In an op-ed published in the left wing Gannett-owned Tennessean, TN-5 candidate Morgan Ortagus effectively told the GOP-controlled Tennessee General Assembly to drop dead. She advocated against pending Tennessee General Assembly legislation that would establish a three-year residency requirement for candidates who seek to be on the ballot in primaries for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.
The op-ed is titled “Morgan Ortagus: Tennessee voters should have the ultimate say on who represents them.” In the piece, Ortagus advocates the State House version of the legislation is scheduled for a floor vote on Monday.
The proposed three-year residency requirement is the same requirement that candidates for the Tennessee General Assembly must meet in order to be eligible for the ballot. All one-hundred-thirty-two members of the Tennessee General Assembly, thirty-three state senators and ninety-nine state representatives – Republicans and Democrats alike – meet and must meet this requirement.
Ortagus, who only recently registered to vote in Tennessee three months ago and does not live in the district that she seeks to represent, falls far short of the would-be three-year residency requirement.
The legislation that Ortagus opposes reads:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, Chapter 13, Part 2, is amended by adding the following as a new section:
In order to qualify as a candidate in a primary election for United States senate or for member of the United States house of representatives, a person shall meet the residency requirements for state senators and representatives contained in the Tennessee constitution.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.
If that legislation is enacted into law, Ortagus would be ineligible to run in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional district. She could possibly be eligible to run in a federal primary in 2024.
Ortagus says in the piece, “Yet now some in Tennessee’s General Assembly are proposing limits on who can represent the people of Tennessee in the United States Congress.” She added later on in the piece, “Fundamentally, I believe my fellow Tennessee voters should be able to choose who represents them in Congress.”
The op-ed theme is in direct contradiction to a statement that the Ortagus campaign provided to The Tennessee Star, which said:
“I’ll leave state matters to the state legislature. I’m focused on earning the support of Fifth District Tennesseans who want a conservative fighter to defend President Trump’s agenda.” – Morgan Ortagus
The writing also appears to contradict itself, arguing against the pending Tennessee General Assembly legislation while stating, “I’m going to leave state matters up to the state.”
This is not the first time that carpetbagger Morgan Ortagus has changed course. The Star previously reported her history of bad-mouthing President Trump.
When Ortagus was serving as a spokesman for a super PAC supporting the Jeb Bush 2016 campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Morgan Ortagus said during an appearance on MSNBC that she was unsure if she would vote for him if he were to become the Republican nominee.
During a January 2016 appearance on Alan Colmes’ radio show, Ortagus proudly claimed that Governor Bush was the only one to call out then-candidate Trump during a previous debate. She lambasted the former president in the interview, saying, “You have somebody who makes fun of people with mental and physical disabilities. That’s disgusting; there’s no other way around it.”
She also said during the same exchange, “Quite frankly, I don’t want someone with the temperament of a middle school pubescent boy in the president’s office.”
In a March 2016 op-ed written for Fox Business, she wrote, “People know Trump isn’t serious.”
During an appearance on Fox Business in April 2016, Morgan Ortagus said of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, “I don’t see it that way. I think that America is the glue that holds the world together. … So there were points that I agreed with him today, but overall, I fundamentally disagree with his isolationist approach to foreign policy.”
Ortagus comments occurred during her work as a spokesman for a super PAC that supported Jeb Bush during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Ortagus went on to work in the Trump administration, serving as State Department spokesman from 2019-2021. Ortagus had nothing by public praise for President Trump while working in his administration. He has also endorsed her candidacy for TN-5, so her prior disparaging words appear to be water under the bridge for President Trump.
Ortagus’ change of heart towards the former President did not stop her campaign from soliciting funds at an out-of-state-fundraiser in Washington, D.C. that featured prominent Never Trumpers on the host committee nor from utilizing the services of a prominent Never Trumper, Lisa Spies, to facilitate the event.
It is unclear if Ortagus plans to mount a legal challenge if the residency legislation is enacted into law. The Star reached out to the Ortagus campaign for comment and asked: “Does this piece signal that the Ortagus campaign is planning to sue if the residency legislation is enacted into law? Or, the piece aside, is the Ortagus campaign making plans to mount a legal challenge if the General Assembly legislation that proposes to set three-year residency requirements for federal candidates is enacted into law?”
An Ortagus campaign spokesperson responded by email to The Star, writing that Ortagus’ statement was “not a departure at all from what she said.” The spox went on to quote from the candidate’s opinion piece, “As I’ve said from the beginning: I’m a true conservative, and I’m going to leave state matters up to the state.”
The campaign’s response did not make mention of any legal action Ortagus might take, should the bill become law in the coming days.
For this legislation to effect Ortagus’ candidacy, the House legislation must be substituted and conformed to the Senate legislation. Then the House must pass the legislation. From there, the proposed measure would go to Governor Lee’s desk for his signature.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
Photo “Morgan Ortagus” by U.S. Embassy.
