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The Tennessee Conservative with Brandon Lewis covers the stories that mainstream media ignores. Join us for interviews you won't hear on the nightly news, and for the Big 7 Weekly Digest!
Hello, everyone. I'm Brandon Lewis. The
Tennessee Conservative News joined today
is Senator. Marsha Blackburn to talk
about her gubernatorial run in the
volunteer state. Senator Blackburn, thank
you for being here. I am delighted to
join you. Thanks for having me on.
So the audience today is primarily
GOP, almost exclusively just GOP primary
voters all over the state. Your club
presidents, your educational wonks,
folks that keep up with the legislature.
And we're going to talk about a little
bit about illegal immigration
homeschooling. Go
COVID, GOP primaries and
you know, the freedom of the press. And
the first question is because we got a
lot to run through. You know, currently
Tennessee taxpayers are paying about $800
million a year educating illegal aliens.
My own niece, Miss Blackburn,
my sister-in-law discovered she wasn't
learning anything in school and after
three months had a parent-teacher
conference and the lady just said,
listen, we've got twenty-five kids in
here. That speak English as a second
language. I'm sorry, but it's the best I
can do. And so she started homeschooling
her kids. We did a poll here in Hamilton
County, 80 plus percent of GOP primary
voters. It would be 85% in the state on
average, I believe. Don't think we should
be doing it. But when Bo
Watson and William Lambert's bill was
passed for the local LEAs, I mean,
Jeremy Faison, who's, you know, the House
Republican caucus leader, like violently
opposed it, as do a lot of other members
in the House. Even our own local school
board, all the Democrats voted in a
resolution that half the Republicans
voted with and the other half of the
Republicans didn't vote. It seems like
there's this disconnect between my school
board, Ben Daugherty and Jeremy Faison,
and like the GOP electorate. So what are
your thoughts on what this is doing to
our system?Would you support this kind of
legislation?And, you know, can you fight
people in your own party to get it across
the finish line?Well, Brendan, as you
know, I kind of have a history of
fighting people within my party
when I think that it's not the right
decision. That's what happened
when I led the fight against the state
income tax and of
course. You have Bose
legislation. That is something that I
am supportive of. And
this is an issue that the
state, as you're saying, and rightfully
so, people want to see
this addressed. There's a couple of
things we know. Number one, the Democrats
continue to work to try to make
illegal legal.
And that is something when you're talking
about educating our children and when
you're talking about colleges with
children and someone who is
illegally in the country, then they're
taking that opportunity
away from a child that
is legally here
and going through the system. I think we
have to look very, very carefully to
make certain that. We I I
say it's the big five faith, family,
freedom, hope and opportunity and
preserving those opportunities for
our our kids should
be at the top of our list. Now
one of the things I really do appreciate
is the work the legislature has done on
school choice because
this gives parents more say
and. The opportunities
and options that are going to be there
for their children, whether it's public
school, private school, homeschool. We
want parents to have more,
not fewer choices,
and I don't think any
parent should have to win the
lottery in order to have a say
in their child's education.
Another thing that
we are that we
need to be aware of is we talk
about this and
supporting what Senator Watson
and Rep Lamberth are seeking to do
is I've at the federal level worked on
legislation that would remove the ability
of the NEA. To lobby
a government to entities, to lobby the
federal government, you know to try to go
in and lobby for policies that
and we we saw this whether it was COVID
or it's the issue that we're talking
about that would restrict opportunities
for our children. You don't
want to give the union,
you don't want to cede any ground to them
so. Well, that's that's true. I mean,
you've look most of the things and
whether it's in education or automotive
or anywhere else, once they get there, it
may be OK at the beginning, but you know,
just like letting poison Ivy grow up a
tree, it looks real pretty until it kills
the tree. The
homeschoolers, you know, I lived in
Chattanooga and our kids
were zoned when we started getting into
school in a in a school that was overran
with illegal aliens there were.
