The week in politics: Expulsion votes give Jones, Pearson massive fundraising haul

More than 70,000 people donated to Tennessee Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson this spring, with the freshman Democrats raising nearly $2 million in a matter of days following their expulsions from the House of Representatives.

Legislative Republicans expelled the duo after they briefly mounted a gun control protest on the House floor just a few days after the deadly shooting at the Covenant School. The expulsion proceedings sparked widespread backlash against the GOP supermajority and elevated the profiles of the two men to national levels — including an invitation to the White House.

Lawmakers are banned from fundraising during legislative sessions, so the April 6 expulsions offered the two a rare window to bring in funds at the height of national interest.

The two raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars within a matter of days. Jones, who was reinstated to his seat by Nashville officials on April 10, reported nearly $959,000 flooded in from a number of small donors in the few days he was out of office.

Pearson, who was reinstated by Shelby County officials on April 13, reported bringing in more than $866,000 during his time away from the legislature.

Both men face special elections to keep their seats on Aug. 3.

Christian coalition criticizes Skrmetti letter

A progressive Christian coalition criticized Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's decision to oppose changes to a federal health privacy law aimed to further protect reproductive health records.

Skrmetti signed on to a letter opposing the changes with a group of Republican attorneys general last month, The Tennessean first reported earlier in the week. The letter argued states and their investigative agencies should not be blocked from seeking out-of-state health records in certain cases, including if a Tennessean obtains an abortion in a state where it is legal.

The Southern Christian Coalition issued a statement calling for "respect and privacy for all Tennesseans."

"Someone once asked Jesus about the morality of taxation. In response, Jesus asked to see the coins used to pay the tax," said Rev. Gordon Myers, Retired Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Arlington, TN. "The coin had the image of the Emperor Caesar upon it. Jesus said, 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God, the things that are God's.' Human bodies don’t bear the imprint of the Tennessee Attorney General. Jonathan Skrmetti has no right to claim control or ownership of our bodies or the right to personal information about our health status and care. Such attempts to get that information are morally wrong, constitutionally inconsistent, and a massive abuse of authority."

Skrmetti's office has said the federal agency doesn't have jurisdiction to make the rule change, which was first pitched by the Biden White House as a way to shore up reproductive rights protections.

Skrmetti released a further statement Friday afternoon, saying it is not true his office is "asserting a right to prosecute women who go out of state for abortions."

"The proposed rule illegally exceeds the scope of HHS’s statutory authority," Skrmetti said. "Major changes to the law require legislation, not bureaucratic decrees. Further, the proposed rule unconstitutionally interferes with state enforcement of state laws. The proposed rule plays politics with healthcare data privacy at the expense of consistency and coherence."

Top Tennessee donors to presidential campaigns

As the 2024 presidential primaries continue to heat up, top political donors in Tennessee are making their picks.

Here’s a sampling of who’s backing who in the 2024 presidential primaries, according to each candidates’ latest financial disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.

∎ President Joe Biden: Former Gov. Phil Bredesen and his wife, Andrea Conte, have both donated to the president’s reelection campaign, as have former U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, Nashville developer Mark Deutschmann, and Nashville attorney Charles Robert Bone and his wife, Sacha. Paul Neely, former publisher of the Chattanooga Times, has also donated.

∎ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: DeSantis is backed by Betty McKee, of McKee Foods, as well as Memphis real estate developer Bayard Boyle, Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine, and Joe and Jessi Baker, creators of Ole Smoky Moonshine and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. Chris Walker, who previously served as a top adviser to Gov. Bill Lee, has donated to DeSantis, as has state Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, and Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood.

∎ Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley: Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter and wife Leigh Ann have each maxed out their contributions to Haley. Knoxville investor Robert Goodfriend has also donated $5,000 so far this year to the Haley campaign.

∎ Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Kennedy has received contributions from Catherine Fitts, of Hickory Valley, who served as assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the George H. W. Bush administration. Kennedy is also supported by Ty Bolinger, an alternative medicine activist and writer based in Portland and Gibson Brands Controller Jill Skorinski.

∎ South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott: Former Gov. Bill Haslam has signed on as national co-chair of Scott’s campaign — and several members of the Haslam family are backing Scott. The former governor, along with Jim Haslam, founder of the Pilot Corporation, James A. Haslam III, Annie Haslam Colquitt, Susan Haslam, Natalie Haslam, and Cristen Haslam have all contributed to the Scott campaign.

