Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden speaks at the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club Monday
photo by Hannah Campbell
Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said the state is the “preeminent” state of the Republican Party, setting the latest records for Republicans voted onto school boards, Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly and Republicans sent to Congress.
“Tennessee is to Republicans what California is to Democrats,” Mr. Golden told the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club Monday. He urged the crowd to vote early to conserve campaign resources and to volunteer for the campaign at trumpforce47.com or tngop.org.
“It’s time to do politics,” Mr. Golden said. “The time to talk politics is over.” Make phone calls, visit door-to-door, write postcards, write checks and put out yard signs, he said.
“If you do it, your neighbor will do it,” he said.
Four new Republicans were sworn in at the Hamilton County School Board Sept. 1, totaling seven Republicans and four Democrats. Such a majority will help flush liberal ideology from schools, he said.
“The easiest way to solve all of those problems is to put Republicans in charge of schools,” he said.
In Tennessee, 25 out of 95 Tennessee school boards are Republican-controlled for the first time since the state adopted partisan school boards in 2021, he said.
Recent changes in Tennessee code give parents and taxpayers more direct access to members of the school board, he said, “one of the proudest things we have accomplished in 2024.”
“You should have dialog with them,” he said.
The 113th Tennessee General Assembly has 75 Republicans, a benchmark last hit when Ulysses S. Grant was President, Mr. Golden said.
But “Tennessee Three” Democrat Gloria Johnson is running for Senator Marsha Blackburn’s seat, a Republican elected in 2018.
“They are coming for us,” he said. “We do not need her in the state capitol,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in blue states this fall, not for himself but for Congressional seats.
Earlier this month he campaigned in Long Island, N.Y., and Hudson Valley. Mr. Golden said Mr. Trump will campaign in Montana for Tim Sheehy, running for an open Senate seat that would push Republicans over the 51-mark.
The Republican Party is relying on Tennessee fervor to spill into bordering states and give Republicans the edge in other state elections: Chattanooga to North Georgia, Bristol to Virginia and Knoxville to Western North Carolina.
Republicans in the House of Representatives for Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania would help solidify a majority, he said.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will speak at a fundraising event for Northwest Georgia and the Dalton area.
“Tucker Carlson is saying this is important,” Mr. Golden said.
In the Presidential election, both parties want as many shaky blue wall states as they can get. Blue wall states voted Democrat from 1992 to 2012, some through 2020, but 2024 is up for grabs.
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania broke away from the blue wall to vote for Mr. Trump in 2016.
“Those are the states that everybody is going to play in,” Mr. Golden said, along with Ohio, Arizona and Maryland, he said.
“I feel confident about where Trump is,” Mr. Golden said. But a Trump victory will lead to vacant offices in Tennessee, he said.
“We’re going to be a donor state to the Trump administration, I’m afraid,” he said. “Tennessee will have an open governor seat, for sure,” an announcement that would come 100 days after the election, he said.
The Heritage Foundation named Tennessee number one in election integrity in 2024.
“States are modeling themselves after what we’re doing,” Mr. Golden said. “We are the model for the nation.”
He pointed to more than 100 election-related lawsuits nationwide that Republicans have filed.
In Arizona, migrants who are not citizens automatically get a voter registration card when they get a driver’s license at the department of motor vehicles.
“This is the fight that we’re having in Arizona,” he said. “This is the most litigious that the Republican National Committee has been,” he said, since the committee was barred from election day activities in 1984.
A member of the audience asked Mr. Golden why Mr. Trump would not debate opponent Kamala Harris a second time.
“He always seems to do much better in the second debate,” Mr. Golden said, but “the campaign feels good about how the first debate went out.”
A member of the audience suggested that think tanks should moderate debates, not the media, but Mr. Golden said new rules let each candidate agree to a specific moderator, as Mr. Trump had to David Muir of ABC News.
“Like, Stephanopoulos wasn’t getting the debate,” he said, but Mr. Muir is on the blacklist now, too, he said.
Mr. Golden plugged the Vice-Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz Oct. 1
“I’ve already bought popcorn waiting for that,” he said.
“We got to have your vote. It matters,” Mr. Golden said.
He cautioned the room not to assume everyone in your social circle will take care of your vote during a beach getaway on Election Day.
Conversely, a significant group tells themselves, “I’m not telling my friends I’m voting for Trump, but I’m voting for Trump,” he said.