Jeff Hartline Commentary: I Choose Swamp Disruptor, Dr. Manny Sethi

by Jeff Hartline

 

Tennessee voters are faced with a significant choice this election cycle for U.S. Senate.  Will they choose a Lamar Alexander 2.0 candidate or will they opt for the Trumpesque outsider, Dr. Manny Sethi?

Yes, we all know that his opponent ceaselessly touts his Trump endorsement, which was understandably given as a result of his assistance in Tennessee during the 2016 election cycle.  I’m pleased to see the broken clock get one right.  After all, he ceaselessly promoted Trump’s major nemesis in the Republican senate Caucus, Mitt Romney in two previous Presidential runs.  His previous endorsements of Jeb Bush and campaign contributions to Al Gore remind us all where he has been the majority of his “political” career.  Welcome aboard, finally, Mr. Hagerty.

I had the opportunity to hear both candidates at the Wilson County GOP-sponsored Trump-Reagan Day Dinner last year.  Hagerty was completely unpolished as a speaker, completely oblivious to the people in the room whom most he never attempted to connect with and lacking in energy.  He did, however, remind us ad nauseum that he was endorsed by President Trump.

Sethi, on the other hand. Worked the room tirelessly, shaking hands, meeting voters of all ages and some non-voting youngsters, smiling broadly as he politely asked for support.  His remarks were crisp and energy-laden, connecting on issue after issue and making clear his intention to add one more Senator who would support the President’s efforts without fail.  The response of the room to the candidates was palpably different, with polite applause for Hagerty and a thunderous ovation for Sethi.

Hagerty’s campaign is polished, no doubt and his donor list mirrors Corker’s, Haslam’s, Alexander’s et al, elected officials that many conservatives constantly scratched their heads over, wondering if they even understood what being a real Republican looked like.  Hagerty touts his support for the 2nd Amendment by walking around with an expensive over-and-under shotgun, proving he has little idea what the 2nd Amendment really means.  He affirms his support for the “wall”.  That’s a real 180 degree turn from his time as Commissioner of Economic and Community Development under Governor Haslam.  Members of the Republican House Caucus tell me that when the House was moving the bills against forced Federal Refugee Resettlement through Committee, he called numerous House Members to his office to berate them about the need for these refugees to support “economic development”.  I guess he thought “economic development” should exclude Tennessee workers needing jobs.

Sethi’s public campaign speaks to the basic issues of life, opportunity, family, law and order and his commitment to assisting the President in completing the wall on the southern border with his retort, “Let ‘em call me racist.”

Sethi’s physician parents immigrated from India and conducted medical practices in rural Coffee County for 25 years, leading him to choose a career as a Trauma Surgeon.  Yes, I hear he did give a Democrat medical buddy of his in Massachusetts a $50.00 campaign contribution.  And, as a teenage resident of Georgia away in Graduate School in 1976, I voted for Jimmy Carter.  So sue me.

Just as I supported private citizen, entrepreneur, philanthropist, outsider Bill Lee (Hey, that sounds a lot like Donald Trump, doesn’t it?) for Governor, I am continuing my quest to support outsiders everywhere, at the local, state and federal levels.  I am committed to supporting candidates like Trump, who are disruptive to the status quo. (Remember, status quo is Latin for “the mess we’re in”.)  Hagerty presents as just the next status quo jockey riding into Washington on a personal fortune, backed by the same people conservatives have been trying to get rid of for decades.  He says many of the “right things”, but without conviction and without a track record.

After the previously mentioned GOP Dinner, I decided that Sethi would be getting my support and I am more convinced of it today than I was then.  His energy in public is riveting, unlike his stiff-suit opponent.  His family’s story is the American Dream.  He is the recipient of passed along values borne out of the struggle to be free and the effort needed to cross an ocean to find it.  His faith convictions have led him to serve his Tennessee neighbors through his Foundation, where he personally visits rural communities providing and promoting better health.

But most of all, he is not beholden to any interest group, pack of campaign contribution bundlers nor does he oversell what he can do once elected.  He is receiving the financial and voting support of people across Tennessee that I know to be conservatives, as well as Republicans.  His election to the Senate will allow him to join Senators like Rand Paul, Tim Scott, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Josh Hawley and other like-minded conservatives to move conservative judicial nominees to the bench and to hold the line against Hagerty-supported knuckleheads like Mitt Romney.

Finally, I have no reason to believe that when votes of consequence come before him, that I will need to be emailing or texting him to do what he said he would do, unlike his squishy Alexander 2.0 opponent.  I’ll rest easy knowing that he will join his Tennessee Senate colleague in doing what he said he would do.

I have his sign in my yard and my name on his donor list and I’m proud to vote for him in this Primary.  Please join me in casting a vote for a much-needed Swamp Disruptor, Dr. Manny Sethi.

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Jeff Hartline is the Executive Director of TN Spotlight.