HERMITAGE, Tennessee – The Davidson County Republican Party hosted an event on Monday evening at the Hermitage Steak House with several TN-5 primary candidates in attendance to support Kelli Phillips for Metro Nashville School Board – District 4.
Phillips, whose campaign is the event beneficiary, is the Republican nominee.
Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Michael Patrick Leahy served as the emcee.
Second Vice Chair of the Davidson County Republican Party Bart Smith talked to The Star about the importance of Monday’s gathering.
“This event is special because what you are seeing here is all the Tennessee 5th Congressional District candidates coming together to support Kelli Phillips, who is the first Republican running for the Metro Nashville School Board in District 4,” he said.
“The reason that’s a big deal is they all agree – they may have differing views. They may have different agendas. However, they’ve all come together and are saying that we need to get Republicans on the school board to take back our public schools from left-wing Marxists,” he added.
We’re definitely excited about this race and we like our chances [in August],” Smith said
Metro Nashville School Board candidate Phillips spoke with The Star and discussed what the the event means to her.
“To me what this means is that people are putting politics aside and putting our children first – and putting our parents first, because children need their parents’ voice,” she said.
“I’m looking at a room full of people at a restaurant who are here to support me, but not just me. They’re here supporting a cause. The cause is to make sure that as a country, as a people, we do what’s right for our children,” she continued.
“It starts with things like the school board,” Phillips added.
When asked what spurred her to run for the school board, Phillips said, “my children.”
Jeff Beierlein, a candidate in the Republican primary for TN-5, talked about why it was important for him to support Phillips.
“This is hugely important for the sake of Nashville and Davidson County, which has generally been dominated by the Left. I’m so thankful to be able to contribute to this,” he said. “We can’t do enough of this, and we need to get the community fired up for what is about to happen in November.”
Jeff Beierlein also talked about why he, as a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, finds it important to support local candidates for offices like school board.
“I believe it’s symbiotic. At the end of the day, this is where it all starts – at the grassroots level. I’m more than happy to contribute, and I know that Kelli would be a big fan of what we’re trying to do as well at the federal level,” he said.
Jeff Beierlein also talked about some of the key issues he’s trying to address in his campaign for TN-5.
“Disappointingly, we still have record-high gas prices. Inflation is still on an absolute tear. We’re in a very difficult situation geo-politically. The border’s getting overrun,” he said. “We’ve had over 500,000 migrants come over the border in just the last 60 days alone. That complicates things even further.”
The congressional candidate added that he wanted to see a gas tax holiday to lighten the load on American families who are experiencing the crunch of rising gas prices. “I think that’s an excellent idea,” he said. “We need a gas tax holiday at both the federal and state level,” he said.
“I would encourage the Tennessee General Assembly to work on that right away as well,” he said.
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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.
