Does the road to the White House run through Knoxville? | Georgiana Vines

Knoxville’s attracting some prospective Republican presidential candidates.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for re-election against Democrat Charlie Crist, will speak here Wednesday, Sept. 21, at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon at Chesapeake's West.

The private event is “a sellout at 140,” Susan Richardson Williams, long-time GOP stalwart who helped organize the luncheon, said Thursday.

And former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley did more than pick up a Patriot Award at the Congressional Medal of Honors celebration while in Knoxville a week ago. She spoke at a Republican fundraising event for U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett and Diana Harshbarger, where she was described as a potential presidential or vice presidential candidate.

“I hope to see her on a national ticket very soon,” Burchett, a Knoxvillian who represents the 2nd Congressional District, said at a barbeque in a barn at the West Knox home of developer and former Knox County Commissioner Scott Davis and his wife, Hope, on Sept. 10.

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The DeSantis fundraiser also is being arranged by Sherri Parker Lee, long-time GOP supporter. Williams said Lee “got the ball rolling” because her son, Baxter, a former congressional candidate in Nashville, knows someone in the Florida governor’s office.

The cost to attend the private luncheon for DeSantis is $500 a couple, $1,000 to host and $2,500 to be included in a photo with the governor, Williams said.

Last weekend, Haley was accessible to Republicans wanting to meet her at a reception in the Davis home prior to the barbeque at $500 per couple/person. But the former South Carolina governor also mixed with the crowd at the barn who paid $50 per person to attend.

Harshbarger, a Kingsport Republican, told the crowd she had gotten to know Haley after taking office in 2021. She said Haley invited newly elected female members of Congress to a “girls' night out” to talk about what the federal government does and how it works.

Haley did not address being a presidential contender, but she seems to have covered a number of bases in case she did. She told the barbeque crowd she had visited with former Gov. Bill Haslam and his wife, Crissy, before coming to the Davis showplace. All Bill Haslam had to say later about the visit was that “Nikki stopped by our house to say hello while she was in town.” He responded to an email request for comment.

Haley told the 150 Republicans gathered in the barn that voting in November matters, citing price rises in gas, food and utilities. She blamed Democrats for “spending out of control” and just interested in “hiking up more taxes.” She said she is “going across the country” to help elect Republicans to Congress and as governors.

She also talked about being the daughter of immigrants who came to the U.S. from India in a legal manner. She said her parents are “offended” by immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally.

Her original name was Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and she was born in South Carolina. She married Michael Haley in 1996 and served in the South Carolina House of Representatives before being elected governor in 2011. She served as U.N. ambassador under GOP President Donald Trump in 2017-18.

Her speech one day before the anniversary of 9/11 reminded the audience of the four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out on Sept. 11, 2001, by the Islamic extremist network al-Qaida against the U.S.

“Do you remember life was comfortable on Sept. 10? Do you remember where you were on Sept. 11? On Sept. 12, we all loved each other. We cared about America,” she said.

But those feelings of togetherness do not exist today and a “national self-loathing has got to stop. We are not a racist country,” she said, to spontaneous applause.

Trump’s name did not come up publicly at this event, although he continues to be in the news with various federal investigations and campaigning on behalf of candidates supporting his lies about winning the presidency over Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020.

Haley was given the Patriot Award at the Medal of Honor Gala on Sept. 10. Williams said she attended this event as a guest of state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, R-Knoxville, and that Haley didn’t talk about electing Republicans but gave a “terrific” speech on patriotism. Williams said she believes Haley is a potential presidential candidate, “but I don’t think she’ll run against Trump.”

Attendees at the barbecue and Haley reception contributed to the East Tennessee Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by Burchett for Congress, his Volunteer Issues PAC, Diana for Congress and her Tennessee Tough PAC. Proceeds are to be divided between the two members of Congress or their PACS.

(Disclosure: I attended the fundraising barbeque as the guest of Burchett. In attempting to pay for tickets for a friend and me, I was told we were his guests. I accepted as no conditions were put on how to cover the event.)

DeSantis is in the news with his conservative approach to governing, which makes him attractive to many Republicans as an alternative to Trump should the former president not seek reelection. The latest news he made was sending two planeloads of migrants in Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday, defending the action as migrants needing to be taken care of by states or communities that agree to take care of them, not border states that don’t want them. Democrats in Florida and Massachusetts were reported by the national news media as furious over the move.

Williams was asked what she thought of DeSantis’ action with the migrants.

“We obviously have a problem. Got to give kudos to him and Gov. Greg Abbott (of Texas) for doing something clever,” she said.

∎ LISTEN TO THE OTHER SIDE: Former Tennessee Govs. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Bill Haslam, a Republican, are trying to draw attention to the advice of the late Howard H. Baker Jr., former U.S. senator from Huntsville, Tennessee, who said it’s possible the other person might be right in politics so it’s important to listen to that point of view.

Baker, also a White House chief of staff and U.S. ambassador to Japan, said the following at a 2010 event with former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat: “In politics, the competition for ideas, the competition for the right to serve, is fundamental and it is political. But it must be accompanied by a decent respect for the other fellow’s point of view. Because if you don’t do that, the whole system falls, it collapses, if you don’t admit that the other person may be right from time to time.”

Bredesen and Haslam last week launched a podcast being distributed by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, which is designed to have more civil conversations about policy issues than we’re having in this country.

The podcast is called “You Might Be Right,” with the first episode, on gun violence, featuring Arne Duncan, former U.S. secretary of education, who has founded a nonprofit, Chicago CRED, that aims to reduce gun violence in his hometown, and David French, a political commentator who argues in favor of red-flag laws as the path toward reducing gun violence.

The podcasts are an outgrowth of a discussion by the two governors at UT two years ago where they had an honest talk with each other about their administrations and problems faced, said Marianne Wanamaker, Baker Center director. The two men get along and respond well to each other, she said. “It works, it’s fun,” she said.

The two governors also were featured last week in a panel at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., on the topic “Civility, Understanding and Statemanship.” The Baker Center was a sponsor.

Haslam said today there is a tendency for leaders to “read the room” to determine what’s happening, seeing people who are “angry and mad,” and reacting accordingly. He said he and Bredesen would like to help leaders “understand the other side.”

Bredesen said people get into politics for different reasons. A lot are in for selfish reasons and perks, he said, but a lot are in for the “right reason. They want to do the right thing. They want to genuinely solve problems.”

The podcast will discuss other controversial topics like climate change and the national debt, and will feature people who may have held public office but no longer do, like former Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, and Paul Ryan, retired Wisconsin Congressman who was House Speaker and a GOP vice presidential candidate.

∎ WHY VOTE?: A panel discussion on that topic will be held Wednesday, Sept. 21, at UT’s  Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Ave., ahead of the Nov. 8 federal and state general elections.

Bill Lyons, director of policy partnership for the center and an expert in American politics and voting behavior, will discuss the subject with Knox County Election Commission Chair Hannah Hopper, Knoxville Vice Mayor Andrew Roberto and Knoxville City Councilwoman Lynn Fugate.

The program runs 5-6:15 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

CORRECTION: The location of the DeSantis fundraiser was incorrect in an earlier edition of this column. It has been corrected.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Does the road to the White House run through Knoxville? | Georgiana Vines