Shootings in the parking lot, gang
activity, teen pregnancy, drugs. I was
not going to put my 2 girls there. So I'd
spent 20 years paying in taxes and then I
just couldn't send them where I was
zoned, like not with a good conscience.
And so, you know, homeschoolers
outperform in many cases, schoolers from
almost any other situation. Every
week we report in Tennessee public
schools about kids that are raped,
molested, taken advantage of inside the
school system by the very people that it
employs. Yet when we tried to pass a very
simple bill in Tennessee that would allow
homeschoolers to have the autonomy to
educate their kids without government
interference, it it died at the hands of
Republicans. It had passed in 14 other
states. And we had a couple of activist
judges like Rob Phil y'all that sent in a
letter saying, hey, you need to turn this
down cause, you know, these homeschoolers
might beat their kids. And how would we
know?And so when it comes to
homeschooling, Donald Trump, you know,
has proposed a a 10K
tax. Income deduction for
homeschoolers because we're paying into
the taxes, 50% of our money goes to
something we don't feel comfortable
using. What would you say to
homeschoolers on 2 fronts?One is, is our
independence to homeschool and would you
ever support legislation that just
allowed parents to be independent?#2 you
know, is there anything financially even
like a no strings attached tax rebate
or refund or credit or something so that
those that are paying into the system but
opt not to use it, we're still saving.
You know, $12,000 a year on average for
the school system, federal, state and
local when we pull our kids out, but we
can't take advantage of it. What ideas
would you have for homeschoolers?Yes.
And one of the things I think that is
very helpful to this entire
discussion and you're so right about
President Trump and how he has
approached education
and turning that
responsibility back to the
states. And the
US Department of Education is
going away. It is happening very
quickly. And what we're going to
see is that
responsibility, the authority,
the funding comes back to the states. I
was talking to a principal this
weekend and he said he is
so. Looking forward
to being able to say, I
don't have all these federal mandates
on me and I have
the ability to handle
what I think is going to be best for the
children here that we are
seeking to educate. And it's the same
thing with homeschoolers. And you're
very right as the
US Department of Education goes away. And
then your General Assembly here in
Tennessee and also your
state school board and they're
going to be looking at how
they have more choice, more
options and
are able to give parents more
rights and how their child
is educated. The tax credit
that you're talking about, that is
something that is a great idea.
Because parents are paying in, but
they are not pulling that on the
system. There again, this is
something that gives parents
more options for how they would choose
to educate their child. That's
always a good thing. And
as we see the US Department
of Education going away, Brandon, for
me, one of the exciting things is.
Parents are going to be
able and
teachers are going to be able
to be more innovative in how
we teach children. We want children to
learn how to be lifelong
learners, and
opening these doors of opportunity
is a great way that we're going to be
able to do that. I guess I would just ask
specific to the homeschool legislation
that was introduced on parental
autonomy to homeschool without government
interference in Tennessee, which is
really like the the crux of the question.
To me, if you if you put somebody in
charge of a series of restaurants as a
regional manager and only 66% of them
perform at grade level, like you don't
put that person in charge of anything
else. And the way that they're looking at
it now is that homeschool has to be under
this purview of the same institution that
we're saying simultaneously is so bad,
we've got to get people out of it with
school choice. Like it seems weird to put
the failed manager in charge of the good
stores. That are left. So like as far as
autonomy goes and is there any tax relief
that homeschoolers could see at the state
level with autonomy,
parents want to have and should have
that autonomy. As I said, more choice,
more options, more freedom for
parents. You know, one of the things that
I've said as we've talked about the
governor's race, we're a great state,
we're well led. Let's make
certain we are #1. And
individual freedom. And
this is one of those areas that people
want to see the freedom and the
options to handle the education
of their children. Tax relief,
of course, having the ability to
have tax relief for parents, that is
always a good thing, having
them, you know, when you look at things
like tax credits.
And for childcare, tax
credits for children,
then of course having one that deals with
education and not only K
through 12, but college
as parents are working to
complete this education in the
manner. That they see fit that is
best for their child. One thing we've
learned one-size-fits-all
education does not work.
