Boyd hopes to ‘come back and finish the job’ as governor
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Randy Boyd’s political career can be most easily traced to an early morning breakfast in 2008 with then-Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale on his own back porch. The two dreamed about plans over bagels.
Boyd wanted help in his quest to make Knoxville a premier pet-friendly city, and Ragsdale was willing to help.
Ragsdale and his advisers had dreamed up a plan that would give Knox County high school graduates High 91° Low 76° Storms. Forecast, Friday, July 6: Craig Fitzhugh Wednesday, July 11: Beth Harwell
Thursday, July 5: Karl Dean Monday, July 9: Diane Black Tuesday, July 10: Randy Boyd
Thursday, July 12: Bill Lee
the opportunity to go to community college for free.
Down the road, the county helped Boyd push for space for dog parks and Boyd helped finance the last-dollar scholarship program.
Ten years later, Knoxville is a thriving community for dog lovers, Tennessee Promise, modeled after the Knox County program, is seen as a model for education across the nation, and Boyd is a top-tier Republican candidate for governor.
Randy Boyd wants to finish the job
Until the 2008 breakfast, Boyd was fine being a community-minded philanthropist and the chairman, CEO and majority shareholder of Radio Systems Corp., the parent company of PetSafe, Invisible Fence and Sport Dog that employs 700 people.
But since then, Boyd has worked to build Knox Achieves into tnAchieves, which gives last-dollar and community college scholarships and pairs high school graduates with mentors while also requiring them to perform community service.
In 2013, Gov. Bill Haslam tapped Boyd to become a special adviser on higher education, and over the next two years Boyd helped form the foundation of Haslam’s legacy education agenda, the Drive to 55, Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect programs.
As the free-college movement grew into Tennessee Promise, tnAchieves became a private support agency that handles much of the administration of the Tennessee Promise program.
Two years later, Haslam again turned to Boyd when there was an opening atop the state’s Economic and Community Development Department.
Boyd served as commissioner from January 2015 to February 2017 and helped bring 50,000 new job commitments and nearly $11 billion in capital investment to the state.
Now, Boyd is trying to finish that work as he runs for governor. If he could, Boyd said he’d just assume to have Haslam continue as governor with him by his side.
“I’d be his wingman and we’d finish the job together and ride off into the sunset,” Boyd said. “I’d be happy (with that). But he has to leave.
“I worried that somebody else would come in and just drop all of these initiatives that I thought are important,” he said. “I want to come back and finish the job.”
Boyd’s desire to run is spiritual for him, too.
“When I reflect on what Christ’s teachings mean to me, it means to be a servant,” he said. “So when I think of the journey I’m on now it’s about serving.”
Candidate wants to aim high, expects same from others
People who know Boyd well say he shoots high and expects plenty from the people he taps as leaders.
Krissy DeAlejandro, tnAchieves’ executive director, has worked with Boyd since 2008. She said he measures every detail and remembers data points that seem irrelevant. He can recall them months later when needed, she said.
Early in the Knox Achieves timeline, DeAlejandro said she joked that they could one day say America Achieves.
“He was joking but serious and he said, ‘Ugh. I’m disappointed in you.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘World Achieves. World Achieves. Why are you selling us short?’ So, he’s always thinking bigger than everyone else in the room.”
Boyd’s work on state economic development
Boyd touts his work as the state’s top economic development official. But during his tenure, there was an elusive prize: the Memphis Regional Megasite, the sprawling 4,100-acre chunk of West Tennessee land.
In January, current Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe said the site needs another $80 million to make it “shovel ready.” The state has already set aside $144 million for it.
Rolfe’s estimate came after Toyota and Mazda picked a site near Huntsville, Alabama, for a proposed plant that is estimated to employ around 4,000 people. The automakers picked Alabama because the megasite wasn’t ready.
In June 2015, not even six months on the job, Boyd said getting a company into the site in the next four years was his No. 1 goal.
“It’ll be hard to claim victory if we don’t,” he said. “If we do, we could probably be forgiven for a lot of other things. That’s No. 1.”
“When you line up each season to win the Super Bowl you don’t always win, but we will,” Boyd said earlier this year.
Boyd’s campaign also has benefited, at least somewhat, from his time as commissioner. A review of donations to the Boyd campaign shows he has received at least $91,000 from people tied to seven companies that received nearly $9 million from state incentives during his time at the department from 2015 to 2017.
Boyd said he never planned to run for governor when he served as commissioner, so none of the dollars given out can be seen in that light. Boyd stepped down as commissioner in February 2017 and announced his bid for governor the next month.
Haslam, Boyd and the East Tennessee mold
Because of their similar positions on many political issues, their extensive personal wealth and their East Tennessee ties, Boyd and Haslam often get compared to one another, and some have wondered if the state will elect consecutive Republicans in the Haslam mold.
Anthony Nownes, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee, said the political crowd might talk about the similarities, but he doesn’t think being compared to Haslam is necessarily an issue for voters.
“Haslam’s pretty popular so I don’t really see how that hurts him even if it is true,” Nownes said. “Even though I’m skeptical of it.”
For his part, Boyd laughs off the comparison. When asked about the differences between the two last fall, Boyd said he likes to run and Haslam likes to bike.
When asked about Boyd at a March event in Knoxville, Haslam said he wouldn’t be endorsing Boyd or anyone in the primaries.
