Tennessee values.

This is the catchphrase, if you listen to enough candidates on the stump, that keeps coming up over and over again in the gubernatorial Republican primary campaign.

“We’re in a battle to save our culture and values,” states U.S. Rep. Diane Black’s campaign website. “If we don’t stand up for our unique Tennessee values, we may lose them forever,” says Franklin businessman Bill Lee’s site.

Randy Boyd, the former head of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, ran a digital ad titled “Tennessee Values” featuring Boyd running around the track at Bristol Motor Speedway. When House Speaker Beth Harwell announced her entrance into the race, she said that as governor, she would lead on “ensuring our Tennessee values are protected.”

The primary campaign has been going on for nearly 16 months, and there’s still not much to distinguish the four white millionaires, who vary little on policy, from one another. So in a state in which Donald Trump still remains unfathomably popular, each candidate is spending millions trying to prove that they’re the person most like — and liked by — the president.

With three weeks left until the Aug. 2 primary and early voting beginning this week, the true Tennessee values on display harken back to the worst parts of the history of the state. “Tennessee Values” isn’t just a code word for making America great again; it’s a dog-whistle, and it’s blowing loud.

What comes next could be ugly.









There are, of course, two Democrats also running — former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, a lawyer-turned-banker who lives in Ripley, deep in West Tennessee. (See our sidebar on the Democratic candidates.) But the little polling done to date shows that whether or not there’s a national Blue Wave, and whether or not the state elects former Gov. Phil Bredesen as Tennessee’s first Democratic senator since Al Gore, Tennessee seems poised to elect another Republican in November as governor.

But the man or woman — and it realistically could be a woman, for the first time ever — who will follow in the footsteps of Gov. Bill Haslam in January won’t have the same kind of reputation as a moderate. Both Fitzhugh and Dean are pitching themselves as progressive moderates, but both are significantly to the left of Haslam. Although Boyd’s campaign began as “Haslam 2.0,” he has since veered to the right as much as possible to compete with Black and a surging Lee. Harwell, by all accounts, remains in a distant fourth place.

Black is running ads attacking Lee and Boyd as moderates, but both men are running ads touting the ways in which they’ll govern like President Donald Trump, as businessmen “disrupting” government. “I just don’t tweet so much,” Boyd adds at the end of his commercial.

Trump, of course, is a large part of the reason why the Republican gubernatorial primary has descended to the level it has. Despite historically low approval ratings nationally, Trump’s approval rating in Tennessee in May was at 58 percent. That’s the sixth-highest of any state in the nation, and just three points lower than it was in Tennessee when he was inaugurated.

According to data from market research company Morning Consult, which has been tracking ratings in all 50 states and D.C. on a monthly basis, Trump’s approval ratings did dip in Tennessee but have now risen again. His disapproval ratings have also increased by 10 points since January 2017, up to 38 percent, but that’s the sixth-lowest disapproval rating in the nation. If you break it out by parties, that disapproval rating is much higher among Democrats and independent voters, but the approval rating is sky-high among likely Republican voters.

As the incredibly unpopular tariffs begin affecting businesses across the state, one imagines the approval ratings could dip again — something Bredesen, in his race, is already trying to take advantage of. But it’s a long way until November, and there are only three weeks until the primary.

Mark Braden, a Republican political operative at Mercury Public Affairs in Nashville, says that if the numbers made sense to run against Trump, people would. But they don’t.

“I think one big thing is that the conservative planks of the party have always been God, guns and the working man — you’re pro-life, you’re pro-Second Amendment, and you’re pro-business,” says Braden. “And now the fourth leg of the party is you’re pro-Trump.”

And yet Haslam — who famously did not vote for Trump — has not suffered a significant drop in approval. An April 2018 Morning Consult poll put his approval rating at 57 percent, and a Mason-Dixon poll had it at 61 percent the same month. But of course, Haslam’s not in a campaign, and since Trump’s election, he’s often been silent on the president’s innumerable controversies. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker — retiring later this year — has not been quiet, and he has seen a significant drop in popularity with Republicans after his attacks on Trump over the past year. (His approval rating with Democrats, however, has ticked up slightly.)

But Tennessee’s Trump voters don’t fit the easy media narrative of unemployed Rust Belt workers struggling to make a living after the big factory up and moved to Mexico. The unemployment rate across Tennessee was 3.5 percent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and jobs have been added in every sector of the economy over the past 12 months. And that, says Braden, is part of the reason so many candidates are talking about things like immigration and MS-13.

