In an op-ed published in the left wing Gannett-owned Tennessean, TN-5 candidate Morgan Ortagus effectively told the GOP-controlled Tennessee General Assembly to drop dead. She advocated against pending Tennessee General Assembly legislation that would establish a three-year residency requirement for candidates who seek to be on the ballot in primaries for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.
The op-ed is titled “Morgan Ortagus: Tennessee voters should have the ultimate say on who represents them.” In the piece, Ortagus advocates the State House version of the legislation is scheduled for a floor vote on Monday.
The proposed three-year residency requirement is the same requirement that candidates for the Tennessee General Assembly must meet in order to be eligible for the ballot. All one-hundred-thirty-two members of the Tennessee General Assembly, thirty-three state senators and ninety-nine state representatives – Republicans and Democrats alike – meet and must meet this requirement.
Ortagus, who only recently registered to vote in Tennessee three months ago and does not live in the district that she seeks to represent, falls far short of the would-be three-year residency requirement.
The legislation that Ortagus opposes reads:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, Chapter 13, Part 2, is amended by adding the following as a new section:
In order to qualify as a candidate in a primary election for United States senate or for member of the United States house of representatives, a person shall meet the residency requirements for state senators and representatives contained in the Tennessee constitution.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.
If that legislation is enacted into law, Ortagus would be ineligible to run in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional district. She could possibly be eligible to run in a federal primary in 2024.
Ortagus says in the piece, “Yet now some in Tennessee’s General Assembly are proposing limits on who can represent the people of Tennessee in the United States Congress.” She added later on in the piece, “Fundamentally, I believe my fellow Tennessee voters should be able to choose who represents them in Congress.”
The op-ed theme is in direct contradiction to a statement that the Ortagus campaign provided to The Tennessee Star, which said:
“I’ll leave state matters to the state legislature. I’m focused on earning the support of Fifth District Tennesseans who want a conservative fighter to defend President Trump’s agenda.” – Morgan Ortagus
The writing also appears to contradict itself, arguing against the pending Tennessee General Assembly legislation while stating, “I’m going to leave state matters up to the state.”
This is not the first time that carpetbagger Morgan Ortagus has changed course. The Star previously reported her history of bad-mouthing President Trump.
When Ortagus was serving as a spokesman for a super PAC supporting the Jeb Bush 2016 campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Morgan Ortagus said during an appearance on MSNBC that she was unsure if she would vote for him if he were to become the Republican nominee.
During a January 2016 appearance on Alan Colmes’ radio show, Ortagus proudly claimed that Governor Bush was the only one to call out then-candidate Trump during a previous debate. She lambasted the former president in the interview, saying, “You have somebody who makes fun of people with mental and physical disabilities. That’s disgusting; there’s no other way around it.”
She also said during the same exchange, “Quite frankly, I don’t want someone with the temperament of a middle school pubescent boy in the president’s office.”
In a March 2016 op-ed written for Fox Business, she wrote, “People know Trump isn’t serious.”
During an appearance on Fox Business in April 2016, Morgan Ortagus said of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, “I don’t see it that way. I think that America is the glue that holds the world together. … So there were points that I agreed with him today, but overall, I fundamentally disagree with his isolationist approach to foreign policy.”
Ortagus comments occurred during her work as a spokesman for a super PAC that supported Jeb Bush during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Ortagus went on to work in the Trump administration, serving as State Department spokesman from 2019-2021. Ortagus had nothing by public praise for President Trump while working in his administration. He has also endorsed her candidacy for TN-5, so her prior disparaging words appear to be water under the bridge for President Trump.
Ortagus’ change of heart towards the former President did not stop her campaign from soliciting funds at an out-of-state-fundraiser in Washington, D.C. that featured prominent Never Trumpers on the host committee nor from utilizing the services of a prominent Never Trumper, Lisa Spies, to facilitate the event.
It is unclear if Ortagus plans to mount a legal challenge if the residency legislation is enacted into law. The Star reached out to the Ortagus campaign for comment and asked: “Does this piece signal that the Ortagus campaign is planning to sue if the residency legislation is enacted into law? Or, the piece aside, is the Ortagus campaign making plans to mount a legal challenge if the General Assembly legislation that proposes to set three-year residency requirements for federal candidates is enacted into law?”
