The Republican bona fide status of two candidates for the Republican nomination for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, recent Tennessee arrivals Morgan Ortagus and Robby Starbuck, have been challenged, sources tell The Tennessee Star.
Once a challenge to a candidate’s Republican bona fide status has been filed and verified as valid, that candidate is off the August 4 Republican primary ballot. The burden of proof to be restored to the ballot lies with the candidate.
Tennessee GOP (TNGOP) Chair Scott Golden told The Star on Friday that the party has received challenges to a number of candidates who have announced their intention to run in the August 2022 Republican primary, but the party will not begin the process of verifying the validity of those challenges until later in this coming week:
We have received letters concerning the credentials of Republicans wishing to be on the August primary ballot; however we have not verified their validity. And we will not be begin that process until the May primary ballot is set on March 3rd. The protest period for the August primary ends at noon on April 9th.
“All August 4th primary challenges will be verified in the next couple of weeks,” Golden added.
The sources who filed challenges to Ortagus and Starbuck have confirmed to The Star that they are bona fide Republicans who live in the 5th Congressional District and that the challenges they have filed will be verified as valid when the TNGOP reviews them later this week.
The Star previously reported that TNGOP bylaws state in Article IX that a candidate must be considered a bona fide Republican in order to qualify to seek the Republican nomination. The bylaws first describe a bona fide Republican as being actively involved in the local or state Tennessee Republican Party or recognized affiliate.
Then, the candidate must satisfy one of two conditions: having voted in three of the last four statewide Republican primaries or be vouched for in writing “(to the satisfaction of the decision makers defined herein) as a bona fide Republican by an officer of the TNGOP or a member of the CEC, excluding SEC members, of the County and/or District where said individual resides. The decision makers defined herein may require additional verification that said individual is indeed a bona fide Republican.”
The challenge process that sources tell The Star that former State Department spokesman Ortagus and music video director Starbuck are about to go through is described in the TNGOP bylaws as:
The challenge is made to the State Chairman from two or more registered voters from within the district that the candidate is running in. A statewide candidate could get challenged from any area of the state, while a congressional candidate could only be challenged from that congressional district. All the individuals making the challenge must “voted in at least three (3) of the last four (4) most recent Statewide Republican primary elections. Such a challenge must be made no later than five (5) days before the deadline for removal of a candidate’s name from a ballot under TCA Section 2-5-204 or otherwise, or any other applicable deadline.”
The Star reported last week Golden said any Republican 5th Congressional candidate whose bona fides are challenged prior to the April 7, 2021 petition filing deadline are considered off the GOP primary ballot unless and until they provide the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee (SEC) with evidence that they do indeed qualify as bona fide Republicans.
A challenged candidate is able to restore their eligibility by providing a voting history document that shows that they voted in three out of four of the most recent statewide primary elections or they are vouched for as a bona fide Republican in writing. A majority of a 13-member committee of the SEC would then have to approve their bona fide status in a majority vote.
A hurdle that Ortagus may face during the challenge process is that she only registered to vote in Tennessee less than three months ago and does not live in the district. Starbuck previously admitted to not voting in Tennessee primaries, which means he doesn’t meet the three-of-four standard.
Former Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell, businessman Baxter Lee, Natisha Brooks, and former Brigadier General Kurt Winstead are the other publicly announced candidates in the race.
The Star confirmed that Speaker Harwell’s voting history satisfies the three-out-of-four requirement. Baxter Lee’s voting history showed that he voted in three of the last four statewide primaries, but one of them was the 2020 Democrat presidential preference primary. Natisha Brooks has posted her voter history on her campaign website, which shows that she satisfies the statewide requirement for voting in three of the last four primaries.
Geni Batchelor of Lebanon, former Williamson County GOP Chair Omar Hamada of Franklin, Timothy Bruce Lee of Nashville, Annabelle Lee of Madison, Alan Clement Sharp of Nashville, and David Vitalli of Brentwood are collecting petitions for the Republican primary.
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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.
Photo “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck.
[…] Star previously reported that a challenge to Starbuck’s Republican bona fide status was made to the Tennessee GOP, as […]
[…] Republican bona fide status of both Starbuck and Ortagus have been challenged, according to the Tennessee Star, which added the challenges have not yet been verified for their […]
I had to laugh this morning in catching part of the interview with Morgan Ortegas by The Tennessee Star radio show. She was referring to something and mentioned M au ry county vs Mury (actual pronunciation) county. Hey lady, here’s a clue, learn the local pronunciation for the counties you think you know before you show your ignorance.
When the swamp is so deep that no one can hold the lawmakers accountable…..