“I’ve seen polling where concerns about the economy and jobs don’t poll in the top five,” says Braden. “The low unemployment rate is not driving enthusiasm for candidates talking about the economy. It’s not driving voters, it’s not where the enthusiasm is. And talking about the wall — it’s an identifier that you’re with Trump.”

Braden is not working for any of the gubernatorial candidates, but he is working on Bob Corlew’s 6th District congressional race. Corlew, the now-retired judge at the center of the Murfreesboro mosque controversy, actually went to the U.S./Mexico border to film ads showing him standing in front of security fencing. Another Republican congressional candidate in Knoxville, Jason Emert, had a campaign ad go viral two weeks ago because it showed him building a brick wall in his front yard (and mocking former Vols football coach Butch Jones’ “brick by brick” slogan). A slew of GOP candidates for other congressional seats and openings in the Tennessee General Assembly are similarly aligning themselves with Trump’s message.

And so despite the fact that there is not an actual immigration crisis; despite the fact that Tennessee is not on the border with Mexico or Canada; despite the fact that Tennessee’s estimated 332,000 immigrants (5 percent of the population) are mostly here legally and are more likely to have a bachelor’s degree or a graduate degree than the state’s native-born population; despite the fact they pay $2.1 billion in taxes annually and employee more than 57,000 Tennessee residents; despite the fact that only 132,000 of those immigrants are undocumented; and despite the fact that almost 114,000 immigrants are eligible to vote (if not necessarily registered) — this governor’s race has turned into a referendum on being not from here.





“Why I really, really, really love this state is because we are a state that understands Tennessee values, which are Christian,” says Black on a recent afternoon during a campaign stop at Heritage Pointe Senior Living in Cookeville. Her black slingback pumps discarded, she’s pacing at the front of the room in bare feet, her toenails painted blue. “And if we let that go, we will not get it back.”

Black’s been talking for about 15 minutes now, describing her hardscrabble upbringing on the wrong side of the tracks, her plans to address health care and the opioid epidemic. Now she’s moving on to the emotional appeal.

Photo: Daniel Meigs“So we’ve got people moving into Middle Tennessee — a hundred of them a day — and they’re coming from California, they come from New York,” Black says. “And they say, ‘That’s not the way you do it in California, that’s not the way we do it in New York.’ And you know what I say? Go back to California! Go back to New York! ’Cause it is the way we do it in Tennessee!”

The crowd laughs, then breaks into thunderous applause.

“I love the fact that we say what’s right is is right and wrong is wrong,” Black continues. “Trust is trust, God is God, and a life is a life. And that’s the way we are here, and I love that. We stand for the national anthem, and we kneel for prayer, and that’s who we are. And frankly, if you don’t like it, then go back.”

More applause.

In a state that ostensibly prides itself on its Southern hospitality and its booming tourism industry — in a state that boasts about its business recruitment — it’s more than a little jarring to hear one of the frontrunners in the governor’s race say that if you don’t share the same conservative Christian values she does, then she doesn’t want you in the state. Especially as there are any number of Tennesseans who did grow up here, who went to school here, are raising a family here and are working and paying taxes here, who have very different values from hers.

After Black’s speech — which ends with a lengthy prayer by a supporter — I ask her if she thinks her approach could hurt business recruitment. Was she saying that if a New York company wanted to relocate here but they were owned by someone liberal who isn’t a Christian, they wouldn’t be welcome?

“Oh no, they’re welcome to come,” Black says. “The people who come here from these other states will say, ‘We love what we see here in Tennessee. The people in Tennessee are kind. The people in Tennessee are good, are good-hearted, are welcoming.’ And you don’t find that in every state, you don’t find that kind of attitude that I wanna keep here.

“I’m not saying that someone necessarily has to be Christian,” she continues. “I’m not saying someone that has another faith belief can’t come here in this state and live. But I don’t want them to come here thinking that they’re going to change us into being something that we’re not here. And I want to be careful that I say that in a way, that you’re welcome to come here, but just don’t think you’re gonna come to this state and change who we are.”









If a Republican does win in November, one of the largest differences from Haslam’s tenure will be a lack of support for allowing undocumented immigrants who attended high school in Tennessee to receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Despite being pushed by Haslam and Republican Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga, legislation to allow this has narrowly failed the past two years.

All four candidates have said they will veto any similar legislation that passes.

“I have paid three out-of-state tuitions for my three children,” Harwell said during a recent debate in Chattanooga. “I understand how it is costly. This is not keeping the young people from attending college. They can go to college, they just have to pay the out-of-state tuition, which my children are paying as well.”