An Ortagus campaign spokesperson responded by email to The Star, writing that Ortagus’ statement was “not a departure at all from what she said.” The spox went on to quote from the candidate’s opinion piece, “As I’ve said from the beginning: I’m a true conservative, and I’m going to leave state matters up to the state.”
The campaign’s response did not make mention of any legal action Ortagus might take, should the bill become law in the coming days.
For this legislation to effect Ortagus’ candidacy, the House legislation must be substituted and conformed to the Senate legislation. Then the House must pass the legislation. From there, the proposed measure would go to Governor Lee’s desk for his signature.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
Photo “Morgan Ortagus” by U.S. Embassy.
Although she is a very pretty carpetbagger she is still non the less a carpetbagger . A vote for her is a vote for the swamp . Non of my business here in the Buckeye but we have family in and from Tennessee and we love the Volunteer State .
Seriously? She couldn’t name the interstates that run through Nashville?
The debate re her candidacy stops there.
I support Trump, but not her. I am actually not against Robby, but I think there is a balance to be had. I actually do believe that residence is important. Look at Cheney and her shenanigans. What roots does she have with Wyoming? The issue I have with Tennessee that they continually reject rules or kill in committee laws that would recall them or otherwise hold them accountable. They do not want to be accountable or create rules or laws that will hold the governor by accountable. Emergency powers limitations continually gets swept under the rug and the TN GOP will continue to front. Tennessee needs an overall with the ability for us to vote in our own AG, not one that is appointment by the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Hebert Slatery’s buffoonery (whether it is intentional or not) is enough to justify it. It may take about 8 years, but it is time for Tennesseans to support candidates that will pass legislation to hold them accountable and to have term limits. The people we have in office are only accountable to their donors and not their voters and they will continue to tightened the rules to keep them in power. When God gets tired of them, then they will be moved no matter how many shenanigans that have in place
My question is where did she live prior to coming to TN?
That might give even a bigger clue to what she is about!!
I actually support her right to run and the voter’s right to decide if they want her as their nominee/ member of congress. Her history suggests she will be what’s needed for the given situation and might philosophically represent CD-5 satisfactorily. The concern should be four things.
One, her connection to Jeb Bush. If anyone can explain his thinking since his sights first turned to Presidential runs, please reply and have at it. What philosophically attracted her to Jeb Bush?
Two, there needs to be a primary runoff in Tennessee congressional primaries. Insider money can probably buy a plurality, especially in a crowded primary field. In the end, the absence of a primary may be want saves Morgan Ortagus.
Three, her staggering ignorance of the district as evidenced by her inability to name one of the three interstates that go through the town where she lives. If I spend a weekend in a different town, I can tell you the interstates that go through. She appears to feel no need to acquaint herself with the district she wants to represent. She either lacks the discipline to be prepared or is not capable of being prepared. In either case, this signals that a “handler” is in her future, which leads the question of who and how the handler will influence her. This leads to a final problem signaled by this situation.
Four, regarding her Trump endorsement. Donald Trump – who I will vote for enthusiastically if he is the Republican nominee for president – desperately needs to learn to pick better advisors. Many of his selections as a candidate and president were disastrous. He is right on most every policy and has shown the Republicans who care to learn that it is okay to fight. But, he desperately needs to learn to pick better advisors. Time to channel his “you’re fired” line from the Apprentice.
3 years is not long enough. i like the wording must have been born here.
most likely a nice person but a carpetbagger.
Did anybody check out this woman’s background? Honestly, Tennessee doesn’t want or need some poly-sci educated, 40 year-old who has jumped from one government job to the next every few years as our next member of Congress!
Plus add to it that she’s a Jeb Bush-supporting, former Miss Florida Citrus, State Department “intelligence analyst”, really? At best she sounds a lot like a word that starts with “flo” and ends with “ozy”. And at worst it sounds a like someone who buys into or will buy into all of the classic GHW Bush, “let’s-go-start-another-war” or “overthrow-a-government” globalist cr*p. Either way, no thank you!
Can’t we just find a farmer, or some “regular” guy/gal who knows common sense when they see it?
I would put money on it that she does not have Conservative Christian Tennesseans best interests in mind. She appears to be a neocon and a swamper. I am all in favor of the proposed legislation.
Keeping in mind that the state GOP can also keep these two off the ballot if they are challenged.