Tennessee Governor Bill Lee endorsed real estate investor and attorney Lee Reeves in the August 1 Republican primary election for Tennessee State House District 65 on Thursday.
House District 65 is currently represented by State Representative Sam Whitson (R-Franklin), who announced he would not be seeking reelection to the seat.
Reeves, who also serves as the current president of the Franklin Lions Club and the vice-chair of the Franklin Board of Zoning Appeals in addition to his real estate and law careers, is facing candidates Brian Beathard and Michelle Foreman in the August 1 primary.
“Lee Reeves is a principled man of character who will work in the General Assembly to champion limited government, individual liberty and school choice for Tennessee families,” the governor said in a statement. “I am honored to endorse Lee as Williamson County’s next conservative leader and look forward to working together to make life better for all Tennesseans.”
Lee’s endorsement of Reeves came one day after Reeves confirmed to The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy that he would vote to advance the governor’s universal school choice plan during next year’s legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly if he were to be elected.
Reeves acknowledged that the issue of school choice is “the most important issue in the entire State of Tennessee” going into next year’s legislative session.
“The answer is yes, I’m voting for the bill. I think it’s important that parents have the ability to choose where their children go to school. Listen, I think the state government should care that children get educated, not where they get educated. I think parents are best positioned to know what’s right for their child,” Reeves said on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Reeves’ bid for House District 65 has also been endorsed by Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action).
“Reeves, a Williamson County resident, supports school choice, personal option health care reforms, and tax cuts. He is expected to be an active voice supporting reforms that push back against the administrative state, ensure job creation, reduce regulatory burdens, and lower tax rates. Additionally, he is passionate about education reform and poised to be a vital partner in efforts to expand educational opportunities,” AFP Action said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Lee Reeves and Bill Lee” by Lee Reeves.
I voted for Diane Black and begged conservatives not to vote for Lee who obviously was not a conservative or much of anything else, but what is done is done. Like a broken clock, however, Lee is occasionally right. One of those occasions is in his determination to end the near monopoly of government schools in the education of Tennessee children. That should gladden the hearts of every conservative in this state. It on the basis of this issue alone that Gov. Lee is supporting various candidates for the General Assembly including Lee Reeves.
During the debate on Thursday night Lee showed himself to be most impatient with the tepid conservatism of Brian Beathard, the most supportive of lessoning the government dominance in education as he declared that demagnetizing Tennessee as a destination for illegal aliens will be his top priority when elected. VOTE LEE REEVES!
“Nuff said. I would most likely never vote for a candidate promoted by Mr. Lee. He is a failed governor and no friend of true conservatives.
Any individual supported or endorsed by the wavering milqtoast liberal corporat welfare pawn billy lee, needs to be examined closely.
Well if Lee endorses anyone I would surely be doing my own homework on whoever he endorses. Lee endorsing anyone is a huge RED FLAG to me. This tells me Reeves will end up being a Lee lap dog. Sorry, but that is my reaction to this endorsement. What we are more farmers and less lawyers. Especially modern day lawyers that think the courts are the final arbiter of the Constitution.
In last night’s debate between the District 65 candidates it was clearly demonstrated that if you are a conservative interested in closing the primaries to Democrats and Independents who vote in the Republican primaries against conservatives you want to BEAT BRIAN BEATHARD. And if you’re interested in a representative who will fight the sexual eccentrics who want to turn society upside down you want to BEAT BRIAN BEATHARD. On the other hand, if you want to create an alternative to government schools for thousands of Tennessee schoolchildren and make demagnetizing Tennessee to illegal aliens you want to support LEE REEVES.
The problem with education in TN is not choice or money. Parents have every choice there is for educating their kids. Now you want us to pay for their choice. That is not choice that is socialist redistribution of wealth. If we have schools in TN that are doing a good job they we need to duplicate. Giving a child from a dysfunctional home life a voucher is not going to improve anything. If people would do their research they would understand that vouchers is how they will suck private and religious schools into the federal system. The objective of Common Core (and YES we still have CC in TN) was to have no education outliers. All students MUST be in the same system. CC was not just implemented in America….it was global. Money is not the problem and money is not the solution. The destruction of education has been planned for decades. They want obedient robots they do not want people who can think for themselves or people that can read. Destroy reading and you create a society of sheep. Sorry, but you are being sucked into the lies just like many others. They NEVER NEVER do anything for the people. EVERYTHING they do is for their puppet masters. TN sold out our children for $500 million when they accepted CC state standards that were not even written when they took the money. They are selling out our kids again. It is time to stop looking for the government to fix anything that is broken because education is not broken. It is finally working exactly the way they want it to work. Do some dang research instead of bowing to Governor Lee. You can best believe he has been promised something very lucrative when his term is over.
Eliminate the Federal and State Education bureaucracy and all their administrative expense. Return that money to the people that pay it. That is more important than creating another layer of administration in our education system. Return all decision making back to local communities.