Your Daily Briefing: How will polarizing politics impact Tennessee businesses?

Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read
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Good morning! I'm business reporter Sandy Mazza, and welcome to your Daily Briefing.

Drinking a Bud Light on Broadway doesn't hit the same anymore.

Nashville has become the arena for some of the nation's most fundamental political issues this year. Increasingly extreme policies on abortion, gun regulation, and LGBTQ rights have been debated and protested in and around the State Capitol since January.

Despite this backdrop of discord, most Tennessee businesses want to steer clear of the political chaos, and request that people understand their position of simply trying to make a living.

But some have chosen to enter the fray.

Kid Rock's Big Honky Tonk and John Rich's Redneck Riviera stopped serving Bud Light, and Travis Tritt scrapped it from his tour rider, due to its ad campaign celebrating transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney's first year living as a woman. The ongoing nationwide boycott has affected Bud Light's sales and bolstered the market position of its competitors, like Conservative Dad's Ultra Right Beer.

People cross Lower Broadway outside of Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, April 28, 2023.
People cross Lower Broadway outside of Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, April 28, 2023.

Meanwhile the Tennessee Pride Chamber has fielded worried inquiries from business partners who fear the state is a dangerous environment for the LGBTQ+ community, said Board President Brian Rosman. Hate groups have brandished weapons and blocked the entrances of several drag events in the state.

“How many people out there won’t even consider coming here in the future because of the national joke we’ve become?,” Rosman said.

One local business that publicly refused to support Republican Party business until gun laws are changed has been the FLWR Shop in Belle Meade. Its owners, in a social media post about their decision, blamed Republican politicians for encouraging mass shootings.

Meanwhile, legendary firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson recently decided to relocate its 1852-established headquarters from Massachusetts to Tennessee, stating that its decision was influenced by an increasingly hostile relationship with state politicians.

CEO Mark Smith blamed “politicians and their lobbying partners in the media” for an “unprecedented and unjustified attack on the firearm industry.”

It remains unclear if this national spotlight will leave Tennessee's thriving economy unaffected or harm its rapid population and job growth.

The state's upward trajectory continues amid the ongoing political fracas with $1 billion in new capital investment in the first quarter of 2023.

Economic development is crucial to improving high poverty rates and other challenges statewide.

Read the story to learn how they're finding a way through the rhetoric.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Daily Briefing: How will polarizing politics impact Tennessee businesses?