night of the primaries last week, President Donald Trump congratulated Bobby Harshbarger for winning the Republican Primary for Tennessee Senate District 4, and called Tennessee Governor Bill Lee a RINO in that same post on Truth Social.
Here’s a look at some of Lee’s “Greatest Hits” on the road to becoming a RINO Governor.
While running for governor in 2018, Lee had a list of campaign promises called “Ten for Tenn” that he likened to a “contract with Tennesseans.” How many of these promises has Lee been faithful to keep?
1. Foster an Environment Where Jobs Continue to Grow
2. Rethink Public Education with Major Vocational Reforms, Real School Choice, and Civics Education
3. Stand up for Rural Tennessee by Expanding Economic Opportunity and Winning the War On Opioids
4. Get Tough on the State Budget by Making Government Smaller and More Efficient
5. Ensure New Voices in Nashville by Passing Term Limits and the Challenging the Influence Culture of Insiders
6. Create a New Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
7. Make Government More Accessible, Open, and Accountable to Taxpayers
8. Protect and Defend a Culture of Life
9. Defend Our Constitutional Liberties Without Compromise
10. Enforce the Rule of Law on Immigration
His detailed action plan was announced in a press release on July 3rd, 2018, in which Lee stated that it was “important to set the vision for the state as governor.” But by December, those original campaign promises had been removed from Lee’s website and replaced with a new agenda of only nine items.
Of special note, Lee immediately ditched his promise to enforce the rule of law on immigration.Likewise, his pledge to pass term limits and to defend constitutional liberties.
A new priority for transportation and infrastructure appeared on the list to replace his Faith-based and Community initiatives office, and he also booted “making government smaller and more efficient” in favor of making Tennessee healthier. This new revised list of priorities was also later removed from the web.
Regarding illegal immigration, not only did Lee remove any mention of it from his platform but he was complicit in allowing illegal immigrants to be brought to a center in Chattanooga at a time when other Republican governors were outright refusing to allow migrant minors into their states.
In 2019, less than a year after taking office, Lee agreed to accept additional migrants into the state, despite a pending lawsuit against the federal government over refugee resettlement, and the disapproval of Republican leaders in the General Assembly.
The state later suspended the license to operate La Casa de Sydney after a sexual battery arrest at the facility which involved migrant children.
During 2020, as the first shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were arriving at hospitals across Tennessee, Lee urged Tennesseans to continue wearing masks and not make “foolish decisions” about gathering for the holidays, calling such decisions “selfish.”
By 2023, Lee made an about face, promising no new pandemic mandates in contrast to his executive orders issuing lockdowns, “encouraging” churches to keep their doors shut, and forcing “nonessential” workers to stay home.
In 2021, amid the height of mask controversies, Lee refused to discuss anything to do with masks during the October special session that he called specifically to have legislators discuss planning for Ford’s Blue Oval City at the Memphis Regional Megasite.
The Tennessee General Assembly ended up throwing around a billion taxpayer dollars from the state’s Rainy Day Fund at the project, whose total estimated cost was close to $6 billion. Fast forward to this summer, Ford has backed off of its most aggressive EV timelines, in part due to dealer resistance. Critics now wonder if the Blue Oval City will ever manufacture a single EV.
In 2022, Lee was given a “D” by the Cato Institute in its annual Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors.
Lee earned this dismal grade based on his spending and taxing record including the 2022 state budget which included $500 million for a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans. The report said that he scored poorly for the large general fund budget increases over the previous three years, with the 2022 budget jumping 21 percent.
With the end of his second term as governor on the horizon, Lee has aggressively pushed legislation for school vouchers at the expense of all other issues, unapologetically endorsing pro-voucher candidates in the most recent primary.
Lee even welcomed out-of-state funding from PACs to specific candidates if they endorsed his universal school voucher plan.
