Bill Requiring Three Year Residency in Tennessee for Candidates in Federal Primaries Has Become State Law Without Governor Lee’s Signature

The three-year residency requirement legislation for Tennessee candidates for federal office in primaries is now law – effective immediately – without Governor Lee’s signature.

The Tennessee General Assembly sent the legislation, which it overwhelmingly approved, over to Governor Lee’s office on April 1. Governor Lee had the option to sign the legislation into law, veto it, or allow ten days to pass where it would be enacted into law without his signature. Lee chose the third option.

Wednesday afternoon the Tennessee Senate Clerk’s office told The Tennessee Star that Governor Lee’s office sent the legislation back to the Clerk’s office without his signature earlier in the day, and that by doing so, the bill took on the weight of law upon the Clerk’s office receipt of the unsigned bill.

The Tennessee House passed the residency requirement 70-18 on March 28. The Senate approved the bill on February 28.

The Star reached out to Governor Lee’s office for comment, but did not hear back by press time.

The new law impacts the GOP primary for TN-5 in a major way. Morgan Ortagus is now ineligible to run in the Republican primary. California native Robby Starbuck is likely ineligible as well.

A Tennessee resident for less than a year, Ortagus’ hopes to be eligible to run in the August 4 GOP primary rest on the law being overturned by a court. The Star previously reported that Ortagus supporters took the preemptive step of filing a federal lawsuit against the legislation. Per the clerk’s office for United States District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee, a standard case management telephone conference is set on the case for May 24 at 10am. Case management telephone conferences are administrative in nature and set deadlines for discovery and other procedures regarding the case.

It is unclear how seriously the case is being taken, given that a hearing is scheduled more than a month after the primary ballots are scheduled to be finalized on April 21. The Court does have the option to move up hearings if it so chooses.

If that lawsuit ultimately fails or a request for an injunction is granted, Ortagus is out of the race. The Middle District of Tennessee Clerk’s office has not received any additional filings or requests for an injunction as of press time.

The new law reads:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, Chapter 13, Part 2, is amended by adding the following as a new section:

In order to qualify as a candidate in a primary election for United States senate or for member of the United States house of representatives, a person shall meet the residency requirements for state senators and representatives contained in the Tennessee constitution.

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

State senators and representatives must be Tennessee residents for three-years in order to run for office and now candidates in primaries for U.S. House and U.S. Senate must meet the same standard.

In addition to the new state law that would make Morgan Ortagus ineligible to be on the August 4 GOP primary ballot in TN-5 , and would likely make Robby Starbuck also ineligible, both candidates face another significant hurdle to making it on to the August 4 GOP primary ballot.

On Saturday, the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee (SEC) announced that Ortagus and Starbuck, along with Baxter Lee and Stewart Parks, have been removed from the August 4 GOP primary ballot in TN-5 due to challenges filed against their Republican “bona fides.”

All four candidates will have an opportunity to have their names restored to the ballot in an April 18 adjudication meeting to be held by a 17 member committee of the SEC, but sources tell The Star it will be an uphill battle for any of those four to be restored prior to the April 21 submission by the Tennessee Republican Party to the Tennessee Secretary of State of the names to be listed on the TN-5 GOP primary ballot.

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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.