Shelby County GOP Eliminates Partisan School Board Elections

A leaked resolution showed that the Shelby County Republican Party Executive Committee decided to end partisan school board elections.

The Shelby County GOP passed the resolution at a meeting on September 7. It reads in full:

WHEREAS, the Republican Party of Shelby County Executive Committee has deliberated and determined that full, fair, and free elections require participation of an informed electorate, and;
WHEREAS, the Republican Party of Shelby County Executive Committee has previously, on June 1, 2023, called for candidates for the August 1, 2024, general election to be selected by primary election to be held on March 5, 2024 and;
WHEREAS, the Republican Party of Shelby County Executive Committee has determined that its call for primary election should be amended,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican Party of Shelby County hereby amends its call for primary elections to be held on March 5, 2024 to include all positions except county and municipal school boards.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Chairman of the Republican Party of Shelby County shall notify the Shelby County Elections Commission to hold and schedule elections in accordance with this resolution.

DONE this 7″ day of September, 2023.

In late August, well before the resolution was passed, a group of parents, including members of Shelby County Moms for Liberty, in conjunction with State Representative Justin Johnson (R-Collierville), held a meeting with leaders of the Shelby County GOP to discuss the proposed measure.

As reported by numerous sources, including  Johnson himself, a heated argument broke out between Terry Roland, the District 29 Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committeeman and Lorrie Williams of Moms for Liberty.

Johnson posted an audio recording of the argument on his Facebook page.

The following is the transcript of that argument:

Roland: “When’s the last time you actually lobbied the legislature? When? You ain’t never have.”

Williams: “I’m a house wife raising children – ”

Roland: “You just answered my question.”

Williams: “Oh, I hope you didn’t just put me down.”

Roland : “No, I didn’t. You have never lobbied – ”

Williams: “I lobby every day for the peace and security of my family, so don’t talk to me like – ”

Roland: “I just won’t talk to you at all cause for you to matter, I’d have to care about your opinion.”

“There is no place for leadership to behave this way,” said Johnson. “Decorum has been lost with many of our elected officials and I promise to never stand for this type of behavior or treat others I disagree with like this.”

Thomas Gandee, the chairman of the Shelby County Young Republicans who has a seat on the Shelby County Republican Party Executive Committee, joined The Earle Farrell 4Memphis Show on September 8 to discuss a resolution ending the partisan elections.

Gandee explained that all school board elections used to be nonpartisan, but a new state law allows counties to decide whether they want to hold partisan elections.

“So this change was going to happen,” Gandee said. “And this [Executive Committee] decided that we didn’t want that in Shelby County – we wanted to have nonpartisan elections – and that was the vote last night.”

After an open session where activists spoke in favor of partisan elections, Gandee said that the executive committee retreated to a private room where they voted.

But Gandee also said the votes may have been made under duress.

“And I believe this was brought up – the morning show yesterday it was brought up that there could be lawsuits filed against individual [Executive Committee] members for making this vote happen, and it felt very much like an intimidation factor,” he said.

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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.