It appears things may get worse for the Hamilton County Republican Party before they get better.
The new slate of party officers, elected in March from a tiny number of county Republicans, appears to be reading language in the Tennessee GOP bylaws that isn’t there.
The bylaws state that county parties exist to promote GOP ideas, values and all Republican elected officials in the state, but the new county party leaders seem to believe it is within their purview to support or oppose legislation those Republicans offer based on their own proclivities.
“It [the state bylaws] says nothing about advocating for or against legislation as political activists with a limited point of view,” state Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, R-East Ridge, told this newspaper’s Sarah Dolgin, “especially bills introduced by GOP representatives and senators.”
The county, state and national Republican Party, as we have written before, should be a big-tent party, not catering to one man, one set of ideals, one way of thinking. It should include left-leaning Republicans, right-leaning Republicans, pro-life Republicans, pro-choice Republicans, religious Republicans, non-religious Republicans, and Black, brown and white Republicans.