Tennessee Gubernatorial Candidate Monty Fritts Criticizes Budget Growth, Calls for Cuts to State Spending

Kaitlin Housler
Monty Fritts

State Representative Monty Fritts (R-Kingston), a candidate in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial race, is centering his campaign on a sharp critique of the state’s rapid budget growth and a call for cuts to government spending.

Appearing on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday, Fritts framed his candidacy as a mission to reverse the state’s current fiscal trajectory.

“I think I’m the only one that’s speaking about this crazy budget growth. I voted against the budget this year…We have gone from a budget request in 2019 to $37.5 billion to $59.5 billion in six years time. That is not limited government, that is not fiscally responsible,” Fritts said.

He outlined a few of his top targets for spending reductions, some of which were amendments he offered to the current budget, including $60 million for a 0 percent new home construction loan program, which he called “socialist in nature” and outside the proper role of government.

“That’s not the role of government…Unfortunately, we take a socialist approach on redistribution of the people’s money, and we do it often by how much income someone has. I disagree with that. I don’t think that’s an American way to address that,” Fritts explained.

Fritts also proposed cutting $25 million for a farmland preservation initiative, which he argued lacks transparency and benefits lawyers and NGOs more than farmers, and focusing on a broader effort to roll back grocery taxes, starting with basic food items already classified under the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program.

“Every dollar that we expend or we budget, we must take from a Tennessean. I think that becomes an extraction of liberty from that Tennessean, I want to leave more money in the pockets of all Tennesseans,” Fritts said.

“We should have learned with Obamacare…to keep the government out of roles of things that is not the government,” he added.

Fritts acknowledged that the savings from his proposed cuts — totaling around $110 million — would be a small slice of the nearly $60 billion budget, but said they represent the beginning of a broader shift in fiscal philosophy.

“The only way you take a tree down is one chop at a time with an ax,” he said.

If elected, Fritts said he would reshape the role of the executive office to focus narrowly on the essential functions of government.

“I think that the governor ought to only be submitting budget requests for things that are the function of government. When you do that, you start to see some significant cuts,” he said.

Fritts also said he disagrees with incumbent Lee’s approach of submitting up to 60 bills per session and pledged to dramatically reduce executive-sponsored legislation.

“The governor shouldn’t be running 60 bills. Our Constitution says that he, from time to time, can make suggestions,” he said.

As a military veteran who re-enlisted at age 40 and later served in Iraq, Fritts described his run for governor as a spiritual calling, comparing it to his decision to serve in the military later in life.

“I have never had a desire to be in politics, but I felt a need to just as much as I felt a call to reenlist at age 40,” Fritts said

“I think there’s a real thirst for liberty in Tennessee. I think there’s a distaste for big government and expanding budget. So I’m going to preach a message of liberty less government in Tennessee…I’m going to take a really different approach to this than what most politicians do. I want to be a public servant and hear the people,” he added.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

 

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