Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Aaron Gulbransen was joined on the newsmaker line by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson to give some final comments before the election concludes and how he intends to keep Tennessee the best state in the nation if elected.
Gulbransen: And on our newsmaker line, we have Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson. How are you, sir?
Johnson: Good morning, Aaron. Good to be back with you.
Gulbransen: Good to talk to you. Of course, we also have all-star panelist Clint Brewer in the studio with us.
Brewer: Good morning, Senator. How are you?
Johnson: I’m doing well. So, Aaron, I don’t know if Clint told you, but a little bit of trivia – Clint covered my very first race back in 2006. So we are old friends.
Brewer: Yeah, absolutely.
Gulbransen: Gosh, we could spend a show on that, I’m sure, with some of the stories I’ve heard about that race. I just asked you the easy one. With roughly 26 minutes before polls open, what do you want to say to the voters before they go start voting?
Johnson: Well, Aaron, thank you so much for that opportunity. And I guess what I would say is, when you look at Tennessee, we’re on the right track. The conservative policies that we have implemented over the last 11 to 12 years, since Republicans took control of our Tennessee General Assembly, and that’s how long it’s been, you look at the record-low debt that we have, the low taxes, the strong economy, fastest job growth in America, the fastest growing economy, I think we can make a very compelling argument that Tennessee is on the right track.
I can’t say the same about the federal government, but in Tennessee, at the local level, our conservative policies are working. That’s why I’m running for re-election. I’d like another four years to continue to implement those conservative policies.
Gulbransen: What do you see the challenges coming up over in the next session? Obviously, things are expected to get a little better because at the federal level Republicans are expected to take over the House and maybe the U.S. Senate.
But we’ll still have the Biden administration overreach. And of course, we’ve talked about mandates in the past and that sort of thing. But what do you think the challenges are going to be at the state level to fight back against federal overreach over the next year or so?
Johnson: That’s the number one issue we have, Aaron. We can do all the right things we want to do in Tennessee, and I believe we are doing that, and we’re showing the conservative principles work here in Tennessee.
But every day we’re having to fight exactly what you said: an overreaching, overbearing federal government. And that is extremely frustrating. During the four years that President Trump was in the White House, we saw some reprieve in regard to that.
But now the Biden administration has reversed many of the Trump policies that had reinstituted, effectively, federalism, and allowed states to have more latitude and more freedom to do what they thought was best.
So you’re right. I think in November it will be a giant red wave and we will get Republican control of both the House and the Senate at the federal level.
But we will still have a Biden administration that will continue to try to implement their leftist, woke agenda on Tennesseans. And if I’m re-elected, I will fight that every single day.
Brewer: Senator, it’s Clint. You’ve done so much and the legislature accomplished so much, asking the people to come back for another four years, what do you want to work on if re-elected? What will be the next Jack Johnson agenda at the legislature?
Johnson: The most important thing we do is, obviously, determine how we’re going to spend your tax dollars. We’ve done a good job with that. I want to continue to find ways to reduce taxes.
We’re already the second-lowest tax state in the nation, the least-indebted state in the nation, and that’s good. I want Tennessee to be an economic leader again.
Getting back to the federal government and the overreach of the Biden administration, I think that will be a challenge over the next couple of years.
Hopefully, we’ll get a Republican in there in 2024 and return back to more state sovereignty. But the last thing I would say, Clint, is we need to continue to work on education in the state of Tennessee for all the good things we’re doing from an economic standpoint.
We still have a long way to go to get our K-12 education system up to where it needs to be. We’ve made significant improvements over the last 10 years, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
So I think you’ll continue to see under a second term of Governor Bill Lee, with a cooperative General Assembly, continuing to work to try to improve education in the state.
Gulbransen: Senator Johnson – I think this is probably a fun exercise to do for our audience – so, give us the insight on what election day is like for you, if you don’t mind, sir.
Johnson: Well, I equate it to, you’re running – let’s just use an analogy of a foot race and you’re running as hard and fast as you can. And when 7:00 p.m. this evening rolls around and the polls close, it just comes to a dead stop. There’s no slowdown. There’s no easing off the pedal.
You just run, run, run – as they say, run through the tape. And at 7:00, it’s all over except for the counting of the votes. So we’re going to have a busy day today. I’m so proud of my campaign. We’ve knocked on over 50,000 doors.
We made about 40,000 phone calls. I believe in grassroots campaigning. Yes, you do TV and you do radio and you do mail and those types of things. But I believe in knocking on doors. I believe in voter contact.
We’ve been doing that throughout this campaign. Today we’re not going to stop. We’ll be on the phone, we’ll be at polling locations. I don’t remember how many I’m visiting today, but it’s a bunch. We’ll be visiting a lot of polling locations.
We’ll be on the phone as I’m in the car, calling voters, getting them to the polls, and then the campaign team will be coming together tonight, hopefully celebrating, but we’ll find out about that after 7:00.
Gulbransen: I will note for our audience, too, that every time I’ve called you for comment on a particular issue, you have been knocking doors. So there you go. I know. Clint’s got a question for you.
Brewer: I was going to ask you about the grassroots effort in your campaign. We talk a lot on the show about the “new people” that are moving to Tennessee, many of them from California, kind of fleeing more liberal states.
What are those voters want? I’m sure you’ve run into several, if not many of them in Williamson County. People are new to the district, new to the state. What are they looking for in representation? What are their issues?
Johnson: You’re right, Clint, and we’ve encountered a lot of folks. We joke about it, but it’s really true. There are a lot of folks from California, Illinois, and New York that are moving here.
And what I hear when I’m at the doorstep or I’m on the phone with them is, please don’t let Tennessee become what we fled. Don’t let Tennessee turn into what we had in California, with outrageously high taxes, rampant homelessness, not prosecuting crimes.
And so, as I tell those folks when I’m talking to them is, that’s why you moved to Tennessee. We want to keep it that way. And as long as I have anything to say about state government, we’re going to continue to make sure Tennessee is, as I say, the most conservative and best-managed state in the nation.
So there’s a reason people are coming here from all those other areas, and it’s because they want to get away from those leftist, woke policies that are being implemented in those liberal states. They know Tennessee is a good conservative state and we plan to keep it that way.
Listen to the interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Jack Johnson” by Jack Johnson.
Real conservative states don’t dole out $500 million to privately owned sports teams!
“Return to more state sovereignty” if we get a Republican in there in 2024?? Clearly Senator Johnson has no clue how the 10th Amendment works. If there is over reach from the federal government imposing it’s self on our state, it’s because OUR GOVERNOR IS ALLOWING IT. We don’t get permission from the fed to exercise our 10th Amendment rights.
Senator Johnson eked out a tiny victory when he should have clobbered the first time candidate. He should be very concerned, and pay very close attention to THE PEOPLE, and not the rich donors who pay for his vote.
We had a Donkey Congressman from my district for too many years. I understand that he started out fairly moderate but became more and more leftwing after spending years and years in The Swamp. The last time he was elected he eked out a slim victory – sort of like Mr. Johnson. That Congressman was smart enough to read the tea leaves and decided to retire instead of running again and getting defeated. I certainly hope that Mr. Johnson is that smart. But if not, he will be shown the door.
If this were the case, Mr. Johnson would have retired for the legislature.