State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in 2020.
Read the full storyState Representative Andy Holt Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election in 2020
Tag: Representative Andy Holt
State House Committee Votes to Delay Action on Nathan Bedford Forrest Bust at State Capitol
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The State House Naming, Designating and Private Acts Committee voted Tuesday to delay action until the last calendar of the committee on a resolution suggesting the removal and replacement of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust at the state capitol building.
Read the full storyConservative Rusty Grills Big Winner in State House District 77 Special Election Primary
In the Republican primary for the State House District 77 special election, conservative Rusty Grills was the big winner Tuesday night receiving nearly 56 percent of the vote.
Read the full storyAnonymous Twitter Account Disparaging State House Members Reportedly Operated by State Representative Rick Tillis
An anonymous Twitter account that has been active for nearly three months disparaging Tennessee State House members and staff was outed Wednesday as an account secretly operated by State Representative Rick Tillis (R-Lewisburg). The big reveal came at the hands of fellow State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) via Twitter. The anonymous account was operated under the Twitter handle of @CHBmole. The moniker implied that the author is an insider within the Cordell Hull Building – otherwise known as CHB – home of the Tennessee legislature since late 2017. The @CHBmole account became active in February 2019, and seemed focused primarily on criticism of legislative staffers hired by Speaker Glen Casada. However, one tweet appeared to leak that former State Representative Joe Carr had been appointed as a Deputy Commissioner for the Tennessee of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) prior to the announcement being made public. Along with the comment, “I could not think of a more qualified person,” and a “thinking” emoji was the hashtag “#favoroftheweek.” Another tweet reported that Representative Michael Curcio (R-Dickson) was chosen by Governor Bill Lee to participate in his first State of the State Address. This despite, as the “mole” pointed out, Curcio was apparently…
Read the full storyJC Bowman Commentary: ESA’S Have Passed – What’s Next?
In the end, just like magnet schools, community schools, and charter schools, ESA’s will be viewed as another reform effort. Its success or failure will largely be defined by the students who participate in the program.
Read the full storyVictory for Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Accounts
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Victory has finally been achieved for Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Accounts program, as both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly finally adopted the same version of proposed legislation by narrow margins. The final adoption of the Governor’s most significant education initiative, the Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program Act, came with its share of wrangling. After weeks of hearings on the legislation, carried by Speaker Pro Tem Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) in the House and Senate Education Committee Chair Senator Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville), navigating the numerous committees and negotiating with the Administration, the two chambers eventually passed two different versions of the legislation last week. Passage on the House floor, though, was drama filled as a 40-minute pause was taken in order to break a 49 to 49 tie by flipping the vote of Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) by taking Knox County out as one of the participating counties. Following the refusal by both bodies of the Tennessee General Assembly to back away from their respective versions of the Education Savings Account bills HB 0939 and SB 0795, on Tuesday the Speakers each appointed five members to a Joint Conference Committee. Senate members of the Joint…
Read the full storyFreshmen GOP Legislators Ignore TSBA Scandal
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – When presented with an opportunity to hear a bill that would bring accountability and transparency to the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA), nine GOP legislators in the Tennessee House of Representatives– primarily freshmen – voted against it on Tuesday. This, despite the fact that the sponsor of the bill, Representative and House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee Chairman Andy Holt (R-Dresden), laid out the details of the special carve-outs that the taxpayer-funded Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) enjoys. Six freshmen GOP legislators–State Representatives Charlie Baum (R-Murfreesboro), Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka), Mark Cochran (R-Englewood), Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville), Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington), and Iris Rudder (R-Winchester)–joined three other GOP legislators– State Representatives Jim Coley (R-Bartlett), David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), and Kevin Vaughan (R-Shelby County)– and four Democrat legislators–State Representatives Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville), Jason Hodges (D-Clarksville), Harold Love (D-Nashville), and Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis)–in defying the House GOP leadership’s wishes to have Holt’s bill recalled for consideration by the full House Education Committee. The final vote in the committee was 13 against recalling the bill, and 8 in favor of it. The bill failed in the House Education Administration Subcommittee last week, largely through an administrative oversight. The Tennessee Star has featured several reports on the taxpayer-funded TSBA…
Read the full storyState House Committee Denies Tennessee Voters The Ability To Register With a Political Party
