Image Credit: Senator J. Adam Lowe, Tennessee District 1 / Facebook
By Jenny Hay [Special to The Tennessee Conservative] –
In the legislative session which just ended, a bill which would have closed our primary elections stalled in the State and Local Government Committee chaired by Senator Richard Briggs. However, the bill remains viable for the next legislative session, according to Senator Adam Lowe, who carried it in the senate.
Presently, Tennessee has “open” primary elections, meaning that voters may choose to vote in any party primary, regardless of their personal affiliation. Democrats can vote in Republican primaries and vice-versa. In many states, primary elections are “closed,” so that Democratic candidates are nominated by committed Democrats, and Republican candidates are nominated by committed Republicans.
Sen. Lowe said that the bill to close primary elections in Tennessee “didn’t get a second.”
“It didn’t have enough votes to pass out of committee,” Lowe said. “There would have been four votes for it and five against, so the good thing about not getting a second is that the bill is still alive for next year.”
“This was a campaign promise for me, so I’m going to keep bringing it back again and again,” Lowe affirmed. “I think we had a great bill. Step one is to get it out of committee. There’s at least one person on the committee who is open to being persuaded.”
According to Lowe, there are a couple of reasons Democrats might “crossover” and vote in Republican primaries.
“It changes from district to district,” Lowe said. “In my district, the Democratic primary is insignificant, because the Republican is going to win. So Democrats want to feel like they are part of the decision. In other districts that are more balanced, the motivation might be to sabotage—to vote for the Republican candidate that would be easiest to beat.”
Last fall, Anderson County Democrats hinted at the first motivation—that they crossed over to vote in the Republican primary for District 33, because they preferred challenger Rick Scarbrough over incumbent John Ragan. After the election, they made this Facebook post:
After coming up short in the primary, Ragan pulled the voting histories of everyone who voted and found that many people had a prior history of voting only in Democratic primaries. Ragan challenged the outcome, but the Republican State Executive Committee members refused to set aside an election due to crossover voting. Scarbrough went on to win the general election.
Sen. Richard Briggs, who chairs the committee on State and Local Government, does not support closing our primary elections.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Briggs said in an email. He emphasized that the second motivation—sabotage voting—hasn’t cost Republicans in general elections. “Can you name a single state Senate race or state House race Republicans have lost?”
Briggs was not concerned that Republicans, though elected, might be less conservative because Democrats had participated in their nominations. “The American Conservative Union ranks Tennessee the most conservative state in the country,” Briggs wrote.
However, Sen. Lowe believes that “this is about election integrity,” not just practical outcomes. “We’re about transparency and disclosure. When it comes to voting, it’s appropriate to ask, first, whether you’re a citizen, and second, whether you’re a member of the party.”
According to Martin Daniel, the newly elected chair of the Knox County Republican Party, “The KCRP does not have a position on this issue.”
“As the legislative session nears in the fall, we will make a determination on that issue,” Daniel wrote in an email. It is important to note, however, that in order to participate in the election by which Daniel became the KCRP chair, voters had to prove they were bona fide Republicans by having voted in at least three of the last four Republican primary elections.
Under SB 777/HB 886, the proposed bill for closing our primaries, the process for registering as a Democrat or Republican would be easy for both new and established voters. Once enacted, established voters would declare their affiliation the next time they vote in a primary election. New voters would declare their party affiliation when they register to vote.
Only changing one’s party would require some effort: “To change a voter’s party affiliation for purposes of participating in a primary election… the registered voter must notify the county election commission in writing of the change in party affiliation no later than ninety (90) days prior to the primary in which the voter wishes to participate (SB 777/HB 886).”
*This article was edited by Mrs. Taylor Williams.
About the Author: Jenny Hay is the founder of Knoxville Nobility, a Substack publication for local pro-life, pro-family news and insights, including firsthand reporting on Knoxville’s 2021 Planned Parenthood arson.
