Disqualified TN-5 candidate Robby Starbuck is posting frequent calls on social media urging supporters to contact the Tennessee GOP (TNGOP) and demand that the State Executive Committee (SEC) vote to reverse its decision disqualifying him from seeking the Republican nomination.
There’s just one problem: The Tennessee Republican Party is not empowered to put Starbuck back on the ballot and couldn’t reverse its decision even if it wanted to.
Given that the vote to disqualify Starbuck was 13-3, it is considered unlikely that committee members would have considered reversing its decision.
In fact, once Tennessee Republican Party Chair Scott Golden sent the letter on April 21 to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office with a list of candidates that the SEC voted to restore – as well as to not restore – to the August 4 primary ballot, the party’s role in the process was complete. Chairman Golden confirmed that fact to The Tennessee Star.
The TNGOP had, per state law, until noon on April 21 to send that letter. Any other notifications to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office were uncertain after that deadline.
Starbuck, along with social media influencers, mistakenly continues to post calls on social media for the SEC to reverse its decision and for supporters to contact the Tennessee Republican Party.
Sources inside the TNGOP tell The Star that it is getting roughly 200 emails a day, as well as scores of phone calls. One source said that the vast majority of the contacts come either from anonymous individuals or people whose Tennessee residency status is impossible to verify.
Some call Starbuck’s moves “misleading” and “organized harassment.” Another source said, “The anonymous trolls that are contacting the Tennessee Republican Party are acting just like Antifa does. This is a play right out of the Alinskys and Antifa’s playbook. The TNGOP can’t even have a substantive conversation with most of these people because they don’t know who they are.”
Additionally, Starbuck has said that his legal team has sent a demand letter to the TNGOP demanding a reversal of its decision, which it cannot do.
This is not the only time that Starbuck has shared misleading information about the disqualification process.
“Being voted off means that they’re saying I’m not actually a Republican, so I can’t run as one. This is disgusting, historic corruption,” Starbuck tweeted.
Starbuck was voted off because he did not meet the standard to run in the August 4 Republican Party for candidates, the TNGOP’s challenge process does not purport to make judgments as to whether an individual can call themselves a Republican. That is a free speech issue.
“Inside the district you have a lot of horse trading between people and backroom politics and somebody came up with the idea to use this Democrat catch-all that’s supposed to get them out of our elections to catch us instead, the leaders in the race, especially Morgan and I, we’re polling at the top, to clear the path for people who are going to be controllable by the Tennessee GOP,” Starbuck told NewsMax.
The TNGOP SEC members made their own decision. By all reports, it was the challenged candidates and their surrogates who lobbied committee members.
Furthermore, as of the April 19 vote, no scientific polling data had been publicly revealed that shows any information about where the candidates stand in the race or verifies that Starbuck or Ortagus were at the top of the field.
There was one poll in which at least part of the results was obtained by The Star. In March, Starbuck shared with several individuals the results of what appears to be a push poll that pitted him against fellow carpetbagger, Morgan Ortagus.
The results of the question “Knowing more about two of the candidates, If the Republican primary election for Congress were held today, would you vote for Morgan Ortagus or Robby Starbuck? If you are undecided, please select undecided” were shared. In the purported push poll, 45.6 percent of respondents selected undecided. Starbuck received 39.1 percent, while 15.2 percent of participants went with Ortagus.
The methodology of the poll is unknown, with the exception that the sample size was 401 individuals. It is also unclear what information was shared with the respondents prior to the question.
The individuals that Starbuck personally shared the results with told The Star that they believe his campaign paid for the poll. It is unclear if that is what happened.
Starbuck’s FEC report does show that $8,800.00 was paid to Spry Strategies on February 15 for the purpose of “Polling/Research.”
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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 “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck.