I have two children and four
grandchildren and
I I approach
teaching with each of them
differently. My two children
learned in very different ways, and it
was important to construct that learning
environment for them to help
them learn in the best way
possible. And the same thing with our
grandchildren. They're very different
how they take in information, how
they are, the
areas of interest that they have, they're
all different, so you're never going to
go wrong. When you are giving
parents the ability to
make those decisions of what is going to
work best for their children.
One question. I'm going to try to get to
a couple more because we got short time
here. This is a hard one.
Six years I came. Six years ago I came
out of political retirement. We were on
the Market Street Bridge with a bunch of
people in April 2020 saying we don't
think the masks work. We don't think the
vaccines are going to stop transmission.
My church is closed. My gym is closed.
I've been told I'm non-essential. In
Tennessee, over the next 18 months, 24.4%
of small businesses failed
while big boxes were allowed to be open
as they send their pack contribution and
lobbyists to Nashville. Governor Lee told
people not to congregate to worship God.
He canceled Thanksgiving, according to
the order, shuttered schools, sent kids
home. Pushed the mask,
pushed everything else. The National
Guard didn't have any medical freedoms
during the time. Contact tracing. People
died alone in nursing homes. And this
wasn't the Democrats. Democrats weren't
in power. The Republicans were. And this
General Assembly just kind of stood by
and said, let's see what happens.
Meanwhile, I look at this and I go
constitutionally with the oath of office.
Shouldn't I be able to go to church and
run my business?And do you have any
authority to do this?And so just
just and. Long story short is like, I
can't believe our own party put us
through that relatively needlessly. And
GOP primary voters, Clay Travis talked
about this at an event and everybody's
shaking their head like we're just afraid
that, like if it happened before over a
bad cold, if all our rights could be ran
over by a bad cold. But what in your
record would point to say that you would
have stood by our rights that versus what
we had to go through?Because, you know,
nobody's ever paid a price for those bad
decisions except for the the residents of
Tennessee. And I'm just nervous that
it'll happen again in my lifetime. And
what we have to do is keep that focus on
individual freedom, because
government ought not to be able to force
you to shut down your business, not
go to work. Not go to church.
And that is what we
saw happen so many times
during COVID. And what we
have to do is make
certain that we recognize those
individual rights and
freedoms and realize where
those freedoms come from.
And that it is going to be
imperative that
individuals have that right to keep that
business open, that they have that
right to continue to educate their
children, that they have that right for
and that religious liberty and that
exercise of their freedom
and their liberty. Well,
thank you. I'm just still horrified over
the whole thing. And everybody else says
forget, but I just it's hard. It's a hard
thing to forget. Well, yeah, you know, it
it is. And The thing is,
and this is something that points to the
importance of governors and
bringing that power out of
DC and thank goodness,
President Donald Trump. Said he
is draining the swamp. This power
is going back to the states.
And Brandon, you know, I I feel so
strongly we have
been such a
we're ahead of the curve on this
with this authority coming back when you
think about healthcare and
education and energy and all these
policy areas. Our goal
as a state should be
the state that everybody wants
to emulate. The state where people
say I like what they're doing in
Tennessee. We ought to be doing that. We
should be America's conservative
leader. We should be #1 in
conservative policies. We should be
#1. In educating
our children and having those choice
and options, we should be #1 when it
comes to generating energy
that is needed for a growing economy and
improving our infrastructure that is
necessary for a growing economy. We
should be #1 when it comes to
fighting illegal immigration
and supporting our law enforcement, and
we should absolutely be the
number one. State in this country
when it comes to preserving and
protecting individual
freedoms. Thank you so much on
that. Two very quick questions. I'm going
to keep it super short. Number one is we
fought the legislature for like a 10
years, maybe 15 years to close the
Republican primaries to Democrats. I'm an
old campaign hand. I'm pull up the 44
vow. OK, this person never voted. Ever
in a Republican anything, but they only
vote in the Republican primaries. But
they're voting in the presidential
Democrats. Like if they're registered as
a Democrat, their own Facebook posting as
a Democrat. There's hundreds of them
every election. We've tried to get the
General Assembly to close these
primaries. The State Executive Committee
has sent them. Scott Golden has gone down
on bended knee and asked them and got
nothing in reply. Would you be for party
registration to make sure we don't have
Democrats voting in Republican primaries?