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A bill that would allow Tennessee voters the ability to register with either of the two major political parties or as unaffiliated failed in the House Local Committee. The effort, sponsored by Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) as HB 1398, was amended to eliminate requiring a party affiliation and eliminate closing the party primaries, as it was felt “having closed primaries would disenfranchise Independents and Democrats and Republicans who wanted to vote in each others’ primary,” according to Rudd as he presented the bill. A measure to actually close the primaries sponsored by Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) under HB 1273, in accordance with a December 2018 overwhelming vote by the State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Republican Party, failed in the same Committee late last month as The Tennessee Star reported. Representative Rudd made the point that, “The one group of people that are disenfranchised right now, both Democrat and Republican, are party members and activists that actually want to be registered.” Representative London Lamar (D-Memphis) questioned Representative Rudd, as she did with Representative Holt on his closed primary bill, as to whether he had consulted with both political parties in writing the bill. Rudd responded that he…
Read the full storyState Representative Andy Holt’s Bill for Two Types of Handgun Carry Permits Moves Forward in the House
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A bill to create two types of handgun carry permits, sponsored by State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) as HB 1264, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee this week. The bill, if it should become law, reclassifies current handgun carry permits as an “Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit” (EHCP), and creates a new “Concealed Handgun Carry Permit” (CHCP). The EHCP does not specify that the manner in which a handgun is carried, therefore allowing both concealed and open carry. EHCP holders will generally be exempt from current restrictions regarding carrying in public areas such as parks and education-related properties. The application fee for an ECHP is $100. The CHCP would allow handguns to be carried only in a concealed manner. There shall be no application fee for the CHCP and it shall be valid for eight years from the date of issuance. A CHCP applicant must provide proof of competence with a handgun through one of nine different avenues, with no expiration date on the proof of demonstrated competence, including: completion of hunter education or hunter safety course by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency or similar agency of another state; completion of any firearms safety or training course…
Read the full storyState House Committee Shoots Down Closing Party Primaries With the Help of Ten Republicans
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – By a vote of 2 to 14, a bill requiring that a voter in a party primary first declare their party affiliation prior to casting a primary vote, failed in the House Local Government Committee. Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) was the House sponsor of HB 1273, known as the “Political Party Registration Act,” as an outcome of the December 2018 organizational meeting of the Republican State Executive Committee (SEC). At the meeting, the Republican SEC overwhelming voted to pass a resolution to the Tennessee General Assembly addressing voter registration by a vote of 45 to 14 and one abstention, as reported by The Tennessee Star. The passage of the resolution by the Republican SEC resolved a long-standing issue as to whether the Tennessee Republican Party or the Tennessee General Assembly should make the first move relative to closing the primaries. As bill sponsor Holt explained to the Committee in the presentation of his bill, Tennessee law currently requires that a participant in a party primary be a bona fide member of that party. Violators of the law commit an offense that is a Class E felony, although there is no real enforcement of the law, due to…
Read the full storyTennessee Pro-Life Grassroots Activists Turn Out In Support Of Heartbeat Bill
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A group of middle Tennessee pro-life grassroots activists rallying behind the bill that would ban abortions in the state after a fetal Heartbeat is detected spent a day on Capitol Hill talking with legislators. As reported by The Tennessee Star, a bill sponsored by Representative Micah Van Huss (R-Jonesborough) as HB 0077 is scheduled to be heard in the House Public Health Subcommittee on Wednesday. A less-than-conservative publication, The Atlantic, suggests that Democrats may have overplayed their hand on abortion, giving the pro-life movement an opportunity. Specifically, The Atlantic discusses two recent events. First, in New York the signing of a bill providing the legal right to abort fetuses that could survive outside the womb was cheered and celebrated by lighting up the city’s Freedom Tower. Then, in Virginia, the state’s Governor, Ralph Northam, defended a state lawmaker’s bill by explaining that after a baby was delivered it would be kept comfortable, resuscitated, “if that’s what the other and family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” In stark contrast, pro-life advocates in Tennessee wanted to show their support of Van Huss’s Heartbeat Bill, so that legislators would hear a voice…
Read the full storySchool Protection and Student Privacy Act Moves Forward In Tennessee House
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The School Protection and Student Privacy Act, sponsored by Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) in the House, moved forward from the Civil Justice Committee Wednesday. After more than an hour of debate and testimony by five witnesses, House Bill 2620 passed by a vote of 4 ayes, 2 nos and 1 abstention. Following the vote at the bill’s first stop, Holt told The Tennessee Star, “Now more than ever, it’s important that we empower and encourage local school districts to protect boys and girls from being compelled to use the restroom, shower or undress in the presence of those of the opposite sex.” He further explained, While in a sense it’s very sad that we even have to address things like preventing girls in public schools from having to shower with or undress in the presence of boys, there’s a small but vocal minority determined to dismiss these objective biological distinctions. We can’t just sit idly by and pretend that this will all work itself out in a good way. We have to take a stand now. If not now, then when? The bill expands the duties of the State Attorney General and Reporter (AG) to “include representation…
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