Republican state Rep. Bruce Griffey addresses protesters at a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally in Nashville on Nov. 14
By the time you read this, some top Tennessee Republicans may have acknowledged the obvious: Democrat Joe Biden is the next president of the United States.
But we’re not holding our breath.
The most powerful people in Tennessee — including Gov. Bill Lee, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty — have spent the days since Election Day (and especially since Nov. 7, when major media outlets called the race for Biden) sowing distrust. They’ve refused to accept the results of an election that Republican election officials, independent observers, courts across the country and even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have all deemed overwhelmingly fair and secure. Blackburn, Hagerty and the state party are begging their supporters to donate to Donald Trump’s “legal defense fund” — left out of their tweets and emails is the fine print, which indicates much of the money actually goes to retiring Trump’s campaign debt, not waging losing legal battles.
Outgoing Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who rose to power as governor in the 1970s by teaming with Democrats to oust corrupt lame-duck Gov. Ray Blanton, offered something far less consequential this time.
“The orderly transfer or reaffirming of immense power after a presidential election is the most enduring symbol of our democracy,” Alexander said.
And though Republicans won almost every race in the state — Trump easily won Tennessee again, Hagerty easily beat Democrat Marquita Bradshaw, and the GOP caucuses in the state House and Senate held on to their giant margins — the parade of sore winners continued. Nearly the entire Republican caucus in the Tennessee General Assembly, from Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton down to dozens of backbenchers, signed on to open letters proclaiming their unending devotion to Trump, American voters be damned.
The Senate Republicans said that they “absolutely and unequivocally” stand with Trump and his attempt to reverse the results of the election. Shortly after, House Republicans said they “unequivocally and staunchly” stand with Trump. Left to the linguists is the determination of whether “staunchly” or “absolutely” more closely ties a group to Trump.
It’s a delusion: Those in power are either deluding themselves or attempting to delude Tennesseans. Biden’s margins in several key states are far greater than what election experts expect audits or recounts to uncover.
But the response has not been unanimous. Three of the Senate’s 27 Republicans declined to sign the letter, while seven of the House’s 73 Republicans sat it out.
One of the holdouts, GOP Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville, calls the decision “very simple.”
“No one presented evidence to me of massive voter fraud that would change the results of the election,” he tells the Scene.
Another, Republican Rep. Michael Curcio of Dickson, told WPLN that “proliferating unsubstantiated claims does not serve the public interest.”
But at the highest levels, only former Republican officials have accepted the results. Former Gov. Bill Haslam and former U.S. Sens. Bill Frist and Bob Corker all congratulated Biden — a routine response in most years, but an aberration among Tennessee Republicans this time around.
It should come as no surprise that Tennessee Republicans are reacting this way. They’ve spent the past four years filing meaningless resolutions sucking up to the president. They also have experience obstructing the removal of another loser in a prominent position: Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader whose honorary Capitol bust — and legacy — legislative leaders just can’t quit.