According to the TN Bylaws (can be found @ tngop.com, click “about” and then “bylaws”), candidates who want to run as a Republican in TN must fulfill the following requirements:
All must fulfill the following:
A) “Any individual who is actively involved in the Tennessee Republican
Party, his County Republican Party, or any recognized auxiliary organization of either; and
resides and is registered to vote in said county”
How is actively involved defined?
According to the TN GOP Bylaws: “’Actively involved in’ in the foregoing section shall be defined as a quantifiable contribution including, but not limited to, time or
money to Tennessee Republican Party, his County Republican
Party, or any recognized auxiliary organization of either during the
time period since the most recent County Republican Party
reorganization.”
One must fulfill A and all must fulfill 1 of the 2 following, either B OR C:
B) “Any individual who has voted in at least three (3) of the four (4) most
recent Statewide Republican primary elections;”
OR
C) “Any individual who is vouched for in writing (to the satisfaction of the
decision makers defined herein) as a bona fide Republican by an officer of the TRP or a member of the CEC, excluding SEC members, of the County and/or District where said individual resides. The decision makers defined herein may require additional verification that said individual is indeed a bona fide Republican”
Note: Both B & C are equally acceptable. B is not greater than C. If one has voted in 3 of the last 4 primaries AND has been Active in the TN or County GOP since the last party election/”reorg” (thereby meeting the Requirements of A and of B) one’s Bona Fide status hard to challenge. However, C is an option not counted as less than B. They are laid out equally as one or the other qualify the candidate. C is more of a hassle and, depending on the opinions of the SEC members of the district involved concerning the evidence of the candidate’s Republican status laid out by the people who vouch for the candidate, may or may not pass. (Note: Who can vouch? TN GOP officers and any non SEC members of the CECs in the candidates district.)
Note: Some candidate meet qualification B (voting 3 of the last 4 primaries) but have Not been involved in the TN GOP or their County GOP and are vulnerable to challenge because they have not meet qualification A.
A is just as important as meeting qualification B or C. There is No alternative process if one does not meet qualification A, according to the TN GOP Bylaws. (Remember that if one does not meet B requirements then one can meet C requirements but if one does not meet A there is no “or”!). Have all candidates currently declared met Qualification A – have they contribued time or money directly to the TN GOP or their county Republican Party? Have they been active memebers in either the TN GOP or their county Republican Party? (Note: they could also be members/donate time or money to official Replublican orgs to qualify such as Young Republicans, College Republicans or the Federation of Republican Women.)
When reporters/news outlets/potential candidates/fellow candidates/voters want to verify who is Bona Fide, they need to check for Qualification A (Time/Money to the TN GOP or the county GOP of the candidate) Just As Much as they need to check for B or C. If A is not meet, even if they meet qualification B, the candidates are vulnerable to be challenged.
Please see the TN GOP Bylaws, Article IX, Section 1.
What is so appealing about the TN-5 district? There is something going on there! All these candidates and 2 of them just moving here and feel a need to be on the ballot? Something very suspicious here!
Andy, what are you waiting for?
And the saga of Peyton Place continues.
Beth Harwell supported high gas gasoline taxes in Tennessee! She supported RINO Bill Haslum with anti gun legislation! Harwell is not good for Tennessee
Why doesn’t the Tennessee GOP do something that will help the people? Require the candidates if elected to put their self and spouse investments in a blind trust? Dizzy Bill Hagerty for example purchased $54,000 in stocks and sold $4,000,000 in stock last year while serving as a Tennessee senator! Scott Golden, this us an important issue, please require elected officials in congress to put their investments in a blind trust! Senators and congressional officials receive insider trading information and should be prosecuted!
How would the TN GOP have the legal capability of doing this?
Nicest thing I can say is neither of these individuals have any business coming close to representing Tennessee.
If these two carpetbaggers are representative of the individuals that have moved to Tennessee we need to develop a law to move all carpetbaggers back to where they came from. Neither one is no good for Tennessee! Carpetbaggers Go Away!
Do we know they are “carpet baggers” – moved here to take advantage of Tennesseans, moved here with ill intent? Or are they district shopping? Or is the name calling only based on the fact that they recently moved here? Newcomers, yes. But carpetbaggers? That is a pretty negative word … I haven’t heard anything to back up that they moved here to take advantage of Tennesseans but if its true or based on something I would sure like to know about it as that is important!
Many have moved here because they agree with TN politics and culture. We don’t want conservatives who have moved here in recent years to think they are unwelcome and can not participate in TN politics.
Being from here doesn’t mean one is conservative (see Gore and the Cooper brothers who grew up in Shelbyville) and moving here from elsewhere doesn’t mean one is liberal.