Former State Department spokesman and now-former candidate for the GOP nomination for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat Morgan Ortagus issued a statement on the decision by the select committees of the Tennessee Republican Party to disqualify her candidacy.
“I am deeply disappointed in the SEC’s decision,” she said. “I’m a bona fide Republican by their standards, and frankly, by any metric. I’m further disappointed that the party insiders at the Tennessee Republican Party do not seem to share my commitment to President Trump’s America First policies. As I have said all along, I believe that voters in Middle Tennessee should pick their representative – not establishment party insiders. Our team is evaluating the options before us.”
The members of the TNGOP State Executive Committee that disqualified Ortagus clearly disagreed with her contentions.
It is unclear if “evaluating the options before us” includes filing a lawsuit. Any lawsuit filed against the TNGOP’s decision to remove candidates from the ballot is unlikely to go anywhere. Both the GOP and the Democrat parties in Tennessee are empowered by state law to decide whether or not a candidate attempting to run in a party primary is fit to run under their respective banners.
As reported earlier Tuesday evening, a source told The Tennessee Star that Ortagus only received three votes from the committee of 17 to be restored to the ballot, and votes regarding the other two TN-5 hopefuls were not even close.
Further sources tell The Star that her carpetbagger status, lack of Tennessee ties, and the fact that she never voted in a single election in the state led to her downfall. California native Robby Starbuck and Baxter Lee were also disqualified.
Members of the Tennessee Republican Party SEC are scheduled to vote on challenges to candidates in other races around the state tomorrow.
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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 “Morgan Ortagus” by Minority Reporters CC3.0
Ortagus says that she is a conservative, a ‘real’ Republican, not just some ‘moderate’ Republican (i.e., a Democrat lite, otherwise known as a RINO–Republican in Name Only). Now we shall see what the truth is. Will she support the decision of the Tennessee Republican Party, or will she support only herself and those donors who live hundreds/thousands of miles away and who have already given her hundreds of thousands of dollars to ‘take’ this seat? I support President Trump, he made many, many truly wise and needed decisions that greatly benefited our country during his presidency, BUT WHY DOES HE CONTINUE TO MAKE TRULY STUPID ENDORSEMENT DECISIONS LIKE HIS ORTAGUS ENDORSEMENT? WHY?
Well, we can make proper decisions, now can’t we !! This was the only way to go to show “the people” that pushy people are not wanted in politics. Hey, LOOK, we already have an administration that’s pushed harder than any other administration since the REPUBLIC was formed. amen