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In some ways, Tennessee’s fiercest GOP legislative major races amounted to a referendum on Gov. Invoice Lee’s faculty voucher proposal to supply public funding to any Ok-12 pupil towards a personal training.
On Thursday, Republican voters delivered the governor a mixture of wins and losses on the difficulty.
And the wins probably have been aided by a slew of unfavourable marketing campaign adverts concentrating on anti-voucher candidates and funded by thousands and thousands of {dollars} from out-of-state teams supporting the coverage.
The cash, together with the governor’s endorsements of pro-voucher candidates, appeared to have paid off in two out of three open Home seats in Montgomery and Williamson counties. Solely in Blount County, close to Knoxville, did Lee’s decide lose as retired Maryville instructor and soccer coach Tom Stinnett defeated legal professional Jason Emert.
Quite a few legislative incumbents who have been thought-about Lee’s key voucher allies additionally gained their primaries, however there have been two large exceptions.
Sen. Jon Lundberg, who sponsored the Senate’s model of a statewide voucher invoice this 12 months, was defeated by Bobby Harshbarger, a pharmacist who’s the son of U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee. And John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican and voucher supporter, misplaced his major contest to former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough.
The governor had actively stumped in Higher East Tennessee for Lundberg, who chairs the highly effective Senate Schooling Committee. Lundberg’s voucher invoice would have required recipients to take some kind of nationwide take a look at to trace this system’s tutorial outcomes. It additionally would have allowed public faculty college students to enroll in any district, even when they’re not zoned for it, supplied there’s sufficient area and instructing workers.
As well as, Lundberg co-chaired a process pressure final fall trying into the feasibility of Tennessee rejecting federal training funding. He and different Senate members finally issued a report highlighting the dangers of such an unprecedented transfer, successfully shutting down the dialogue this 12 months.
Ragan, who served on the Home Schooling Committee, is understood for sponsoring socially conservative training laws, together with the 2019 legislation proscribing what lecturers can say about race, gender, and bias, in addition to quite a few anti-LGBTQ payments.
This week’s election outcomes come after faculty selection teams spent not less than $4.5 million on major contests to advertise pro-voucher candidates, in line with a tally by The Tennessee Lookout. The governor, who has vowed to deliver his voucher invoice again to the legislature, mentioned he was OK with that infusion of outdoor money into Tennessee politics.
Many of the cash got here from the College Freedom Fund, a brilliant PAC tied to Membership for Development funder and New York-based funding billionaire Jeff Yass. The identical group spent $8.8 million this 12 months in Texas to defeat 10 incumbent Republican candidates who opposed Gov. Greg Abbott’s voucher plan.
Amongst Tennessee lawmakers toppled with assistance from unfavourable marketing campaign adverts was three-term Republican Sen. Frank Niceley, of Strawberry Plains, who opposed the governor’s voucher plan. Additionally defeated was state Rep. Bryan Richey, of Maryville, who voted towards the invoice in committee and was operating for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Artwork Swann.
On Friday, College Freedom Fund President David McIntosh trumpeted these defeats and the PAC’s $3.6 million funding in 5 legislative races.
“Make no mistake,” McIntosh mentioned in a press release. “For those who name your self a Republican and oppose faculty freedom, you must count on to lose your subsequent major.”
The stage is now set for one more spherical of campaigning, this time for the Nov. 5 normal election towards Democratic candidates who’re unified of their opposition to vouchers however have struggled to be heard for the reason that GOP gained a supermajority within the Tennessee Normal Meeting in 2010.
Half of the legislature’s Senate seats and all 99 within the Home can be on the subsequent poll. Whereas some gained’t be contested, Democrats view vouchers as a possibility to show a number of seats.
And each vote issues within the tight battle over vouchers.
The governor’s common voucher proposal was stymied within the legislature this 12 months, even with a Republican supermajority and Lee making it his No. 1 legislative precedence. An unlikely coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans stored the invoice from reaching both ground for a vote.
Hoping to alter the calculus when the newly elected legislature convenes in January, Lee took the bizarre step this summer time of endorsing Republican candidates who assist vouchers over others who don’t.
Right here’s are the outcomes in among the principally intently watched legislative major races associated to training:
Senate
- District 2: For the open seat vacated by Swann, Tom Hatcher, the Blount County court docket clerk, defeated Republican Rep. Richey.
