Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Dr. Carol M. Swain in-studio to discuss her disappointment with Tennessee 5th Congressional District candidate, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, and her vote for former Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell.
Leahy: In-studio, our good friend, all-star panelist Carol Swain. Good morning, Carol.
Swain: Good morning, Tennessee! It’s a great day to be on Michael’s show.
Leahy: And good morning Crom, the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael. Well, what a terrific performance you had on the Mike Huckabee show on Saturday night. I watched it, and you knocked it out of the park.
And I must say you brought to my attention, that you wore that red dress with white shoes. And that was a big fashion hit.
Swain: Red pantsuit. My trademark pantsuit, but this time I paired a white blouse with white shoes.
Leahy: Very good. Crom and I are laughing because we are, like, fashion idiots, right? But Carol, you are on top of it. You looked great and had a terrific performance. We want to talk in this segment and next segment about the primary on August 4th. Specifically, the 5th Congressional District GOP primary, which is hotly contested.
The outcome hangs in the doubt. It’s gone from a safe-Democratic district to a likely-Republican district that includes parts of Davidson, Williamson, and Wilson counties, all of Maury, Marshall, and Lewis counties, and right now it looks to be like a neck-and-neck race between Andy Ogles, Mayor of Maury County, and former Speaker of the Tennessee House, Beth Harwell, with a likely third-place finish, it seems, Kurt Winstead and then in fourth place looks like Jeff Beierlein.
That’s what it looks like to me. I haven’t seen any polls, but just hearing people talk.
Carol, would you like to share something about your thoughts on the 5th Congressional District?
Swain: I do. In fact, Michael, that’s why I came in this morning.
Leahy: Well, there you go. (Chuckles)
Swain: Like a lot of people who are conservative, I supported Andy Ogles from the beginning – because he seemed like the perfect conservative candidate. We all knew him and I made, for my budget, what I considered a large donation to his campaign.
You know, not like the size that Crom would make, or you, Michael. (Leahy laughs) But it was a lot of money for me, and I’d like a refund.
Leahy: Why is that, Carol?
Swain: Because I’m so disappointed, I’m disappointed. The first basic thing, about filing your financial reports on time. It troubles me that the candidate has a pattern of not doing that. And this is something that’s important. And then the vote that was missed in Maury County, the budget, I was concerned about that.
Leahy: So he had vetoed the budget, and when the county commission met recently to override that veto he did not show up.
Swain: Yes, and I think that he’s still a leader that should have been there, to …
Leahy: Face the fire, I suppose.
Swian: Pardon?
Leahy: Make his case.
Swain: I think so. We need that. So I feel like if you can’t be faithful in the small things, that you should not be trusted with a bigger job. And I decided to vote for Beth Harwell because she’s a known quantity.
I don’t always agree with Beth but she always, you know, has had an open door. She’s a person you know that you can talk with her and she thinks through issues and we’re probably in agreement at least 80 to 85 percent of the time. And I don’t expect to be in 100 percent agreement with anyone.
Leahy: Well that’s pretty big news, Carol. We’ll talk about that with Crom when we get back. And by the way, when it comes to the 5th Congressional District, I don’t have a dog in the hunt other than I think Kurt Winstead is probably a liberal; and I think the three candidates Beth Harwell, Andy Ogles, and Jeff Beierlein, those three would probably be pretty strong in their voting records.
But nonetheless, what you just said is pretty significant, Carol.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Carol Swain is an establishment Republican. Look at the people she votes for – establishment. The reason she gets so much coverage is because she is a black woman who is an establishment Republican. If she weren’t black, woman and establishment she wouldn’t get the coverage that she does.
Andy Ogles refusing to go along with governmental overreach is far more important to me than any paperwork. Deciding that paperwork is a more important and accurate indicator of future action than actual past action on the important issues of our day seems like a mistake of perspective.
I, too, would rather see many people instead of Winstead, who seems like a democrat in disguise. But I think Andy can win. The way he is being opposed — the techniques his opponents are using — makes Andy seem all that much a better candidate to me.
Indeed, I contributed to Andy’s race as well and I think he has run an absolutely horrible race and as a result I don’t think that Andy will win so I too had to vote for Beth. Beth is the only one who stands in the way of Gen. Weathervane becoming our next Congressman and Andy’s candidacy can only serve to split the conservative vote so as to bring that dreadful result about.