Williamson County’s David Vs. Goliath Race For Mayor (Op-Ed By Don Beehler)

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Note from The Tennessee Conservative: Editorial statements in this column are the sole opinion of the author; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff of this publication.

Submitted by Don Beehler –

It turns out that last month’s push-poll attack on conservative grassroots candidate Mary Smith,  who is running for Williamson County mayor, was just the start of a highly organized, win-at-all costs effort to defame her.  

The local establishment’s smear machine is running in high gear, with some of the same political  operatives who tried, unsuccessfully, to elect RINO candidates to the Williamson County  Republican Party (WCRP) 2025 board through a series of false accusations and general  nastiness. Big names and big money lined up for the RINO candidates known as the Williamson  County Conservatives, only to go down in flames to the grassroots Elevate candidates who now  lead the WCRP.  

The May 5 race for Williamson County mayor has some striking similarities. Gov. Bill Lee, Rep.  Jack Johnson, Rogers Anderson (the current county mayor), all the city mayors in Williamson  County, personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, and a host of local “who’s who” types have  thrown their support behind Andy Marshall, a businessman who prior to being a candidate was a  no-show at government meetings, has never held public office, and failed to vote in the 2020 and  2024 presidential primaries. In sports, we’d call him a bench warmer who never got into a game.  

Yet the establishment is willing to give Mr. Marshall a pass on all that and more, because the  prospect of Ms. Smith being the next county mayor—and the discipline, accountability,  transparency and integrity she will insist upon—has them in a panic. That explains why money is pouring into Mr. Marshall’s campaign from PACs, insiders and some who benefit financially from the county.

(Interestingly, someone told my wife that when she and her husband heard all the city mayors  were backing Mr. Marshall, they knew they needed to vote for Ms. Smith. Hopefully, a lot of  other voters will have the same reaction because its time to disband this club.)  

The predictable assortment of keyboard warriors have taken to social media to attack Ms. Smith  and confuse voters with a long list of lies and distortions about her personally and her record as a  county commissioner. But none of the social media commentators has been more vocal than  Shaun Alexander, vice mayor of Thompson Station, who apparently has nothing better to do than  pick fights on NextDoor with Mary Smith’s supporters and make outrageous claims.  

Since April 13, his NextDoor activity log lists literally hundreds of comments by him, the vast  majority of which are derogatory toward posts which are favorable to Mary Smith’s campaign. It  has been truly extraordinary to watch the flood of personal attacks—some of them crass and  demeaning—coming from an elected official who seems to be rattled by the prospect of a strong  conservative female leading the county. 

In the NextDoor screenshot below, he goes after another strong conservative woman, Erinn  Watkins, a military veteran and former alderman candidate, with the preposterous statement:  “Why are all the liberals voting for Mary Smith?” This is such a lie. I don’t know of a single  liberal who is voting for Ms. Smith, but I know plenty of Republicans who are going to do so.  

While Ms. Watkins was at one time a Democrat—as were Republican stalwarts Ronald Reagan  and Donald Trump—like them she switched parties and has been active in the Williamson  County Republican Party after serving her country with honor in the military for nearly 30 years.  I believe in giving people the freedom and grace to change, but apparently Mr. Alexander does  not. So, following his logic, we can only conclude that he considers President Trump and  President Reagan to be lifelong Democrats as well.  

And here’s an example of Vice Mayor Alexander demeaning an individual (name redacted) with  whom he disagrees. Somehow, this comment survived “civility” moderation even after I  submitted a complaint about it.  

Classy guy, that Shaun Alexander. When he’s not calling people names on social media, he’s  employed as a senior manager at JE Dunn Construction. Clearly, maturity and good manners are  not qualifications for vice mayor of Thompson Station or employment at JE Dunn.  

Although the race for mayor has been widely discussed on various social media channels,  NextDoor has turned out to be particularly fertile grounds for robust conversations. But make no  mistake: NextDoor is far from a free-speech platform.  

One of my posts was hidden for “public shamming” because I wrote that Dave Ramsey was a  hypocrite for supporting Andy Marshall, who has publicly stated that we don’t have a debt  problem in Williamson County despite our county’s $1.2 billion (and growing) debt. Pointing out  that this “let’s-keep-digging-the-hole deeper” thinking goes against everything Dave “Debt is  Dumb” Ramsey has preached for decades resulted in my post being censored.  

The real issue we should be focused on when it comes to our county’s $1.2 billion debt is not  whether it is manageable, as pro-debt Andy Marshall supporters claim, but rather is it good  stewardship of taxpayers’ money to spend more than $100 million annually on interest servicing  the debt? That’s enough to build a new school every single year, or fund other much-needed  services in our county. What a waste!  

Hopefully voters will see through Mr. Ramsey’s double standard and send a message that they’ve  shelled out all the “stupid tax” (his term) they’re going to pay the county.  

To be fair, NextDoor has community guidelines, including forbidding discussion of national  politics and even prohibiting complaints about the moderation of posts. Given those rules, it’s  hard to understand how “public shaming” comments by Mr. Marshall’s supporters, and  comments like these about ICE by Rodger Brown, are allowed to remain.

In spite of all this, I believe Mary Smith will be our next county mayor and soon be able to put  her business skills and common sense to work for the people of Williamson County. In addition  to working to reduce our debt, Ms. Smith will seek to ensure adequate infrastructure is in place  

to accommodate future growth and reduce traffic congestion. She will protect our quality of life,  which has suffered in recent years due to reckless growth and irresponsible spending. “Keep the  charm without selling the farm” is how she puts it.  

But voter turnout is the key to making this a reality. Apathy can lead to people like Shaun  Alexander in public office. This election will determine whether Williamson County voters want  more of the same—and continue to allow leaders to dig our enormous financial hole even deeper  and take generations to pay off—or whether we will take the adult approach of getting our  financial house in order under Mary Smith’s leadership.  

About the Author: Don Beehler is a retired public relations consultant in Franklin, Tennessee. For more information visit www.donbeehler.com.