But Haslam has offered praise. In February 2017, as Boyd left state government and just a month before he launched his gubernatorial bid, Haslam said Boyd is “somebody who will always give you every ounce of energy they have.”
At the time Haslam spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals dismissed suggestions that Haslam’s comments about Boyd could be seen as an endorsement.
Boyd’s personal wealth
On the campaign trail, Boyd often goes back to the early days of selling spare parts and dog fence supplies to stores out of a van with no air conditioner. It took time, but Boyd is a long ways away from those days.
Like Haslam and fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates Diane Black and Bill Lee, Boyd is incredibly wealthy.
Boyd and his wife, Jenny, had $25.3 million in total income and $17.2 million in taxable income in 2016.
The two donated over $10 million to charitable causes in 2015 and 2016, according to tax records the campaign released to the USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee.
But with the company’s success has come extra scrutiny, particularly as Boyd runs for governor.
The $400 million private company, Radio Systems Corp., has deployed a tax technique generally known as a “double Irish,” which helped it avoid paying millions in U.S. and international taxes.
The controversial corporate tax structure, which is legal, allows businesses to avoid paying U.S. taxes — in some cases millions or even billions of dollars.
The company paid substantially less in taxes than it would have if it met the legal requirements for the U.S. corporate tax rate of the time, which was 35 percent.
In a statement, the Boyd campaign did not dispute establishing the tax structure or the potential amount of taxes avoided.
“(Radio Systems) selected Ireland in 2013 as its European hub to better serve its rapidly growing customer base in Europe. But with 85 percent of the company’s total sales still in the U.S., the company pays millions of dollars each year in U.S. taxes,” Boyd campaign spokeswoman Laine Arnold said.
For his part, Boyd said he hasn’t changed since his more humble beginnings.
“I think you’re imprinted by early experiences and I’ll always be the same guy,” he said.
John Stuart has been the Boyds’ pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville since 1995. Jenny Boyd grew up in the church. Her father was an elder and a Sunday school teacher. The couple were married in the church.
“They don’t pontificate from on high, ‘I’m rich, I’m successful, I’m wealthy,’ ” Stuart said. “Randy and Jenny treat everyone the same way. That to me is maybe the difference between a politician and a leader. A politician is someone who’s always looking to see what they can get out of you. Whereas a leader is trying to figure out how you can help the larger group and community.”
The conservatism dance
Boyd is campaigning as a conservative, says he’s a businessman like President Donald Trump and is touting his support for the Second Amendment.
But Boyd has come under attack from Black as too moderate. Boyd has always voted in Republican contests, although he did not vote at all from 1994 to 2002, according to Knox County records.
When asked about the eight-year gap, Boyd said he “regrettably” missed several chances to vote while he was a traveling salesman and building his business.
He told the now-defunct Knoxville Mercury he considered himself a moderate in a 2015 profile.
Black has pointed to Boyd’s support of Haslam’s failed Medicaid expansion, Insure Tennessee, and a $250,000 donation to Conexion Americas, a nonprofit that works with immigrants regardless of their immigration status, as reasons he isn’t conservative enough.
Boyd said the donation was to help fund a kitchen for entrepreneurs.
Boyd has tried to project stances and opinions that will endear him to conservatives — including tough talk on his willingness to crack down on sanctuary cities, which Tennessee does not have.
When asked earlier this year about his 2015 remarks, Boyd also shied away from a label, but said if he had to choose he would consider himself a Ronald Reagan or Howard Baker Republican.
“What I mean by that is to be effective you have to be able to sit down with
University of Tennessee, Bachelor of Science; University of Oklahoma, master’s
Chairman, CEO and majority shareholder of Radio Systems Corp., the parent company of PetSafe, Invisible Fence and Sport Dog. Former Tennessee Economic and Community Development commissioner.
Occupation:
120 city and county mayors and more than 50 law enforcement officials, presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and sportsman Bill Dance
Family: Wife Jenny, two sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter Faith: Erin Presbyterian Church, Knoxville Key endorsements:
people with opinions different than yours,” he said. “I know Howard Baker is famous for saying, ‘Sometimes it’s good to sit down with someone with a different opinion just in case they might be right.’
“Here are the things I believe in: I believe in a balanced budget. I believe in lower taxes. I believe in smaller government. I believe in the Second Amendment and I’m pro-life. And by every definition of the last 50 years that would make you a conservative.”
Website: randyboyd.com
Trump’s impact on the governor’s race
Nownes, the political science professor, said Republicans find themselves in a new and difficult spot in trying to attract voters.
Every Republican candidate, whether they admit it or not, is preoccupied with how closely they should align themselves with Trump, he said.
“To me, that’s the overwhelming thought in all of these candidates’ minds,” Nownes said.
Boyd’s campaign manager, Chip Saltsman, dismissed the idea of Boyd being late to support the president.
“Randy was at the convention supporting the president when he was nominated, he voted for him in the general and was there for him when he was inaugurated,” Saltsman said. “Did he support someone else in the primary? Sure. I did, too. There was 17 people running for president. But after the primary we were all on the same team.”
When asked about Trump, Boyd said he sees similarities between the president and himself.
“People who want a disruptor, a businessperson and somebody who’s not a professional politician, they might see me closer to the things and values that he brought than any other candidate,” he said.
One of Boyd’s recent TV ads compares himself to the president, saying both are new to politics and both are disruptors.
Boyd ends the ad with a wry smile. “I just don’t tweet so much.”