State Rep. Andy Holt Commentary: Conservatives Need to Reject the Fake News and Unite Behind Bill Lee

Andy Holt, Bill Lee
by State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden)

 

With just a little more than a week left in this election, the polling is clear: Bill Lee is leading Randy Boyd and Diane Black. It’s why they are both spending millions to attack him. And I can’t help but shake this feeling of déjà vu that we have been here before.

Over the next 10 days, we’ll see the worst of politics. We’ll see what we saw in 2016: An outsider threatening the traditional power structure of the PACs and lobbyists, and that very same power structure doing everything they can to attack Bill’s business and take his words out of context to frame him as something he’s not. When you see the attack ads from the politicians in this race, remember, this isn’t a new strategy, it’s the exact same playbook they launched on President Trump. And it’s coming from the same insiders that attacked our President and continue to undermine him.

For years, too many voters have bought into a system that elects people not based on results, but based on words. We’ve seen our members of Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling and fund Planned Parenthood, then tell us they shrunk government and defended life. We see bureaucrats sign a pledge not to raise taxes, then tell a newspaper that they’re “open” to raising taxes. And yet we continue to put those politicians back in power because they have refined the skill of telling us just the right catch phrases, just the right poll-tested buzzwords, to give us just enough to trust them, while at the same time unleashing a barrage of anonymous special interest money to attack anyone who challenges them!

Donald Trump was our first chance to reject this system, and it’s working for our country. But he didn’t enter or even finish the primary with a merry band of conservative talking heads touting him. In fact, through the end we had Tennessee TEA party “leaders” try to tell voters he was a closest democrat! These same “conservative” experts who trashed Trump are telling us we “have” to vote for a 30-year politician in the governor’s race. They are launching their own fake news, with bought-and-paid-for “conservative” commentators and endorsers who are more interested in generating clicks and ad dollars for their websites and podcasts than they are in actually enacting conservative legislation. This is the swamp come-alive, and it thrives in a symbiotic relationship with elite politicians who come down from their mega-mansions, Argentina vineyards, and private jets just long enough to put on a show of how much they’re doing “for us.” I’m not buying it and neither should you.

The Tennessee governor’s race is a chance to reject the political machine and repeat the success of 2016 here in Tennessee. To me the decision is easy: Bill Lee is a real outsider. He doesn’t pretend to care about farmers, he is a farmer. He doesn’t pretend to care about blue-collar workers, he has spent his life creating jobs in the skilled trades. He’s the only authentic candidate in this race, a hardliner on immigration, and the only candidate who has told me how he will defend our Constitution. And at a time when the obstacle to passing conservativelegislation isn’t Democrats, but fellow Republicans, our President and Bill Lee bring the type of outside leadership that we need now more than ever.

He’s a businessman who, just like President Trump, has done the smart thing to protect his business. An attack on his political contributions is just a reminder to me that like our President, Bill Lee is successful businessman, who says what’s on his mind, instead of recycling poll-tested talking points. And unlike the other candidates in this race, Bill Lee is honest about it. Like our President, that means it’s not all smooth and rehearsed. Bill will get criticized for not saying the “right” thing like our President. But I know I would rather have a leader who is human and honest than someone who is deceptive and skillful at telling me what they think I want to hear.

I don’t need someone else to tell me what I can see with my own eyes: The fact that Bill Lee is not part of the political machine. He’s a businessman, a follower of Christ, and a constitutionalist who has a fundamental belief in the power of liberty, not a desire for power. And he could not care less what the media and the self-anointed “experts” think of him. That’s why I’m voting for Bill Lee.

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State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) is a conservative Republican representing Weakley, and parts of Obion and Carroll Counties. He is the House sponsor of numerous pieces of liberty-minded legislation such as campus carry, and the effort to ban photo-traffic enforcement. He was also the House sponsor of the 2018 “Bathroom Bill”, an outspoken supporter of President Trump, and a strong proponent of the right to bear arms. This op-ed was not paid for or authorized by any campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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6 Thoughts to “State Rep. Andy Holt Commentary: Conservatives Need to Reject the Fake News and Unite Behind Bill Lee”

  1. 83ragtop50

    Blah-blah-blah.

  2. Sandi Holman

    I am in agreement with all the statements and respect Andy Holt and see Bill Lee as our best choice. I only have one concern and it is my major concern. Bill Lee does not appear to support our president Donald Trump and there have been many articles stating he did not vote for him. Can you validate his support of President Trump and his Democratic leanings in the past? Thanks so much.

    1. DEFEAT PHILBERT

      Bill Lee ran a tv ad about how much he supports President trump he says he voted for him, and donated zero dollars but thats as much as Diane Black and Randy Boyd and Beth harwell gave to Donald Trump ($0). he never “disavowed” trump like Randy boyd did who I heard called him an animal

    2. Stuart I. Anderson

      Actually it’s good that you are getting practice of being “concerned” with Bill Lee. If we elect him governor soon your “concern” will morph into disappointment. Lee is a blank canvas on which, with the help of his campaign team supplying the paint and brushes, everyone is painting their own picture. In the meantime we’re hearing disquieting sounds from Lee to the effect that he doesn’t want to be “divisive’ and I just know that he has to turn that big bleeding heart of his into relatively liberal policies.

      The blood flow through Diane’s heart is refreshingly ordered through her veins and arteries I’m happy to say which makes for far sounder public policy. Conservatives don’t be fooled, go with Diane Black for governor.

    3. Bethany

      Sandi Holman those statements are lies. I went to a town hall for Bill Lee on Wednesday and he addressed that. He and his wife not only voted for Trump but went to his inauguration. That’s pretty clear support.

  3. Kevin

    Amen brother! Andy Holt has been going against the flow for years! And that’s partially why we love him!

    We are at a seminal moment in Tennessee’s history. The election of Donald Trump has opened up a “chink in the armor” of the political class. Do we exploit that opening and roll back the bureaucratic state in DC and in Nashville? Or do we let them pull the wool over our eyes yet again?

    We don’t need some 20+ year political cat who understands “the system”, running our State. The system is the problem! It’s a self breeding, self feeding self protecting organism that needs a serious pruning. Black, Boyd and Harwell are just political kudzu. Bill Lee is the Agent Orange! And Tennessee understands orange!

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