by Judson Phillips Bill Lee is now the Governor of Tennessee. I did not support Bill Lee in the primary. That does not matter, as Lee beat Congressman Diane Black, Randy Boyd and then Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell. Lee also crushed Karl Dean in the General Election. Conservatives were elated. Conservatives had mostly rallied around Bill Lee early in the campaign. Lee’s campaign focused much on his Christian faith and the tragedy surrounding the death of his first wife. His campaign was long on story and short on specifics. His “Ten for Tennessee” was a mostly aspirational platform, lacking almost totally in specifics. For Tennessee conservatives, Bill Lee was a dream come true. Conservatives were tired and disheartened after eight years of a very liberal Bill Haslam administration. After watching a conservative agenda die for eight years and watching government grow at the same rate that Democrats would have grown government, conservatives were excited about Bill Lee. He was a handsome, charismatic candidate who was one of them. For many conservatives, election night was the highwater mark. Lee drubbed Dean and that election was never in doubt. But then, things changed. Soon after the election, “Ten for Tennessee,”…
Read the full storyJudson Phillips Commentary: Bill Lee and the Death of a Dream