School choice supporter Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka-District 64) said that Lee’s bill during this year’s legislative session was “terrible” when asked about vouchers at a candidate forum in Maury County. Neither the House, nor the Senate chose to act on Lee’s proposed legislation, opting to carry their own individual bills instead.
Cepicky noted that Lee’s plan would have required an extra billion dollars in the budget, putting the state in a risky financial position. The state of Arizona is now dealing with a $1.4 billion shortage after they approved a voucher program two years ago.
It’s no secret that The Tennessee Conservative believes Lee to be a RINO as he has won our Executive Branch RINO award now for the third year in a row. Lee continues to push for less transparency in state government and for corporate welfare. He has not made the #1 concern of Republican primary voters, that of illegal immigration, a priority, and during the summer of 2023 he had closed door meetings with Republican and Democrat state lawmakers to discuss a new “gun control framework” prior to a special session he called to push gun control legislation.
President Trump is correct. Governor Bill Lee is a RINO.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
20 Responses
100% concur! What a disappointment Lee’s true colors reflect!
Great report Paula.
Obvious. But TN voters continue to act like drunken crack heads in a stupor and pay no attention as long as the leftist dirtbags have “R” next to their names.
Unfortunately there is a certain amount of truth to that.
I agree with President Trump. Lee needs to be held accountable for a lot of his practices. Also McNally, Sexton and the rest of his crew.
Excellent perspective….
i voted for Lee. He was the best fit for Tennessee at the time. Not so much since the immigrant invasion hit Tennessee.
Why did Deathvax Don’s friends Jeff Yass and Dick & Betsy Devos funnel millions to the AFC Victory Fund super pac to attack conservatives in Tennessee?
Deathvax Don name-calls Lockdown Lee (what’s next, a “stern letter”?), but his out-of-state, billionaire friends funded takedowns of actual conservatives AND FUNDED RINOS.
Well Horatio, for decades conservatives have been trying to end the monopoly of government schools and leftist indoctrination centers on US children’s education by making it easier economically for children to attend private/religious/home schools. The way to do that is to directly give parents at least a portion of the money devoted to educate their children through a voucher.
There are a number of conservatives who have made breaking the Government School Trust’s monopoly the single most important issue that commands their enthusiasm. Sort of like the Right-to-Life or “Choice” zealots have made abortion their single issue. Single issue voters with money are willing to spend a lot of money furthering their single issue and if you cross them on their single issue they want you gone. That’s democracy Horatio. I wish it weren’t so and there weren’t single issue voters but it is what it is.
The only thing is, only Nashville and big city can benefit from the voucher. My grandkids cannot get vouchers for our towns.
Lee’s voucher plan may have many flaws, like Lee himself. The trick is to get the nose of the best voucher plan we can get under the tent, so to speak, then we can perfect the plan as time goes on. Get vouchers started, more and more parents will take advantage of the opportunity to get their children out of government schools. As this happens the political demand for vouchers will increase and the political clout of the Government School Trust will decrease. Slowly but surely we decrease the role of the government in education while the benefit of competition and the creativity of the private sector takes hold in education. I get giddy just thinking about it!!!!
School Voucher program is meant to introduce federal dollars to private education to open the door for globalistic teachings. Maybe you’ve heard republicanism is suppose to support less government. You seem lost and misinformed.
Why must that be so Zac? Why play into the hands of the left that is desperate to keep as many children economically trapped in government schools as possible by conservatives creating our own scare stories that assumes everyone just sits frozen like they were mentally impaired and participates in a voucher program with unacceptable conditions?
Our first line of defense against federal interference in private education is political. Hopefully there are enough Republicans in the General Assembly who are conservative enough to bloc any adulteration of Tennessee’s voucher plan by federal interference. I KNOW,, I KNOW, that’s a rather thin reed to rest on. In the alternative, if worse comes to worse, the home schoolers and the private/religious schools who are suddenly faced with unacceptable conditions when accepting vouchers simply refuse to accept them. That only puts them right back to where they are right now.
