School Freedom On Tennessee Republican Primary Ballot Tomorrow

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow Tennessee Republican primary voters will go to the polls, and in five races, school freedom is on the ballot. Club for Growth Action affiliated School Freedom Fund is spending $3.6 million in five races to support Gov. Bill Lee’s call for universal school choice in the Volunteer state. These races focus on electing school freedom champions in open Tennessee State House Districts, while also challenging two so-called Republicans running for State Senate who failed to support Gov. Lee’s legislation as members of the Tennessee State House.

By election day, School Freedom Fund will have spent $3.6 million in five races, three state House races and 2 state Senate races, and aired 11 unique television advertisements.

Club for Growth Action and School Freedom Fund ran the same playbook in Texas and defeated 10 anti-school freedom incumbent Republicans. The groups combined to invest nearly $8.5 million and ran 36 unique television ads to ensure Governor Greg Abbott secured the votes needed to empower parents in their children’s education.

SAMPLE TV ADS:

Click here to watch Big Change, a School Freedom Fund ad highlighting Jessie Seal’s commitment to stopping taxpayer benefits going to criminals and his support for education freedom in Tennessee.

Click here to watch Unforgivable, a School Freedom Fund ad calling out Rep. Bryan Richey’s soft on crime record and exposing his votes against tougher sentencing for juveniles convicted of first-degree murder and rape.

Click here to watch Both, a School Freedom Fund ad targeting Tom Stinnett and Nick Bright in Tennessee’s 20th State House district who promised to side with Democrats in Nashville to block Governor Lee’s education freedom bill.

Click here to watch Home, a School Freedom Fund ad highlighting Governor Bill Lee’s endorsement of Lee Reeves to represent Williamson County in the Tennessee State Legislature.

Click here to watch Wheel, a School Freedom Fund ad blasting Joe Smith’s record of raising taxes on Tennessee families as a County Commissioner.

TENNESSEE COVERAGE:

“… The School Freedom Fund, a pro-voucher group tied to Club for Growth … announced they planned to spend a significant amount of money to defeat Richey and Sen. Frank Niceley, a Strawberry Plains Republican, in their Republican primaries and support Republicans Jason Emert in Maryville, Lee Reeves in Franklin and Aron Maberry in Clarksville.” – Tennessee Lookout

 “Political ads are running rampant this election season. One national organization, Club for Growth, is targeting five Tennessee politicians. Among them are state Senator Frank Niceley and Rep. Bryan Richey. The organization said some ads target whoever is against school choice freedom. Those ads reference the school freedom fund. Which is a smaller group tied to the club.

…

‘Senator Nicely wants to call himself a conservative, but he’s not. So we’re telling the voters his record why we don’t think he’s a conservative,” McIntosh said. “He works with the various bureaucrats and teachers unions to try to block the governor’s bill that would allow parents and Children to make choices about how the best they can best be educated. And to us, that’s a very liberal position.’” – WBIR Nashville.

“School Freedom Fund is affiliated with the libertarian advocacy group Club for Growth Action, and works to support candidates that support school choice policies, including publicly funded private school vouchers.

‘You can no longer call yourself a conservative if you oppose school freedom, and you should expect a very expensive primary that you’ll probably lose,” School Freedom Fund President David McIntosh said. “Following the recent failure of bold school freedom legislation in Tennessee because of Republican opposition, School Freedom Fund is making a major investment in five races.’

…

‘The is the beginning of a school freedom movement putting parents — not bureaucrats — in control of their children’s education,’ McIntosh said. ‘We are looking to replicate our results in the Texas primary where we defeated 10 anti-school freedom incumbents.’” – The Tennessean.