I I think it should be Republicans
voting in Republican primaries.
Spread the word around. Tell Cameron
Sexton and Randy McNally. They have not
gotten the notice. One last question and
then and two compliments the
theMy question is, you know, President
Trump's got a really good record of
breaking long standing tradition and
allowing conservative media to actually
show up at government press briefings.
Cameron Sexton has locked us out of the
press briefings. I know because I ask
questions GOP primary voters actually
care about. They like Phil Williams, the
Tennessee lookout, the Tennessee, and
they ain't ever seen a conservative
policy they locked. They lobby against
them actively. But he's like, come on
boys, ask me questions cause it's all
going to come from the Democrats
perspective, which doesn't make a.
Difference to him because he's in the R +
18 district. But where would you be
on like conservative media actually
having access to ask questions about
Tennessee state government?And you know,
this is one of the things I've really
appreciated so much about President
Trump, whether it was campaigning for him
in 2016 and working
with him. Through his
first administration,
working with him as he got
ready to run. And then,
you know, I chaired the platform
committee for President Trump so that we
would have a good solid
platform and he would be able
to make these promises and we could keep
these. Promises. And as I
chaired that platform and worked with him
during the campaign season, it
always impressed me how much
he appreciated how
media had changed. And
when you would do something, you would
have bloggers and podcasters.
And those that were doing streaming
services and so many people that
were there because the old
mainstream media is never
going to fairly cover you. But
it will be the podcasters
and the streamers and people that
are the new media, which is
where most people are getting their news.
They're the ones that are going to really
help get that message.
And I have
appreciated that. I think people are
learning a lesson from what
President Trump has done. And of course,
new media should be allowed to
come in and ask
those questions because they
probably have more of an
audience than some of the old
mainstream media. Well, you're very
kind. We we get more social media traffic
and action like we reach several million
people, even though we have a small
following. They're just the folks that
share everything to close here because
we're over time. Number one is I want to
thank you for taking these questions.
These are hard questions. The questions
you get asked from most of the other
media sources are questions that only
Democrat voters care about. Which doesn't
make them hard, right?It doesn't matter
what you even say to them because you
think there's not who you're running for
the ticket, right?Not that you're not
going to represent all of Tennessee, I
get that. But for the primary, which
comes before the general, thank you. It
shows you've got a lot of guts. It makes
me respect you a lot more. And your staff
has been very easy to work with and they
seem very competent and professional. And
so that you don't always run into that on
campaign. So in closing, I just want to
say if you want to leave, leave the
listeners with some words, but eat your
eat your good nutrition, get plenty of
sleep. This is not a lark. People don't
realize how hard you work on these
statewide campaigns. You've done it
before. So good luck to you because
you're going to need it. Rest up and I'll
let you have the last word. Yes, you
know, it is truly an honor to serve.
The people of Tennessee, and I am
blessed every single day
by being able to talk with and
work with and listen to
Tennesseans. Our state is
a great state and
right now our state does not need a
manager. Our state needs a
leader, a leader who is focused,
who is conservative, who is
determined. And our
state needs a leader who has a proven
history of delivering for
Tennesseans. That leader is me.
And I am looking forward to being the
51st governor of the state of Tennessee.
Miss Blackburn, thank you for being here,
for talking to all of our folks out there
at the Tennessee Conservative. I wish you
the best on the campaign trail. Be
blessed. Thank you. All right, guys, if
you enjoyed this, go to
Tennesseeconservativenews.com. Hit the
sign up button. Until next time, I'm
Brandon Lewis signing off.