Former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell is enthusiastic about the role Tennessee will play in the defense of unborn babies in light of the leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
“If SCOTUS’s decision to overturn Roe is confirmed and the responsibility is rightfully left up to the states, Tennessee is ready to defend the lives of all unborn children and the life of the mother, thanks to the constitutional amendment we passed under my leadership as Speaker and the Human Life Protection Act,” the candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District said.
Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft and pro-lifers all around the country were overjoyed at the news that Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned.
An investigation into the source of the leak is reportedly ongoing.
The Tennessee Star previously reported that Harwell, if elected, is going to impose a three-term limit on herself, of service totaling six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Harwell has signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge which states “that as a member of Congress I will co-sponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits Amendment of three (3) House terms and two (2) Senate terms and no longer limit.”
“In Tennessee, we’re a citizen legislature – it’s a part-time job,” Harwell said when she announced. “What’s happened in Washington is some of these folks stay in Congress for far too long without having to face their constituents, and term limits would fix that. That’s why I also signed the U.S. Term Limit pledge.”
Harwell made that announcement on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy in mid-April.
Harwell was the first female to attain the position of the Speaker of the House in the Tennessee General Assembly. She also served as chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. During her tenure at the state party, Republicans captured a majority in the State Senate for the first time in nearly 150 years. Harwell also served as Tennessee House Republican Caucus Whip and Campaign Committee Chair. During her time in those positions, Republicans won and held the majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
The Tennessee 5th Congressional District consists of parts of Davidson County, Williamson County, Wilson County, and all of Maury County, Marshall County and Lewis County.
Tennessee’s Republican primary for the 5th district is on August 4.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Fortunately, successful politicians often don’t carry out their pledge to term limit themselves and thus arbitrarily deprive citizens of the right to vote for them and guarantee that they will never gain much seniority and thus influence. Hopefully Andy Ogles doesn’t feel the need to make the same dumb pledge and thus give voters another reason to vote for him rather than Beth.
I don’t understand why any conservative would find this restriction on the right to vote attractive but for anyone who finds themselves fantasizing that such a restriction will lead us into some golden age of governance may I suggest you follow the Davidson County Metro Council.
If Harwell only wants to serve 6 years, that’s her choice. I support term limits for the Senate and the executive branch. We don’t want a monarchy. I don’t see limits working well in the House, though. A house district should be able to vote for whoever they want for as long as they want. It’s the people’s house. But the bigger problem to me is there would be no term limits for lobbyists and special interests. They already pull most of the strings. Cycling in a new batch of 435 unsophisticated representatives every 2-6 years seems like it would give lobbyists and those who know how the system works even more power. I get the appeal of a part-time citizen legislature, but we aren’t thinking through the unintended consequences.