Jeremy H.G. Hayes has cancelled his challenge to State Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mt. Juliet), after Lynn reported Hayes to the state election commission for voting outside his district, triggering a very public raid by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and an investigation into his actual residency.
Wilson County District Attorney Tommy Thompson told the Lebanon Democrat, “Residency is one of the most evasive and one of the most difficult things to show,” said Thompson. “He used his grandmother’s address to be able to vote in the 2017 election. He may have had a move to his grandmother’s planned, but he hadn’t moved in our opinion.”
The Lebonon Democrat reports:
According to TBI public information officer Susan Niland, special agents executed a search warrant at Hayes’ townhome January 23 at 133 Noel Cove Circle in Hermitage in Davidson County.
Hayes said TBI agents showed up at the door of his Hermitage townhome, as well as his grandmother’s Mt. Juliet home where he claims he lived at 120 Southwest Cook Road without a search warrant. Hayes said at the time he asked agents to leave after about four hours of questioning.
Of the single vote cast by Hayes in 2017, Thomson told the newspaper, “It just wasn’t worth it. We made the decision not to pursue charges, but this was the outcome we wanted all along.”
Initially, it appeared that Hayes would continue his challenge against Lynn. After the Friday raid by TBI, Hayes pulled a petition to run for the District 57 House seat on the following Monday, January 26. However, he did not returned a completed petition and is not qualified to appear on the 2018 primary ballot.
The Lebanon Democrat reports Hayes removed his campaign page from Facebook, and also withdrew his registration to vote in Wilson County.
