Tea Party Nation founder and long time conservative activist Judson Phillips endorsed Diane Black for Governor Wednesday, in a statement posted on his personal website.
“In four months, Tennesseans will go to the polls and select the Republican nominee to be governor of this state,” Phillip’s statement begins, adding:
The Primary will decide the governor’s race. It doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, because they are not going to win.
It does matter who the Republicans nominate.
There is only one choice on the Republican side. There is only one conservative option. That is Diane Black.
The GOP field consists of Congressman Black, liberal Randy “La Raza” Boyd, Bill Lee and Beth “tax hike” Harwell. None of them are conservative. Randy Boyd is the choice of the Haslam wing of the party. The eight years of Bill Haslam have been nothing short of a disaster. Haslam has governed to the left of the Democrats.
Bill Lee does nothing but talk about how his wife died and he had to raise his children without her. That is noble but that does not make him a conservative. When asked a few months ago about the Haslam tax hike, Lee called it, “water under the bridge.” He certainly will not cut taxes or spending.
Beth Harwell carried the water for the Haslam tax hike. She ran the bill through the House and rewarded members of the House who supported the tax hike. She is no conservative.
Diane Black has taken on Planned Parenthood in DC. She has also taken on the IRS. IRS reform is an issue I have worked on for several years. Earlier this year, she and Congressman Peter Roskam introduced the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, to prevent the IRS from using and sharing data about donors to conservative groups.
Congressman Black did not have to get into this fight. She was running for governor and could have taken a pass. She stood on principle. She has been presented with the Award for Conservative Excellence from the American Conservative Union. President Trump supports Diane Black.
Some conservatives don’t like Diane Black. Much of this has to do with prior races. In 2016, I stood against Diane Black in her race with my friend Joe Carr. Politics is about looking to the future, not looking to the past and Diane Black has earned my support.
I endorse Diane Black to be Tennessee’s next governor and I encourage conservatives in this state to rally around her and support her.
In an email exchange with The Tennessee Star, Phillips stressed the importance of the 2018 Governor’s race. “After 8 years of a disastrous liberal Republican sitting in the governor’s chair, we need a conservative as governor,” he wrote. “Diane Black is the only conservative running. The conservative movement in Tennessee needs to unite around her.”
Phillips’ endorsement marks another important step in Black’s campaign to build the most substantial grassroots network in Tennessee’s political history.
So far, the campaign notes, their County Leadership Team has over 500 members, and field offices across the state.
[…] Party Nation founder and long time conservative activist Judson Phillips endorsed Black last […]
I guess TN govt has gotten so lucrative that there no longer any true conservatives left in the state to run for governor. Talk about lesser of a bunch of evils ! Next thing you know TN will have an income tax on a par with New York State !!
Things are not so bleak John. There will be no goals scored in the governor’s race by conservatives, but we have a very good chance of moving the puck into the offensive zone insofar as I’m reasonably sure that both Black and Harwell will be much easier to deal with for conservatives than Haslam. That may even be true regarding Lee but that’s mere speculation given Lee’s a political inigma.
All this may come to pass so long as conservatives don’t split their votes two or three ways so the centrist Republicans together with Democrats voting in the Republican Primary (whatever happened to that legislation closing the primaries?) elect Randy!. If we can just unify behind the ANYBODY BUT BOYD strategy, conservatives will sort of win.
Diana Black is no conservative. She’s a RINO at best. On 1-11-18 she voted against stopping unconstitutional abuse of Americans privacy. 12-21-2017 voted to increase spending by 81 billion. 12-6-2016 voted against impeaching IRS Commissioner. 12-3-2015 voted to expand Federal control of education. (sic) Also same day voted for 1300 page 305 billion highway bailout bill. 6-18-2015 voted for Obamatrade TPP. 3-26-2015 voted for 500 billion healthcare bill Obamacare. 1-6-2015 voted against removing John Boehner as speaker of the house. 12-11-2014 voted for 1.1 trillion spending bill that funded executive amnesty another Obama deal. And the list goes on.
Mr. Phillips needs to run for office, he’s got politician speak down perfectly. In his words, “There is only one conservative option. That is Diane Black.
The GOP field consists of Congressman Black, liberal Randy “La Raza” Boyd, Bill Lee and Beth “tax hike” Harwell. None of them are conservative.”
Which one is it?
Although Ms. Black might make an OK Governor, she is NOT my choice and certainly she is NOT a Conservative! Unless of course the definition of Conservative has changed. If Conservative is defined as “what’s mine is mine, and what’s you’re is mine”, Ms. Black is indeed “conservative”! Just take a look at how Federal spending, Federal debt and Ms. Black’s net worth have all gone through the roof, while she has been in Congress.
Diane Black in her campaign advertisements likes to tout her Chairmanship of the Budget Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
The Congressional Budget process is a ‘train wreck’ and has been for the last few years—in all fairness, this is more because of the Senate than because of the House, but the House bears its own share of the blame for this problem. There is enough blame to go around for everyone.
And besides, as former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochrane of Mississippi (who knew ‘a thing or two’ about the Congressional Budget/Appropriations process), said, “the Budget Committee is about wish lists, but the Appropriations Committee is about facts (i.e., monetary appropriations).” The latter is, of course, much more important. Diane Black was NOT Chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
Diane Black is merely ‘puffing’ her resume for partisan political campaign purposes. The voter needs to be aware of this. Is Diane Black REALLY the best that Tennessee can do when it chooses its next Governor?
In this particular race, at this particular time, it apparently is. I continue to believe that for the next eight years if somehow conservatives didn’t know who was governor they wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was Governor Black or Harwell. Bill Lee’s running for governor after having never held public office nor demonstrating any particular political interest is utterly preposterous but he seems like a nice enough guy so he may turn out to be harmless in the unlikely event that he is elected. With Randy! Boyd conservatives will look back at the eight years of Haslam as a golden age of conservative governance!
Thus I believe conservatives need to deploy the “ANYBODY BUT BOYD” strategy in this race, i.e. whoever has the best chance of defeating Randy! should receive the votes of conservatives. For example, a recent MTSU poll shows that Diane has a five point lead over Randy!. In the past I not only sent a significant contribution to Joe Carr, but I also sent a significant contribution to Lou Ann Zelenick in my unsuccessful attempts to replace tepid conservative Diane with a solid conservative. No matter, if the MTSU poll holds as we approach election day in August, as a devotee of the ANYBODY BUT BOYD strategy I will eat a powder milk biscuit and go vote for Diane with the hope that conservatives join me.