Scott has also received donations from several members of the Ingram family: Martha Ingram, CEO of Ingram Industries, Nashville SC owner John Ingram, and Hank Ingram, CEO of Brown Water Spirits.

State Rep. Jake McCalmon, R-Franklin, has donated to the Scott campaign.

∎ Former President Donald Trump: Nashville auto magnate Lee Beaman backs the former Trump, as does Andrew Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr., and his wife Deanna. Allan Jones, CEO of Cleveland-based company CreditCorp and wife Janie Jones are also in the Trump camp.

Harshbarger’s ABC’s, and Ogles’ Articles

During the Tennessee Republican Party’s annual Statesmen’s Dinner fundraiser on Saturday, the state’s congressional delegation shared their disdain for Biden to an enthusiastic crowd.

“He’s a failure from A to Z – from Afghanistan to Ukraine. You pick a letter in the alphabet, I can tell you what he’s done wrong,” said U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Kingsport. “A equals the Afghanistan debacle, B is boys in girls sports, C crime throughout the country – you pick.”

Harshbarger, who is on Trump’s state leadership team, asked for applause in support of the former president — from the crowd who’d just heard a headline speech from his rival, DeSantis.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Columbia, echoed his familiar but vague theme calling for Tennesseans to “take back our country” – and touted his recent proposal to impeach Biden.

“It’s time we send a message to America that the values we have here in Tennessee are the values of ‘we the people,’” Ogles said. “This is why I’ve issued Articles of Impeachment to send that message to Joe Biden – that we have had enough.”

One-upping The Sunshine State?

As state legislative leaders also shared their top victories with the crowd, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, responded to DeSantis’ lengthy address touting Florida’s freedoms as a national model.

“For several years, Tennessee has flown under the radar without much fanfare, because states like Texas and Florida received all the recognition,” Sexton said. “However, that is changing.”

Sexton cited a recent ranking of states by the American Conservative Union, which found Tennessee to be the most conservative state in the U.S., touting the state’s move to add language of its longstanding right-to-work statute to the state Constitution, new restrictions against ballot harvesting, and the legislature’s move to require violent criminals to serve 100% of their sentences.

“In 12 short years, your conservative general assembly has fundamentally changed the trajectory of Tennessee. We have given hope and a blueprint to other red states and purple states – and we have brought fear to the blue states,” Sexton said. “With Tennessee leading and the southern states standing strong together for conservative philosophies, the south’s GDP is now, for the first time, surpassed the liberal GDP of the northeast.”

Ongoing debate over SROs in elementary schools

Nashville city officials continue to stress that school safety is a top issue for them.

The city applied for state grant funding to help cover the costs of school resource officers in middle and high schools, where they have long been a presence. But the city did not apply for funding to place SROs in elementary schools. School board members have expressed concern about SROs in elementary schools, and city officials say they don’t have the staffing and can’t hire and train officers fast enough ahead of the school year.

“As mayor, I support SROs in every school. Providing a safe environment for kids to learn is our first priority. We will have SROs at every high school and middle school. Following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, MNPD placed volunteer overtime officers on elementary school campuses,” Mayor John Cooper said in a new statement.

“Unfortunately, though well-intentioned, the recently passed state law does not provide reimbursement for some of the school security costs that Nashville already has in place. The State’s SRO Program Grant funding does not cover Metro’s rapid response team and our police overtime at schools in addition to full-time SRO positions. Without state support, Nashville is already paying for police officers to keep our elementary schools safe. The state’s reimbursement policy needs to be more flexible.

“We have been told by the state that SRO Program Grant guidelines do not cover our current safety program, which we need while MNPD hires and trains new police officers. We will continue to ask state leadership for a more common-sense and flexible funding solution that cities such as Nashville can use for security at all schools during the process of hiring additional SROs.”

Metro Police Chief John Drake has said staffing is the biggest issue but the department remains committed to school safety. “"We're invested in keeping our kids safe," he said at a news conference.

Catch up on the week

• Covenant families form nonprofits to push for gun reform, school safety laws

• Tennessee AG Skrmetti opposes rule change aimed at protecting abortion health records

• Gov. Lee's gun bill faces stiff opposition. So what do GOP lawmakers support instead?

• Marsha Blackburn scoffs at TN mayor's rebuttal to Jason Aldean's 'Try That in a Small Town'

Got a question for us?

Got a question about state politics you would like us to tackle? Let us know. Email us at mabrown@tennessean.com, vjones@tennessean.com or statehouse@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Justin Jones, Justin Pearson get huge fundraising haul after expulsion