Trump-Backed Candidate Dumped from Tennessee Ballot
There is a war raging within the GOP, and it’s battlefield is divided by a very brazen and obvious line: Donald Trump’s side and the other side.
The MAGA Movement has made piercing headway in the Republican Party of late, harnessing the grassroots political energy left in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and riding it all the way to through state and local government.
It’s a red wave, all right, and it has provided a new posture for the GOP of the 21st century.
But not everyone seems to be on board, and some of the resistance has been downright ugly.
The Tennessee Republican Party voted Tuesday to remove former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus and two other people from the August primary ballot in the state’s 5th Congressional District.
The vote marked the culmination of months of effort by both GOP legislators and activists to boot Ortagus because she had only recently moved to the state. She was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
“I am deeply disappointed in the SEC’s decision,” Ortagus said in a statement, referring to the party’s State Executive Committee. “I’m a bonafide Republican by their standards, and frankly, by any metric. I’m further disappointed that the party insiders at the Tennessee Republican Party do not seem to share my commitment to President Trump’s America First policies.
The campaign was furious.
Ortagus’ campaign argued that she met all of the state party’s bylaws — voting in enough recent GOP primaries, participating in Republican women’s groups and contributing to the state party. In a statement ahead of the vote, Ortagus said she spent several weeks speaking with members of the State Executive Committee “about my core conservative beliefs, my background serving in the Trump Administration and the U.S. Navy Reserves, and my conservative vision for our state and our country.”
“President Donald Trump believes I’m the best person to fight for his America First agenda and Middle Tennessee in Congress, and I’m working hard to ensure that my fellow Tennesseans, including TNGOP SEC members, understand why,” she said.
The move will certainly raise eyebrows within the GOP at large, as they continue to grapple with fallout from these warring factions.
