(C) Tennessee Lookout
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Tennessee Republicans deny Oak Ridge Rep. John Ragan's challenge of August primary loss • Tennessee Lookout [1]
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Date: 2024-09-09
The Tennessee Republican Party’s State Executive Committee voted overwhelmingly to deny outgoing Oak Ridge Rep. John Ragan’s challenge of his August primary loss to Rick Scarbrough.
The committee voted 41-7 against Ragan’s claim that Democrats crossed over in the Anderson County Republican primary to help Scarbrough, who won the race by 258 votes.
Though the vote total was narrow, Scarbrough’s 5-point victory margin was larger than several other Republican primaries that went unchallenged.
After his defeat, local officials voiced frustration at Ragan’s refusal to concede and pointed to his support for private school vouchers and other unpopular education positions.
“Ragan lost because he listens to lobbyists and party hacks, and not to his constituents,” said Angi Agle, an Oak Ridge Board of Education member, to the Lookout last week.
The county commission, school board and governing bodies for Oak Ridge and Clinton all passed resolutions opposing school vouchers.
Ragan didn’t back Gov. Bill Lee’s plan for universal private school vouchers, but a different bill supported by House Republican leaders that added some sweeteners for teachers into the legislation.
Lee tried to make vouchers the deciding issue in the August primary, after negotiations between his administration, the House, and the Senate failed: no private school voucher bill made it out of committee earlier in the year.
Pro-voucher groups spent almost $4.5 million during the primaries. Most of that money came from a dark money political action committee called the School Freedom Fund, which spent $3.1 million.
The results were mixed, with Lee- and voucher-backed candidates winning House seats in Franklin and Clarksville but losing a seat in Maryville and Ragan’s former seat, leaving it still unclear if the governor has the votes to pass a voucher plan.
Ragan received around $30,000 in independent support from Americans for Prosperity, a group supporting school choice. Scarbrough received over $50,000 in support from Tennesseans for Student Success, which has said it supports education accountability, not necessarily vouchers. But Student Success often backs the same candidates as pro-voucher groups.
Ragan’s challenge based on ‘bona fide’ law
Tennessee law requires primary voters to either be bona fide party members or declare allegiance to the party, which voting clerks interpret as simply requesting the party’s ballot on primary election day.
In practice, this creates an open primary system in Tennessee, where voters can choose their party at the last minute. Other states, like New York with a closed primary, require voters to register with a party months before an election.
Republicans in the General Assembly have tried for several years to pass legislation for a closed primary, but their efforts have failed.
The issue of crossover votes has arisen multiple times over the past five years but has yet to result in a successful challenge.
In many of Tennessee’s state and county races, the primary winner is almost certain to win the general election, leading voters from both parties to cross over and influence the outcome.
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https://tennesseelookout.com/2024/09/09/tennessee-republicans-deny-oak-ridge-rep-john-ragans-challenge-of-august-primary-loss/
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