Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris DevaneyNASHVILLE — Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney says it’s been “quite a ride” over the past six years, but the party chief intends to resign from his job of crushing Democrats on April 11 to take a new post helping Haitian children.
The Lookout Mountain resident said he will become executive director of the Chattanooga-headquartered Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti, a faith-based nonprofit.
“They were looking for an executive director and I just feel like this is what I’m called to do at this point in my life,” Devaney said in an interview Monday.
In his announcement, Devaney said “we have had quite a ride. I have been honored and humbled to be a part of this remarkable history, but it’s time for my family and me to embark on a new journey.”
He said he initially went on church missions to Haiti in the late 1990s and more recently went on several trips to the beleagured island nation with Children’s Nutrition Program.
Devaney helped lead the Tennessee GOP to supermajorities in the General Assembly for the first time since the 19th century as well as built a majority of seven congressional seats in the state’s nine-member U.S. House delegation.
But as Republicans’ dominance grew, so did fissures and he faced a leadership challenge in December from former state Rep. Joe Carr, R-Murfreesboro, a Tea Party-style Republican who lost last summer’s GOP primary bid to oust U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Numerous legislative Republicans have faced similar challenges and not fared as well.
Asked about the Tennessee GOP’s increasingly fractious politics, Devaney said it’s not nearly what it is in some other states.
“The Republican Party is where the action is,” he said. “We’re going to see more primaries probably. But I think as long as the rhetoric is toned down, it’s not a bad thing to have primaries.”
He said the party tells people “when they come in the door, we want you to stay on the issue. This should’t be a personal vendetta. If you’re going to run in the primary, you need to keep it on the issues.
“Candidates should tone their rhetoric down when they’re running because it can come back to haunt us in the general [election] if we’re not careful.”
He recently faced heat from some state executive committee members over requiring party registration to participate in GOP primaries.
Devaney is a former state GOP executive director. He served as state director for U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and previously worked for former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.
In 2009, he won the party chairman’s race to fill the remaining term of then-Chairman Robin Smith of Hixson. Devaney beat Oscar Brock, also of Lookout Mountain.
He was elected to three additional terms, including last December’s victory over Carr.
Devaney said he hopes Republicans reach out to Hispanic, Asian-American and younger voters.
And he gave Democratic President Barack Obama some credit for the GOP’s huge gains beginning in 2008.
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t,” he said.
The outgoing chairman said he thinks the GOP under his tenure made strides in organization and fundraising. He said he also is proud of the party’s “Red to the Roots” effort in 2014 where the state GOP helped Republicans in local races, which he said is the “last bastion” of Tennessee Democrats.
But he said his passion now is for helping undernourished children in Haiti and intends to throw himself wholeheartedly into that.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Ryan Haynes, R-Knoxville, said in a letter to the GOP’s state executive committee members that he is running to succeed Devaney. He wants to serve a “party that stands on solid principles and protects the values of Tennesseans.”
The contest will be decided in a special meeting of the GOP on April 11.
Carr said he is looking at the contest as well.
“I maintained then [in December] and I maintain now there’s a serious chasm in the Republican Party between the Tea Party/grassroots and the establishment donor class,” Carr said in an interview.
He warned “whoever becomes the party chairman better be cognizant of that because it’s not something that’s going to fix itself. You first have to recognize such a chasm exists.”
Meanwhile, the name of Rebecca Ann Burke, a sitting state executive committee member, has also surfaced as a potential candidate.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfree press.com or 615-255-0550.