Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) hosted his fifth-annual “Burgers and Brews” event at Oaklawn Farms in Crossville on Saturday.
More than 2,000 residents and local, state, and federal officials serving the Volunteer State attended the event, making it the largest “Burgers and Brews” event Sexton has hosted since its inception.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was among the elected officials who attended Saturday’s event.
While speaking to the crowd, Lee, who was joined on stage by First Lady Maria Lee, praised Sexton and lawmakers of the Tennessee General Assembly for crafting and passing legislation making Tennessee the most conservative state in the nation.
Lee also remarked on his time as governor as his last term in the role ends near, saying that serving the state has been his “highest honor” and that he is looking forward to proposing one last budget in the coming months for Fiscal Year 2026-2027.
“It’s been the highest honor we’ve had to serve in this spot. We’re not done. I remind people all the time, you know, everybody starts asking what are you going to do next? I’m like, well, we have a session starting next and we have a budget and we have another year and we have an opportunity to work with President Trump and his administration for powerful things for this state and this country over the next year. We’re going to be doing all that,” Lee said.
“We have had a huge opportunity to serve the great people of this state…There is no better place to live in the United States of America than the state of Tennessee. And it would be great if that was because of a governor, but it’s not – it’s because of the people that live in this state,” he added.
Clay Travis, founder of OutKick and media personality, also spoke at the event.
Travis, who spoke about his love for Tennessee football and family history in the Volunteer State, praised the state for applying common sense in politics by valuing individual freedom, personal success, and limited government interference – like in sports where he explained how scoreboards are universally trusted for their clear outcomes.
“Think about this for a minute. The only thing that pretty much everybody in America trusts today is the scoreboard…That’s because we have a common sense approach to the world of sports,” Travis explained.
“What I love about the state of Tennessee is we have a common sense approach to politics, too. We want to give people freedom to have as much success as they can, as their individual God-given talents permit them to have, and we don’t want the big foot of government coming down constantly on people and stopping them from being the best version of themselves that they can be,” Travis added.
Other officials who attended Saturday’s event include Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), Crossville Mayor RJ Crawford, State Representatives Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville), Mark Cochran (R-Englewood), Brock Martin (R-Huntingdon), Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), Rick Scarbrough (R-Oak Ridge), Kip Capley (R-Summertown), Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), U.S. Rep. John Rose (R-TN-06), and Tennessee 6th Congressional District candidate Van Hilleary.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Cameron Sexton Event” by Rick Scarbrough for State Representative.
