A not-so-funny thing happened to Tom Marshall on his way to a Hamilton County Board of Education seat. He did not vote in three out of the last four Republican primaries.
That, per the bylaws of the Tennessee Republican Party, made him ineligible to run in May’s election. Despite a waiver he was allowed to submit and many letters of support from past and present elected officials and others across the county, the ruling from the Republican State Executive Committee stood.
(IN THE NEWS: Hamilton County school board candidate removed from Republican primary ballot)
Marshall, for his part, accepted the decision with grace.
“While I may be disappointed in the outcome,” he said in a statement, “the rules of the party are the rules, and as a Republican I respect and abide by them. This decision does not change my commitment to the conservative values my wife and I have raised our 3 children on, to serving our community, or in advocating for families and students in our community.”