- District 4: Lundberg, the Senate Schooling Committee chair, misplaced to Harshbarger, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Harshbarger has expressed skepticism about Lee’s voucher plan.
- District 8: New Tazewell businessman Jessie Seal defeated the incumbent, Niceley, a voucher opponent. He’ll face Democrat R.E. Ellison.
- District 18: Incumbent Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican who sits on the Senate Schooling Committee and serves as speaker professional tempore, simply defeated conservative activist Chris Spencer in one other high-dollar Senate race. He’ll face Democrat Walter Chandler.
Home of Representatives
- District 13: Republican incumbent Robert Stevens, of Smyrna, a member of the Home Schooling Committee, defeated Murfreesboro Metropolis Council member Jami Averwater. He’ll face Democrat Jonathan Yancey.
- District 15: Democratic incumbent Sam McKenzie, who additionally serves on the training panel, defeated Knox County Commissioner Dasha Lundy. He’ll face Republican nominee Justin Hirst.
- District 20: Within the open Blount County seat vacated by Richey, Stinnett, the retired instructor, defeated Jason Emert, former chair of the Younger Republican Nationwide Federation, and Nick Vibrant, a cattle farmer. He’ll face Democrat Karen Gertz.
- District 24: Incumbent Kevin Raper, a retired educator from Cleveland, defeated Troy Weathers, a former Bradley County faculty board member. Each Republican candidates have spoken out towards vouchers. Raper will face Democrat Andrea Chase.
- District 33: Ragan, the incumbent, misplaced to Scarborough, the previous Clinton police chief. Scarbrough will face Democrat Anne Backus, a retired challenge supervisor on the Y-12 Nationwide Safety Complicated in Oak Ridge.
- District 60: Within the open seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Darren Jernigan of Nashville, Democrat Shaundelle Brooks, who turned a gun management activist after her son was killed in Nashville’s 2018 Waffle Home taking pictures, defeated monetary guide Tyler Brasher. She is going to face pro-voucher Republican candidate Chad Bobo, who was endorsed by the governor and served as an aide to Home Speaker Cameron Sexton. Bobo defeated Christopher Huff of Previous Hickory.
- District 64: Incumbent Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Culleoka Republican and a lead sponsor of this 12 months’s Home voucher invoice, defeated Maury County Commissioner Ray Jeter, regardless of calling the governor’s authentic statewide voucher invoice “horrible” throughout a candidate discussion board every week earlier than the election. He’ll face Democrat Eileen Longstreet.
- District 65: Candidate Lee Reeves, an actual property legal professional and investor, narrowly defeated Williamson County Commissioner Brian Beathard, in addition to Michelle Foreman, a former GOP state government committee member. Reeves will face Democratic candidate LaRhonda Williams.
- District 68: Candidate Aron Maberry, a Clarksville pastor and faculty board member endorsed by Lee, defeated retired Military pilot Greg Gilman, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Smith, and former county Republican Get together co-chair Carol Duffin. Maberry will face Democrat Garfield Scott.
- District 73: Incumbent Rep. Chris Todd, of Humboldt, defeated former longtime Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris, of Jackson. Todd was endorsed by the governor and favors vouchers, whereas Harris expressed concern concerning the coverage’s monetary affect on native public faculties and likewise refused donations from particular curiosity teams. There isn’t any Democratic contender for the seat.
- District 77: Republican incumbent Rusty Grills, of Newbern, defeated Dyer County Commissioner Bubba Cobb, a retired educator who’s towards vouchers. There isn’t any Democratic contender for the seat.
- District 83: Rep. Mark White, the longtime chairman of a Home training committee, will face Democrat Noah Nordstrom, a instructor with Memphis-Shelby County Colleges. Each ran unopposed within the primaries.
- District 96: Within the open seat vacated by Democrat Dwayne Thompson, Democrat Gabby Salinas narrowly defeated Telisa Franklin and three different challengers. A researcher at St. Jude Kids’s Analysis Hospital, Salinas faces no Republican opponent in November and can head to the statehouse in January.
- District 97: Incumbent Rep. John Gillespie, of Memphis, defeated Christina Oppenhuizen, a small-business proprietor. He’ll face Democrat Jesse Huseth in what’s anticipated to be a good race.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
