On Friday, a Club for Growth-affiliated federal super PAC, the School Freedom Fund PAC, launched a nearly $400,000 television and radio attack advertising blitz against Kurt Winstead and Beth Harwell in the August 4 Republican primary in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.
The ads attack Winstead’s Democrat voter and donor history as well as Harwell’s endorsement in the 2018 Tennessee governor’s race from a teacher’s association that endorsed in both the Republican and Democrat primaries.
In the 2018 race for governor of Tennessee, the Tennessee Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education (TEA-FCPE) endorsed Beth Harwell in the Republican Primary for Governor, and Craig Fitzhugh in the Democratic Primary for Governor.
The TEA is the Tennessee state affiliate of the radically liberal National Education Association (NEA).
In their 2018 statement, the TEA said they gave their endorsement in the Republican primary to Harwell because, “Harwell was recognized as the only educator in the race—her talks about testing and TNReady issues showed deep knowledge and concern about assessments and their use—and for her work to ensure state teacher salary funds get into teacher paychecks.”
Winstead, has a voter and donation history that includes donations to Democrat candidates and causes in federal, state, and local races.
Recently reported, a search of the Tennessee Online Campaign Finance website, which contains campaign finance reports dating back to at least 2000, shows that Winstead personally donated on at least seven occasions to Democratic campaigns.
In federal races, Kurt Winstead donated $1,000 to Democrat U.S. Senate nominee and former U.S. Representative Harold Ford Jr. in the 2006 race against former U.S. Senator Bob Corker. In 2007, records show Kurt Winstead donated $250 to the Tennessee Democratic Party. In 2008, the TN-5 candidate donated $300 to Democrat Bob Tuke’s U.S. Senate campaign.
In 2010, Kurt Winstead donated $1,000 to Democrat Brett Carter.
Harwell, the first female Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives and a former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party, has an exclusively Republican primary voter and GOP candidate donation history.
Additionally, Harwell was appointed to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority by former President Donald Trump in 2020.
FEC records show that the super PAC’s sole donor for the 2022 cycle has Jeff Yass, who donated a grand total of $15 million the PAC. Yass is options trader, a co-founder and managing director of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group (SIG), and member of the executive advisory council of the Cato Institute.
The PAC has spent money this cycle to support and oppose several candidates, including opposition to Trump-endorsed candidate Jake Evans in the race for GA-6.
The Club for Growth-controlled School Freedom Fund PAC also supported Trump-endorsed candidates Adam Laxalt and Ted Budd in the Nevada and North Carolina Republican primaries for U.S. Senate, respectively.
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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, Truth Social, and Parler.
Photo “Kurt Winstead” by Kurt Winstead. Photo “Beth Harwell” by Beth Harwell. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
