Tennessee Senate incumbents face challenges to status quo: not conservative enough, say opponents

Sen. Ferrell Haile filing in at the speaker podium for Lt. Gov. Randy McNally in January 2024. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Veteran Tennessee senators seeking re-election this fall are running into challengers who question their conservative credentials, calling them soft on red-meat Republican issues such as abortion and transgender care.

The Republican-controlled state Senate banned abortion except in cases when a mother is on the brink of death, outlawed gender-affirming care for trans youths and largely backed private-school vouchers this year as part of Gov. Bill Lee’s plan to use state funds to allow students to enroll in private schools.

Yet incumbents are facing opponents who contend they haven’t gone far enough, creating a situation in which Republican primary voters will decide whether the party has reached a tipping point or whether a new group should replace establishment Republicans.

The winning formula for multiple cycles in Republican primaries is: Don’t let anyone get to the right of you. Win the primary and nothing else matters.

– Kent Syler, Middle Tennessee State University

Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin, who is part of Senate leadership as speaker pro tem, is facing Chris Spencer, a former Hendersonville alderman candidate and co-founder of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans, in District 18. Sen. Becky Massey of Knoxville is drawing a challenge from businesswoman Monica Irvine in District 6. And in District 4 in upper East Tennessee, Sen. Jon Lundberg, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, is facing Bobby Harshbarger, the son of U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, in a race roiled by allegations of illegal campaign coordination.

MTSU political science professor Kent Syler points out Republican primaries will keep “cycling” further right until the strategy fails.

“The winning formula for multiple cycles in Republican primaries is: Don’t let anyone get to the right of you. Win the primary and nothing else matters,” Syler says. “That will keep working until somebody runs off the far right edge, but no one’s found it yet. And Democrats still aren’t in a position in most of these districts to take advantage of it in a general election.”

Candidates in these three districts aren’t looking at their races through quite the same lens, but that’s how the battles are playing out as the August primary approaches.

All three incumbents in these Senate battles contend their voting records are being misconstrued by opponents.

Senate District 18

Haile, for instance, contends that Spencer is distorting his record by saying he is the more conservative of the two.

“My wife laughs at that,” says Haile, a retired pharmacist and farmer. “She doesn’t think anybody’s more conservative in the state of Tennessee than I am.” 

Haile, in fact, told the Lookout he was planning to step down from the Legislature until Spencer’s group, Sumner County Constitutional Republicans, targeted the office.

He passed a bill this year requiring law enforcement to report illegal immigrants who are arrested and jailed in Tennessee and requiring the district attorneys general conference to compile the costs of those prosecutions. The state attorney general would also have the ability to sue the federal government to recoup state funds spent on those matters.

Spencer, though, accuses Haile of supporting a measure that would have allowed the state to control local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he claims Haile wanted to limit Second Amendment rights with a bill designed to restrict mass threats.

“The Republican Senate has failed time and again to restrict illegal immigration and enact true constitutional carry. It has failed to close Tennessee primaries when the Republican Party State Executive Committee unanimously voted to do so,” says Spencer, a sporting events promoter. 

He also claims Haile filed and backed legislation allowing Vanderbilt University to give puberty-blocking drugs to children as early as age 9.

Haile rejects those arguments, saying the COVID-19-related bill would have stopped businesses from protecting customers and patients by prohibiting them from requiring masks. Haile says he considered that measure a question of “freedom of choice” and believes businesses should decide how to operate instead of the government “telling independent businesses what to do.”

The Senate was prepared to pass a bill during a pandemic-related special session that would have prevented businesses from adopting their own mask rules until Ford Motor Co. balked at the legislation, in advance of starting work on a massive electric pickup truck manufacturing facility in West Tennessee.

Responding to Spencer’s comments on gender-affirming care, Haile points out he was the first to pass a bill blocking such treatment for minors. The Senate later passed a bill outlawing gender-affirming care, which is to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Haile also disputes Spencer’s claims that he wanted to limit Second Amendment rights, pointing out the National Rifle Association determined the measure, which would have penalized people for making “mass threats” at schools and churches, was not a “red flag” law and didn’t violate the Second Amendment.

The Republican Senate has failed time and again to restrict illegal immigration and enact true constitutional carry. It has failed to close Tennessee primaries when the Republican Party State Executive Committee unanimously voted to do so.

– Chris Spencer, candidate for Senate District 18

The race is getting so tight that  Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s political action committee, McPAC, recently entered the fray. It put out mailers accusing Spencer of asking local leaders for a fee increase to cover the cost of garbage collection while failing to pay $157,000 in federal income taxes and faced five tax liens.

