FEC records show that Baxter Lee, a candidate for the GOP nomination in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat has raised $317,380 for the 2022 first-quarter reporting period.
Lee also matched his contributions with a personal loan to the campaign, making the total receipts for the first quarter $634,760.
Lee loaned his campaign $100,000 on January 31 and added an additional $217,380 on March 31, the last day of the reporting cycle.
It is common practice for candidates with financial means to loan their campaigns money to use for the campaign.
It is also common practice for candidates to loan their campaigns money to pad their finance reports, only to reimburse themselves at some point during the election cycle. It is currently unclear if the Lee campaign plans to spend the loan money.
During the 2010 election cycle Ben Loyola, a Republican candidate for Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, loaned his campaign $949,350, only to repay himself to the tune of $765,000 of before the primary took place.
Lee’s campaign spent $70,855.64 and ends the quarter with $563,904.36 cash on hand.
71 percent of Lee’s donations, or $225,650, came from within the state of Tennessee. Twenty-nine percent, or $91,730, came from outside the state.
Former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, CEO of Kratom Patricia Bible; Chairman of Pinnacle Financial Robert McCabe; CEO of The Trust Company of Tennessee Sharon Pryse; and 21st Century Mortgage CEO Tim Williams are among notable names listed on Lee’s campaign finance report. Several members of former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s family donated to Lee as well.
The Tennessee Star previously reported that Lee has been removed from the TN-5 GOP primary ballot because of challenges filed to his Republican bona fide status in accordance with the Tennessee Republican Party bylaws, at least temporarily. Lee failed to vote in three of the last four Tennessee statewide Republican primaries, only voting in two. Lee also voted in the 2020 Democrat presidential preference primary.
The fate of Lee’s ballot status rests in the hands of a select committee of members of the TNGOP State Executive Committee. They can vote to restore him to the ballot or can elect to leave him off. The deadline for the TNGOP to notify the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office if they choose to restore a candidate to the ballot is noon on Thursday, April 21.
It is unclear what the Lee campaign will do with the money raised if Lee is not restored to the ballot.
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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, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Baxter Lee” by Baxter Lee. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol by 10302144.