Her comments drew loud hissing from the crowd. And polling has repeatedly shown that a majority of Tennesseans — Republicans and Democrats both — do support in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. In the air-conditioned comfort of Lee’s RV, which he’s used to crisscross the state while campaigning, I press Lee on the issue. I bring up the case of Katherine Diaz Garcia, a recent Hillsboro High School graduate whose mother brought her to Nashville from El Salvador when she was 7 and her brother was 3. She’s a passionate activist for immigrant rights — and by all accounts smart as hell. But she’s attending the private Centre College in Kentucky because she couldn’t afford to go a public school in Tennessee.

She attended public high school, and she pays taxes, and her parents pay taxes. So why can’t she attend a public college? Aren’t these the kind of people you want to keep in Tennessee?

“You know, I employ hundreds of people who don’t have a four-year degree in college, and they have great careers,” Lee replies. “I believe everyone doesn’t have to go to college.”

“So you’re saying that all undocumented immigrants should just not go to college?” I ask.

“No, I just don’t think the state should offer them in-state tuition,” says Lee.

After a long, uncomfortable pause, I ask: “Do you not feel that is in the least bit racist?”

“I do not,” Lee replies. “I have a great deal of sympathy for people who have found themselves in situations that are not even of their making. That’s why I’ve been to Mexico seven times building homes for poor at the border. That’s why I have served orphanages in Africa and Haiti multiple times.”

Lee continues, detailing other mission trips to Uganda, South Sudan and Iraq.

“I’ve gone around the world serving people,” Lee says. “But I also have a belief that we should be fair, and for me it’s an issue of fairness. And providing a subsidy to an illegal immigrant that we don’t provide to an American citizen does not seem fair to me.”

“They are taxpayers,” I point out.

“It does not seem fair to me,” Lee says.

Photo: Daniel Meigs



Boyd’s campaign refused repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. I tried to speak with Boyd at the Independence Day parade in Farragut, Tenn., but was brushed off by his staff.

“Randy’s got a short fuse and a delicate hide, and he’s used to having his ass kissed,” commented a fellow journalist in Knoxville, whose plans for a profile on Boyd five or so years ago were blown up when Boyd walked out on an interview after being asked about impending school board elections.

I did meet up with Harwell in tiny Cumberland Gap, during the annual White Lightning Festival. Due to scheduling changes on her part — and the sweltering 100-degree heat — there wasn’t much time to talk.

We walked up and down the two blocks that make up downtown with Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) and a staff member from nearby Lincoln Memorial University. There were several conversations about the legislature having passed a bill to allow alcohol sales in the town’s few restaurants, as well as several conversations about Trump, as festivalgoers talking with Harwell asked her if she supported him. She does, she said. Well, then I might vote for you, they replied.

As I drove out of Claiborne County, I passed a sign on the side of the highway reading: “Now open! MAGA Donuts!” Above the sign were two American flags.

Photo: Eric England



On July 6, Harwell’s campaign sent out an email.

“Friend, I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating our nation’s independence with your family and friends,” Harwell wrote. “America is still a young nation — the frontier of liberty — and yet, 242 years later, we’re still setting the standard for preserving individual freedoms, the sovereignty of states, and the right of all citizens to pursue their dreams. As an American, I am so grateful for the opportunities this country has given me, including the opportunity to participate in the process of supporting our Constitution and the opportunity to serve our state.”

America is a nation of immigrants, and it is a nation of diverse cultural values. There isn’t just one America. There isn’t just one Tennessee. “Tennessee values” aren’t something that actually exists‚ unless you’re maybe talking about the state constitution.

Here’s what Section 3 states: “That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent; that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.”

You wouldn’t know this from listening to anyone running in the GOP primary.

Stephanie Teatro, the co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, says she thinks what underlies a lot of the anti-immigrant rhetoric is that many politicians simply don’t see immigrants as Tennesseans.

“I’ve been really disappointed in the rhetoric during this campaign,” says Teatro. “I feel like they are underestimating Tennesseans and think they can just scare them into voting a certain way. But what we’ve seen at the local level is that people do consider immigrants to be their neighbors, and they care about them. The candidates are out of step.”

Teatro says TIRRC is launching a connected 501(c)4 in August so it can legally make endorsements without threatening its nonprofit status (and, eventually, contribute to campaigns).

“Immigrants are voters, and people are paying attention to this race,” Teatro says. “Like it or not, immigrants are going to be an increasingly more powerful part of this state.”

True Southern hospitality — welcoming everyone, whatever race or religion or immigration status — is the Tennessee value we should long to see in a governor. Someone who’s proud to represent everyone, even someone they disagree with.



