Robby Starbuck, who formally declared his run for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District in June 2021, just two years after moving to Tennessee from California, told The Tennessee Star on Saturday “I don’t feel it’s necessary” to explain why he claimed in a January 21 radio interview with The Tennessee Star Report that he voted in two Tennessee GOP primaries in 2020, when voting records provided to The Tennessee Star by Williamson County officials show that he did not vote in either 2020 Tennessee GOP primary.
Tennessee Republican Party bylaws require active Republicans to have either (1) voted in three of the last four GOP primaries or (2) to have their “bona fide” status vouched for by Republicans in the district they seek to represent and then approved in a majority vote by a specially assembled committee of the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee in order qualify to be on the August 2022 GOP primary ballot.
The new boundaries of the Fifth Congressional District approved by the Tennessee General Assembly now include parts of Davidson, Williamson, and Wilson Counties, as well as all of Maury County, Marshall County, and Lewis County. Incumbent Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) announced last week that he will not seek re-election, and a number of high profile Republicans are considering entry into the race.
The one-time Hollywood music video producer told The Star that the Williamson County GOP chairman told him he is eligible and “bona fide,” therefore qualified to be on the primary ballot, and that discussion otherwise is “just semantics,” after The Star shared with him his Williamson County voting record that conflicts with his claim to have voted in two Tennessee Republican primaries in 2020.
You can see below that voting history record, which clearly shows that the only 2020 election in Tennessee in which Starbuck, whose legal name is Robert Starbuck Newsom, voted was the November 2020 general election. (Page 2 of the document shows election voting history). These records show that Starbuck/Newsom did not vote in either the March 2020 or August 2020 Tennessee Republican primary elections. Starbuck apparently registered to vote in Williamson County, Tennessee in 2019 using a shortened version of his legal name, Robert Newsom.
[wonderplugin_pdf src=”https://thestarnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GULBRANSEN_newsom-robert_REDACTED.pdf” width=”650px” height=”800px” style=”border:0;”]
Tennessee GOP Party Chairman Scott Golden told The Star that all GOP primary candidates are presumed to be “bona fide” until they are challenged. Once challenged, the burden of proof to be placed on the ballot rests with the candidate. Golden stated that no challenges will be accepted until February 7, when potential candidates are allowed to request petition papers to gather signatures to be placed on the ballot.
If his “bona fide” status is challenged, and having failed to meet the standard of voting in three of the last four Republican primaries, Starbuck will need to be vouched for by local Republicans, then obtain approval by a majority vote of the special committee of the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee that will likely be convened some time after February 7 but before the nomination petition filing deadline of early April to appear on the August 2022 Republican primary ballot for the Fifth Congressional District.
That vouching hearing will be open to the public. Starbuck supporters who live in the district and vouch for him will make their case to a committee consisting of Tennessee Republican Party chairman Scott Golden and State Executive Committee members who represent the six counties that are entirely or partially in the newly drawn Fifth Congressional District.
The Tennessee Star Report host Michael Patrick Leahy asked Starbuck about his Tennessee voting history, in a live radio interview broadcast on January 21, and Starbuck repeatedly claimed to have voted in Tennessee Republican primaries, a claim which Williamson County election records demonstrate is not true.
Leahy: There’s another question about the standards of eligibility to run for the Republican primary. I’m sure you’ve looked at this quite a bit. And we had a story on it and talked to the party chair, Scott Golden, about this. I think the standard is you have to have voted in three of the past four Republican primaries wherever you live.
So here in Tennessee, that would be the August [2020] primary, August 2018 primary, as well as the March presidential primary in 2020 and the August 2016 primary. That’s the standard. Three out of the past four. Have you met those standards?
Starbuck: Yes. One thing that’s important to understand, I have. Everybody’s got my voting record because I did live out of state for some of those elections. And they’ve got my California voting record. They have my registration. The purpose of it really is to make sure you’re a Republican in Tennessee because it is not a closed primary state.
In California, where I was it was a closed primary state, and I was always registered as a Republican and always voted Republican. That’s something that’s out there. All the party chairs have it. And I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.
Leahy: So if you could the last four primaries that existed, how many did you vote for in Tennessee’s Republican primary and how many in California? Do you remember?
Starbuck: If I go back, it would be one primary here and then the rest in California were primaries because it would have been the last primary. It’d be two primaries here and then the rest in California.
Leahy: The primary here would have been August of 2020 and March of 2020. So you voted here in those GOP primaries and then the previous two were in California, is that right?
