Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the Chairman of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans, Kurt Riley to the newsmaker line to discuss his group and how it differentiates from the Sumner County Republican Party.Â
Leahy: On the newsmaker line now, Kurt Riley, the chairman of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans on the web at SCCR (sccrtn.org). They say they’re the conservative army of the Republican Party. I like that phrase, Kurt. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Riley: Michael, thank you for having me.
Leahy: So tell us about the Summer County Constitutional Republicans. It’s a different wing. It’s not the Summer County Republican Party, but you are Republicans. What’s the difference between your group and the Sumner County Republican Party’s official group?
Riley: If you think about the Republican Party right here, especially here in Sumner County, the Republican Party says, listen, if you agree to vote Republicans, pay us a $50 yearly fee. Come on in. You’re part of the party.
But I think what a lot of us realized was that not everybody in that room or in that group is the same type of what we think of as a Republican. Here in Sumner County, you can’t run as a Democrat because if you look at the elected offices, most people that hold these offices are Republicans.
And that’s because of the conservative nature of this community, this county. So what we’ve seen a lot of is Democrats come over to the Republican Party so they can have an opportunity to actually run a race and win.
So a lot of us were frustrated because we would be in the same room or in the same group with people that we knew and they didn’t share our values. But the Republican Party didn’t seem to care.
It was like, we don’t care, just come and vote Republican and we’ll all sing “Kumbaya.” And that’s not good enough for a lot of us because we know that there are a lot of Democrats that are here in the Summer County Republican Party.
So what a lot of us did, we got angry and we were mad about it. We were frustrated. We didn’t know what to do. And many people would say, hey, we got to get organized. We got to do something different.
And that’s kind of how the group sort of spawned. And one day I just decided to be the guy, I guess, to say, hey, let’s organize this anger and then translate it into something that is meaningful and productive. And that’s how we started.
Leahy: And how long has Sumner County Constitutional Republicans been around?
Riley: We’ve been around … I think this year is four years. I think I said the other day it was five, but I think it’s four years this August.
We just started with a few people. One minute there’s eight of us, and then the next minute there’s 80. That’s about how long we’ve been going.
Leahy: The original all-star panelist is in-studio, and Crom Carmichael has a question for you, Kurt.
Carmichael: Kurt, how many members do you have now in your organization?
Riley: Well, what we do is we change the format of how we consider somebody a member. We knew that people could swoop in at the last minute and pay a fee if we decided to make it fee-based, which we didn’t.
So what we did is we decided to make it action-based. So in order to be considered a true member, you have to attend at least five meetings a year, and then we record your attendance. And that’s what we call a true member.
However, there are plenty of people that come up to us. Our Facebook is now up to, I think we’re closing in on 1,800 likes. There are plenty of people that consider themselves a part of the group, but they’re not a true active member because maybe they’ve only been three or four times and they’ll say, Kurt, we’re with you.
We’re busy. I’ve got soccer, I’ve got this and that. It’s hard to get to these meetings all the time. So to try to get an actual number is very difficult, but it’s been growing. As I said, we had eight people at a meeting, and we’ve had as many now as 95 people at a single meeting. So it’s growing.
Leahy:Â Do you have recommended slates for the May 3rd primary?
Riley: Absolutely. What we really determined that we needed to do more than anything else was recruit God-fearing, constitutional conservative Republicans to run for local office.
That sounds maybe kind of easy, but it’s very difficult. But what we did is we tried to take out all of the stress and the stuff that makes it very difficult where people say, I don’t even know how to run. How do I run?
Do I have to raise money? What do I do? So we have a whole group of people that are either elected, were elected, or have run, won, or lost. We have financial people, cybersecurity, web development, and marketing.
We have all these people. And what we do is we take all of this knowledge and we bring in, let’s say I find a candidate that says, you know what, Kurt? If you will help me, I’ll run for the school board.
What I do is say you come in and here’s what we’re going to do on day one, and here’s what we’re going to do on day 120, and here’s how we’re going to do it. All you need to do is knock your doors and talk to your people, and we will teach you and help you do everything else.
Leahy: So do you want to go through the candidates that you’re endorsing for the May 3rd primary?
Riley: Yes. There’s a whole collection of people. I’m going to pull it up now. I love the fact that I have to pull something up to read everybody.
Carmichael: While you’re doing that, let me ask you a quick question. Do you have a good relationship with the hierarchy of the Sumner County Republican party?
Riley: Absolutely.
Carmichael: Good.
Riley: We don’t tell people don’t be involved in the Republican party. It’s the other way around. We tell people to go be involved. Be active. Pay your dues.
So we try to work with and not against the Republican Party but at the same time we want to vet candidates and find the true constitutional conservative Republican and get behind that person.
Listen to the interview here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