Spencer confirmed that accusations were true, to an extent, saying his tax issues took place 20 years ago and involved a dispute over deductions the IRS wouldn’t  allow him to take. He said he eventually paid the taxes and added that the liens were for penalties and interest.

His group, Constitutional Republicans of Sumner County, also faces a complaint with the Registry of Election Finance for operating as a political action committee but failing to register with the state.

Senate District 6

In this Knoxville-based race, Massey is trying to fend off Monica Irvine, owner of the Etiquette Factory, who contends the incumbent is “not standing strong” on conservative issues.

Irvine, for example, accuses Massey of sponsoring a bill that would have allowed more exceptions for abortion and for failing to vote on a bill that would have made it illegal to administer “chemical transitioning” drugs to a transgender child.

A longtime volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates, Irvine also claims Massey was present but didn’t vote on a bill in the Senate Health Committee prohibiting physicians from giving vaccines to children without parents’ permission.

“I’ve been so disappointed with how many times Sen. Massey literally refuses to cast her vote. I believe that’s a dereliction of duty,” Irvine says, further accusing her opponent of “being too weak to take a stand.”

In addition, she criticizes Massey for voting against a bill to lower the age for permit-less carry to 18 from 21, as well as for not voting on a measure prohibiting the PRIDE flag from being displayed in classrooms.

Massey, former executive director of the Sertoma Center, a nonprofit organization that serves the disabled, says Irvine is either “misrepresenting” her positions or “not understanding the process.”

I’ve been so disappointed with how many times Sen. Massey literally refuses to cast her vote. I believe that’s a dereliction of duty.

– Monica Irvine, candidate state Senate, of incumbent Sen. Becky Massey

When the vaccination bill came before the Senate, she says, it was “flawed” because it contained no exception for children in state custody. Massey says she didn’t vote for it initially because she knew it would be amended in the House.

“I supported the bill. I just wanted to make sure it got fixed,” Massey says, noting she ultimately voted for the bill. “To say I didn’t vote for it is kind of a lie.”

Massey, whose father, John, and brother, Jimmy, served in Congress for decades, points out Irvine publicly stated she doesn’t believe in saving the life of a woman involved in a deadly pregnancy. 

Irvine, in turn, criticizes Massey for supporting a bill providing abortion exemptions for rape and incest. Yet Massey says she thought the bill would make the state’s law stronger because it would require an accused rapist to be charged.

“I think the law we have in place is good. I have said I am against all elective abortions, and I have voted with pro-life 100% of the time,” Massey says.

The incumbent notes she spent her career with the Sertoma Center “taking care of people who would have been aborted,” those with mental disabilities, in addition to working on child care and foster care.

Massey voted against the governor’s Education Savings Account bill five years ago because she wanted to make sure the state was funding public education. Since then, the Legislature has increased education funding substantially and adopted a new funding formula.

Toward the end of this year’s session, Massey signed on to the Senate bill that would provide public funds for students statewide to enroll in private schools. The measure failed to receive enough support to reach the Senate or House floors as negotiators failed to reach a deal on differing bills.

I think the law we have in place is good. I have said I am against all elective abortions, and I have voted with pro-life 100% of the time.

– Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville

Massey says she is interested in seeing details in voucher bills when lawmakers return to Nashville in 2025.

“We’ve got to protect public education, but we also need to give parents the option because all kids learn differently,” she says.  

Irvine, on her website, said she will “fight for universal choice without government infringement.” One of the sticking points in the bill this session dealt with potential “accountability standards” that would require private schools to test students to see how well they’re performing.

Senate District 4

Coming to the defense of Lundberg as this race heated up, Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Yager filed a complaint against the Harshbarger campaign this spring claiming “collusion” with the East Tennessee Conservatives PAC and Rep. Diana Harshbarger, largely because they share the same treasurer, Thomas Datwyler. The Registry of Election Finance sent the matter to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation.

Harshbarger, a Kingsport pharmacist appointed to serve on the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy, bombarded area voters with text messages attacking Lundberg as too liberal and questioning his stances on in-state tuition for immigrant children and a “bathroom bill” that could have spurred lawsuits for use of the wrong restroom.

Lundberg calls the text messages against him “outright lies” and points out the return address for mailers leads to Wisconsin and Diana Harshbarger’s treasurer. 

“That says volumes about what’s going on,” says Lundberg, owner of Professional Image, a public relations company.

Other than fending off attacks, Lundberg is focusing his campaign message on fiscal responsibility and Tennessee’s ability to balance a $52.8 billion budget without a state income tax, all while reducing taxes, mainly on businesses, and attracting people from across the nation because of the economic “environment.”

“That’s exactly what we want to continue doing,” he says.

Neither Harshbarger nor his campaign responded to requests for comment by the Tennessee Lookout.

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