There is simply no fundamental downside for conservatives in vouchers. On the other hand, fundamentally vouchers get more children out of the clutches of government school whose family can’t afford that alternative now. No necessary downside, all upside.
Deathvax Don? It appears you are one of those Drunken Crack heads!!
Deathvax Don told you not to forget. He is still hawking them today…pretending they aren’t killing and maiming millions worldwide. Neither he nor Dementia Joe will address their ongoing murderous depopulation plot.
“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!” — Donald J Trump, February 28th 2021
DJT called RINO Lee RIGHT!
Well Horatio, for decades conservatives have been trying to end the monopoly of government schools and leftist indoctrination centers on US children’s education by making it easier economically for children to attend private/religious/home schools. The way to do that is to directly give parents at least a portion of the money devoted to educate their children through a voucher.
There are a number of conservatives who have made breaking the Government School Trust’s monopoly the single most important issue that commands their enthusiasm. Sort of like the Right-to-Life or “Choice” zealots have made abortion their single issue. Single issue voters with money are willing to spend a lot of money furthering their single issue and if you cross them on their single issue they want you gone. That’s democracy Horatio. I wish it weren’t so and there weren’t single issue voters but it is what it is.
Why do you keep pretending the voucher bill takes money away from public schools? It was entirely new spending (a.k.a. taxation) for the vouchers in the House version of the bill – along with additional new spending for public school salary and benefit increases and “rural” district money on top of that – where we are already spending $13k per student every year. At best, the half-price vouchers “take away” matching state and federal dollars because there is no warm body in the desk.
Give a real, full price, $13k voucher to every kid and let the chips fall. Put a cap on property taxes first, because nobody will have the fortitude to let the money follow the student. Your county/city will tax the heck out of you keeping empty schools open. Metro Nashville already demonstrating this. They lost over 5000 students due to Lockdown Lee. How many schools closed and what have their property taxes done? “Public school” exists to educate students, not create jobs.
The same Washington DC super PAC attacking conservatives donated to Sexton’s personal PAC and Johnson, etc. The TNGOP RINOs that actually torpedoed their voucher bill with even more public school pork.
In 2018 I begged conservatives not to vote for Lee. Before running for GOVERNOR Lee hadn’t previously shown the slightest interest in politics, except to get a tax break for his HVAC company, much less conservative politics. Diane Black, on the other hand, had a Heritage score of about 78 after serving years in the U.S. House so she obviously was the only proven conservative in the race thus I begged all conservatives to vote for her. Lee won, and as I predicted, conservatives have spent the last six years bitching and with Lee term limited so he cares even less what conservatives, or anyone else, thinks I am sure they will have ample reason to continue to bitch for the next two years
Conservatives should not vote for candidates with little or no conservative credentials for high office if another choice is available. Now that’s simply common-sense folks. I suggest we slowly turn our attention to the 2026 gubernatorial race because we will have an excellent opportunity to elect our first solid conservative governor in memory. My favorite, Mark Green (Heritage-96%) is almost certainly running, other conservative congressmen may run as well. In addition there almost certainly will be a big buck businessman with little or no conservative credentials running with a lot of expensive, pretty ads. Please conservatives, don’t fall for the pretty ads again!
The irony here Stuart is you telling folks not to fall for the pretty ads, yet you’re so giddy about voucher candidates were just voted in because of the over $5M in DC PAC money spent to mislead voters with hardly a mention of vouchers. You’re either confused or unprincipled.
I am happy to assure you Wilco that i am not a one issue voter as I suggested in a previous comment. I am a conservative so I believe that the free market should control the distribution of goods and services so I want private enterprise through vouchers in education and the end of the Government School Trust’s monopoly. Ads have nothing to do with it one way or another. Further, I certainly wouldn’t refuse to vote for a conservative candidate simply because he opposes vouchers. For example, the defeat of Frank Nicely (TLRC-88/A), I assume because of his opposition to vouchers, is something I truly regret and I certainly would have voted for Frank were I in the Eighth District.