Never Trumper Jeb Bush to Headline ‘La Raza Randy’ Boyd Gubernatorial Fundraiser in Nashville

The Randy Boyd for Governor campaign confirmed on Wednesday that failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush will be the headliner at a November 30 fundraiser for Boyd in Nashville, The Tennesseean reported:

Exact location and cost of attending the event were not immediately available.

Bush is scheduled to be at this year’s National Summit on Education Reform, which is being held in Nashville beginning Nov. 29.

Although Tennesseans favored former President George W. Bush in his two presidential elections, his brother Jeb Bush performed poorly in the 2016 presidential election. Jeb Bush received about 1 percent of all votes in last year’s Republican primary election, behind then-candidate Donald Trump, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio governor John Kasich.

In March, The Tennessee Star broke the news that “gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny donated a quarter of a million dollars to Conexion Americas, a non-profit Latino advocacy organization headquartered in Nashville founded by Renata Soto.”

In 2015, Soto was elected as chairman of the board of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), an organization generously funded by George Soros. She had previously served as vice-president for three years.

NCLR lobbies for Hispanic racial preferences, bilingual education, mass immigration, and amnesty for illegal aliens. Their commentary and position statements characterize the U.S. as a nation with widespread white racism and discrimination. The organization has opposed most of the post 9/11 U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.

The NCLR pushed for passage of the federal “DREAM Act” and the “American Dream Act” that together, would have enabled states to provide in-state tuition for students who entered the U.S. illegally on their own or were brought here by an adult. The “DREAM Act” would have also allowed certain illegal immigrants to adjust their immigration status to legal permanent resident otherwise known as the “green card.”

Boyd’s decision to bring Jeb Bush in to headline a fundraiser in a tightly contested gubernatorial campaign in a state that President Donald Trump, who famously belittled Bush as a “low energy” establishment Republican before crushing him in the 2016 primaries, won overwhelmingly in November 2016, is a real head scratcher.

One leading rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) took the opening caused by Boyd’s tone deaf miscue and quickly drove a political Mack Truck through it on Wednesday afternoon.

In an email with the subject line: “Please Clap,” the Black campaign contrasted her own support for President Trump with Bush’s continued opposition to and criticism of the president:

It’s no surprise that Randy Boyd would bring in Jeb Bush to shake down Nashville donors…besides, they agree on pretty much everything.

• Jeb Bush said Donald Trump was the “chaos President” and refused to vote for him. Randy Boyd said supporting Trump would be “anathema to me.”

• Jeb Bush said illegal immigrants come out of an “act of love.” Randy Boyd gave $250,000 to a group that helps illegal immigrants integrate into Tennessee society.

• Jeb Bush helped create Common Core education standards. Randy Boyd is a “staunch supporter” of Common Core.

Black was not the only Republican candidate for governor to lampoon Boyd for picking Bush to head a fundraiser for him in Nashville.

Gubernatorial candidate Mae Beavers, who was with President Trump from the beginning and chaired the Tennessee delegation at the Republican National Convention in July 2016, also blasted Boyd.

But first she took a swing at Black.

Beavers tells The Star “it is curious that Rep. Black is now claiming to be a big supporter of President Trump, when she was a speaker at the Never Trump meeting held in Sea Island, Georgia in early 2016.”

“And during the Bredesen administration, when she served in the Tennessee General Assembly, Rep. Black voted in favor of ‘Race to the Top,’ which is, in essence, Common Core,” Beavers adds.

“As for Randy Boyd, his decision to bring the very unpopular Jeb Bush to Tennessee on his behalf shows how out-of-touch he is with issues affecting Tennessee’s schools,” Beavers says.

“In fact, Jeb Bush is the biggest cheerleader for the kind of standardized testing that has failed so miserably here in Tennessee,” she concludes.

Sign up here to receive morning updates, plus breaking news, and special offers

CONFIRM

You have Successfully Subscribed!