Starbuck: Yes.
Listen to the exchange:
When The Star followed up with Starbuck on Saturday, asking why he said live on the radio that he had voted in two Tennessee Republican primaries when records said he did not, Starbuck did not deny the authenticity of the Williamson County election official documentation of his voting record.
He responded:
To be perfectly honest I was caught off guard by the question and didn’t have a calendar to confirm on in the moment and I didn’t consider anyone would ever question my Republican bonafides since I’m one of the most vocal conservatives in the country and sacrificed so much in my career to be so vocal. To be clear again, I’ve already been vetted and approved by the county I live in (Williamson) and they have my documents proving the only party I’ve ever been registered to is the Republican Party (when I lived in a closed primary state where you can declare your party) and I’ve voted consistently. I don’t feel it’s necessary to go further into this when I’ve already been informed by the county party that I’m eligible and bonafide. This is just semantics that ultimately don’t matter to people’s everyday lives in Tennessee. Seeing as I’m already approved and bonafide, my focus needs to be on helping people, listening to people and fighting for them — not dispelling ridiculous rumors every 10 seconds. I see this as the kind of trivial thing people have to try to gin up because my record on the issues is unassailable.
The Star first presented Starbuck with the document obtained from Williamson County election officials showing his voting record one day earlier on Friday, and asked if he wanted to comment on his voting history and candidate status as a bona fide Republican. In his initial response, Starbuck did not address the issue of the authenticity of the Williamson County election document, but he did not deny that it was authentic.
Starbuck responded to The Star later that day:
The purpose of the eligibility rule in Tennessee is to verify that you’re a bonafide Republican because we have open primaries here where you don’t get to declare your party. I believe we should have closed primaries for this and other reasons but I lived in a closed primary state previously (CA) where i’ve been declared a Republican my entire life and voted in each election.
He continued:
Party chairs in Davidson & Williamson have had my voter history from CA and TN for a long time. They’ve had zero issue with it. It’s been sent to the Wilson County GOP chair recently too. I called Williamson County GOP Chair Cheryl Brown last night to confirm that there’s no issue again. Cheryl confirmed again to me that there’s no issue with my eligibility. These rumors stem from people in the establishment who are desperate to keep a true representative of the people out of this race because they know I’m going to win.
As previously reported by The Star, the Tennessee Republican Party bylaws say in Article IX that in order to qualify to seek the Republican nomination for an elected office at any level in the state, a candidate must be considered a bona fide Republican. A bona fide Republican candidate must satisfy section A and either of sections B or C of the following criteria:
A. Any individual who is actively involved in the Tennessee Republican Party, his County Republican Party, or any recognized auxiliary organization of either; and resides and is registered to vote in said county;
and either
B. Any individual who has voted in at least three (3) of the four (4) most recent Statewide Republican primary elections; or
C. Any individual who is vouched for in writing (to the satisfaction of the decision makers defined herein) as a bona fide Republican by an officer of the TRP or a member
of the CEC, excluding SEC members, of the County and/or District where said individual resides. The decision makers defined herein may require additional verification that said individual is indeed a bona fide Republican.
The congressional hopeful likely satisfies the first criterion, but his voting history shows that he failed to satisfy section B. His voting history record shows that he was eligible to vote in Tennessee’s 2020 March presidential and August 2020 primaries, but the record does not show him voting in either.
Starbuck’s candidacy may satisfy section C if an officer of the Republican Party or recognized affiliate vouches for him in writing, but there’s also a provision in the bylaws that provides for a challenge to a candidate’s bona fide status.
Section 2 of Article IX governs that challenge process.
The challenge is made to the State Chairman from two or more registered voters from within the district that the candidate is running in. A statewide candidate could get challenged from any area of the state, while a congressional candidate could only be challenged from that congressional district. All the individuals making the challenge must “voted in at least three (3) of the last four (4) most recent Statewide Republican primary elections. Such a challenge must be made no later than five (5) days before the deadline for removal of a candidate’s name from a ballot under TCA Section 2-5-204 or otherwise, or any other applicable deadline.”
Subsequent to the filing of such a challenge, the public meeting at which the special committee of Tennessee Republican Party’s Executive Committee determines whether Starbuck will be allowed on the August 2022 Republican primary ballot will be convened.
It is not clear at present, how that special committee would rule if Starbuck’s eligibility to appear on the primary ballot is challenged.
This is Starbuck’s first run for elected office.
– – –
Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck. Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
