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School voucher supporters get wins, losses from Tennessee’s Republican voters

Sen. Jon Lundberg, right, who chairs Tennessee's Senate Education Committee and co-chaired a task force on federal education funding with Rep. Debra Moody, lost his reelection bid during legislative primary elections Thursday. Lundberg, a Republican from Bristol, sponsored the Senate's statewide private school voucher bill earlier this year. (Marta W. Aldrich/Chalkbeat)
Sen. Jon Lundberg, right, who chairs Tennessee's Senate Education Committee and co-chaired a task force on federal education funding with Rep. Debra Moody, lost his reelection bid during legislative primary elections Thursday. Lundberg, a Republican from Bristol, sponsored the Senate's statewide private school voucher bill earlier this year. (Marta W. Aldrich/Chalkbeat) Sen. Jon Lundberg, right, who chairs Tennessee's Senate Education Committee and co-chaired a task force on federal education funding with Rep. Debra Moody, lost his reelection bid during legislative primary elections Thursday. Lundberg, a Republican from Bristol, sponsored the Senate's statewide private school voucher bill earlier this year. (Marta W. Aldrich/Chalkbeat)

By Marta W. Aldrich / Chalkbeat Tennessee 8 min read

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

In many ways, Tennessee’s fiercest GOP legislative primary races amounted to a referendum on Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal to provide public funding to any K-12 student toward a private education.

On Thursday, Republican voters delivered the governor a mix of wins and losses on the issue.

And the wins likely were aided by a slew of negative campaign ads targeting anti-voucher candidates and funded by millions of dollars from out-of-state groups supporting the policy.

The money, along with the governor’s endorsements of pro-voucher candidates, appeared to have paid off in two out of three open House seats in Montgomery and Williamson counties. Only in Blount County, near Knoxville, did Lee’s pick lose as retired Maryville teacher and football coach Tom Stinnett defeated attorney Jason Emert.