Current state Representative Timothy Hill (R-Blountville) released his initial TV ad on Tuesday for his run at Tennessee’s First Congressional District.
Hill is looking to replace Phil Roe who announced he will not seek re-election after first being elected in 2008.
There are 16 Republicans pursuing the party’s nomination, according to the Secretary of State website, including fellow State House member David Hawk (R-Greeneville) and state Senator Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City). Hill has decided to go all-in with his pursuit of the congressional seat, by not entering the primary for his current State House District 3.
Hill’s 30-second ad titled “Ally” leads off with a picture of him and a Bible stating that he is a Christian Conservative who is a seventh-generation northeast Tennessean along with family photo including his wife and their two sons.
It goes on to say that Hill is 100 percent pro-life, pro-jobs and pro-President Trump.
To demonstrate Hill’s pro-life stance, the ad cites his co-signing of the heartbeat abortion ban as reported in the January 28, 2019, edition of the Johnson City Press.
As a fighter for jobs, Hill was personally invited to the White House in January 2020 for the signing of the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), one of President Trump’s signature accomplishments.
While the ad features quick-moving imagery along with reinforcing verbiage, a more subtle reference to support for the Second Amendment was demonstrated through an image of Hill holding a lever-action rifle.
Getting to the heart of the ad’s title, it concludes with a play on words used to tout the candidate as Trump’s ally who is not afraid to “storm the Hill.”
Hill, who is wrapping up his fourth term in the state House of Representatives, sponsored and passed a bill in 2019 that directed the governor through the Department of Finance and Administration to request a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would provide TennCare funding through a block grant.
Calling it the Conservative way to expand TennCare coverage, Hill told The Tennessee Star “The end result will be using existing resources to serve more people,” at the time the bill was working its way through the General Assembly.
At the end of the 2019 legislative session and before Hill announced as a candidate for the U.S. House, the non-profit Club for Growth Foundation released its first Tennessee State Legislative Scorecard. Focusing on the Foundation’s pro-economic growth policy goals, the State’s 132 legislators were evaluated as to their votes on 14 pieces of legislation and ranked according to their score.
Of the 99-member State House of Representatives, Hill ranked 10th.
Hill was recently endorsed by the House Freedom Fund, a grassroots-funded political action committee affiliated with the House Freedom Fund that helps elect conservative candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives, The Star reported.
The Republican primary for state and federal offices will be held on August 6 with early voting running from July 17 to August 1.
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Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Tennessee Star.
Photo “Timothy Hill Ad” by Timothy Hill.