TEXAS COVERAGE:

“Most of the candidates backed by Mr. Abbott and the Club for Growth (Action), a national conservative anti-tax group, won their races. The group had spent $4.4 million on the Texas House runoff elections alone, including $1.5 million against Mr. Phelan. ‘Had he pushed forward with the governor’s school choice bill, none of this challenge would have materialized,’ said David McIntosh, the group’s president, referring to Mr. Phelan. ‘It sends a message around the country that if you’re not for school choice, you’re not a conservative Republican.’” – New York Times

“Several Republicans balked at spending public money on private schools, and many of them found themselves targeted by the governor during their re-election bids. And not just Mr. Abbott: The pro-voucher campaign received backing from national supporters of voucher programs, including a $6 million contribution from a Pennsylvania billionaire, the largest in Texas history, and the Club for Growth (Action), an influential conservative anti-tax group that spent nearly $4 million, mostly on television ads. Those efforts appeared to have paid off. In 14 races where either Mr. Abbott’s campaign or the Club for Growth (Action) spent heavily, only two incumbents emerged from Tuesday victorious. The others either lost or were heading for runoffs.” – New York Times

“The victories put the lie to the narrative that rural voters don’t want school choice. They also show that determined leadership can defeat the teachers unions that spent heavily against the pro-choice candidates. Credit to … the Club for Growth (Action) and AFC Victory Fund for spending to support choice candidates.” – Wall Street Journal Opinion

“Governor Abbott’s effort to pass school choice in 2023 died ‘when 21 House Republicans voted to strip a voucher program out of a wide-ranging education bill, House Bill1,’ as Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek noted today. Of those 21, 16 of them are running for reelection and most of those challengers have been endorsed by Governor Abbott. ‘A national pro-voucher group, the School Freedom Fund, is launching a $1.15 million TV ad blitz across eight primaries Wednesday, part of a major ramp-up by Abbott’s allies on the issue.’ Svitek reported.” – Forbes

“Voucher bills have failed in Texas, most notably, last year, when 21 House Republicans voted against expanding school choice as part of an education-funding bill. Abbott’s push to oust school-choice dissidents was backed by major Republican donors and groups, such as… Club for Growth (Action), which poured $4 million into targeting anti-voucher runoff candidates…” – National Review

“Fifteen Republican incumbents were voted out in total during the Texas primary season, ten of whom were targeted explicitly by Abbott for voting against vouchers. It wasn’t just Texans spending money in these races. National groups like Club for Growth (Action)… poured money into supporting pro-voucher candidates.” –  Politico

“Club for Growth (Action), a federal PAC, reserved some $4 million in TV and radio ads targeting the four anti-voucher Republicans who were pushed into runoffs,” – Texas Tribune

“The conservative Club for Growth Action and affiliated Freedom spent over $4.4 million in the primary runoffs and $4 million in the primaries to target 14 anti-school choice Republicans. Ten of them have now been defeated.” – The Daily Mail

“Club for Growth (Action) spent $4 million in Republican primary elections through its affiliate, the School Freedom Fund. The group’s President, David McIntosh, confirms they have already set another $4 million in TV ads in April in five small runoff elections. He aims to get Governor Greg Abbott’s priority of school choice vouchers to pass the Texas House, where it was voted down last year.” […] “’The political message is if you’re against school choice, you’re no longer a conservative Republican. You’re basically a RINO (Republican-in-name-only),’ said McIntosh.” –NBC 5 Dallas Fort Worth 

“The fight over school choice in Texas is drawing in some major campaign dollars this primary season, with the latest deployment of funds targeting eight of the 16 House Republicans running for re-election who voted to kill a school choice measure during the last of four special legislative sessions last year. Roughly $1.2 million in spending on the part of the super PAC School Freedom Fund, an initiative by the right-leaning Club for Growth (Action)…” – The Dallas Express 

“A national political group plans to spend nearly a million dollars to unseat Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan as he fights to survive a GOP runoff election next month. The Club for Growth (Action), a group funded by GOP donors that usually focuses on congressional races, said it would spend $900,000 in the Beaumont media market. The group already has posted one ad that describes Phelan as a ‘Democrat in disguise.’ […] The announcement was part of a planned $4 million ad buy across Phelan’s race and four other GOP runoffs, each of those targeting incumbents who opposed private school vouchers. That included more than $2 million in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to oppose Reps. Justin Holland and DeWayne Burns, $650,000 to oppose Rep. John Kuempel near San Antonio and $300,000 to oppose Rep. Gary VanDeaver in Northeast Texas.” […] “The group has been allied this cycle with Gov. Greg Abbott, who has led the charge to unseat voucher opponents.” – San Antonio Express News