As Gov. Bill Lee’s campaign bus pulled up East Main Street in Murfreesboro to the Rutherford County GOP office on Monday afternoon, supporters crowded the sidewalk and spilled out onto the street, waving Lee’s navy and orange campaign signs.
Lee arrived to shake hands, pose for photos and sign campaign signs. After 20 minutes of gladhanding, the group piled into the tiny party office to hear the governor, maneuvering around desks, chairs and an ill-placed dividing wall that blocked half the room’s view.
As Lee gave his stump speech, a lone heckler kept calling out “why won’t you debate Jason Martin?”
The scene Monday was a metaphor for Lee’s reelection effort: amid enthusiastic support from his base, the governor has barely acknowledged his opponent, Sumner County emergency physician Dr. Jason Martin, and hasn’t made time to debate him.
After enjoying significant fundraising advantages over Martin and peppering the airwaves with ads, Lee undertook a formal campaign tour in the final four days before Election Day – after more than 880,000 voters have already cast early or absentee ballots.
State and federal Republicans joined Lee on a bus tour to 17 cities from Crossville to Collierville in a final push in his re-election bid. During five stops across Middle Tennessee on Monday, Lee spoke in sweeping themes, with his message focused on the values he’d prioritized during his first four years in office: conservative principles and confidence in individual Tennesseans.
Lee presented his closing re-election argument to a crowd of about 250 at The Factory in Franklin on Monday evening, with a message of Tennessee exceptionalism that harkened back to the theme of his State of the State address this year.
“We are the envy of many states,” Lee said. “A state that is a beacon to America. People all across America look across the country … They see a state like Tennessee, and they see a place that reminds them that America has not lost her way.”
Wearing his usual checked button-down, Lee spoke at length of the philosophy behind his first four years in office: beliefs in religious liberty, parental authority in education, and the value of unborn life.
“We in leadership hold the values that you hold in your own heart,” Lee said.
At each stop Monday, Lee touted the state’s lowest per-capita tax burden and lowest debt per-capita, while running the fastest-growing economy in the U.S. Without mentioning specifics like Ford Motor Company, Oracle, or GM, Lee touted businesses moving to Tennessee creating “opportunity for Tennesseans from one end of the state to the other.”
Martin has criticized Lee’s leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s abortion ban that includes no real exceptions, including for medical emergencies to save the mother’s life, and Lee’s record prioritizing school choice. Martin has called for Medicaid expansion, legalization of recreational cannabis, and to repeal a permitless carry bill which Gov. Lee signed into law.
Lee’s re-election bid has remained vague on policy goals for his second term. From ads to his four-day whirlwind bus tour across the state this weekend – his re-election campaign has been quiet about any specific policy proposals for the next four years.
Lee has spoken generally in support of legislation anticipated to ban the practice of gender reassignment surgeries for minors. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Lee said he would “continue to look at pay raises for teachers” and “continue to provide choice for parents,” referencing public charter schools and his Education Savings Accounts program, which is being implemented this year.
A host of VIP Republicans joined Lee during his five campaign stops across Middle Tennessee on election eve, including incumbent Congressman John Rose, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, and many local Republican House and Senate members.
The group predicted a “red tsunami” on Tuesday, with Lee at one stop predicting a flip of “four or five” democrat-led states on election night.
Sexton praised Lee’s leadership through crisis including the COVID-19 pandemic, and credited the state’s success to Lee’s leadership.
“In Tennessee, he stood strong against stiff opposition to make sure that you kept your freedom, your opportunity, and allowed you to make those decisions for yourself,” Sexton said. “Because he believes in Tennessee – he believes in you.”
Lee defeated former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean by 21 percentage points in 2018.
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