Harwell plans to ‘hit the ground running’
All eyes followed flying clay discs, blasted from the air during a shooting competition on the banks of the Cumberland River on a recent June day.
As proud parents watched their kids compete, Beth Harwell meandered through the crowd, hoping to pull some of the focus her way.
“Hi, I’m Beth,” she said to each group before launching into small talk.
Every now and again, someone recognized her as the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, her role for the last seven years and one that she hopes will catapult her to the front of a crowded field Monday, July 9: Diane Black Thursday, July 12: Bill Lee
Thursday, July 5: Karl Dean Friday, July 6: Craig Fitzhugh Tuesday, July 10: Randy Boyd Wednesday, July 11: Beth Harwell
vying for the Republican nomination for governor.
But for the most part she was anonymous. Her small campaign team unassumingly ambled along, quietly taking photos and handing out stickers behind her as shotgun blasts rang out.
It was not unlike her overall campaign, which has struggled to build enthusiasm and funds compared to her Republican opponents’. Despite such obstacles, Harwell is hoping her legislative experience, which dates back 30 years, can translate to a win in the Aug. 2 primary.
‘I fell in love with Tennessee’
Born in rural Pennsylvania in July 1957, Beth Halteman Harwell moved to Tennessee in the early 1970s after her parents decided she should skip her senior year of high school in favor of attending Lipscomb University, a private religious university in Nashville.
“At the age of 16, I fell in love with Tennessee and never left,” she said in an interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee.
After graduating from Lipscomb with a bachelor’s degree, Harwell continued her education, earning a master’s degree from George Peabody College, which later became part of Vanderbilt University, and then a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt.
Just a few years after getting her doctorate, Harwell’s dream became reality when she began teaching at Belmont University.
While teaching political science at Belmont, she felt it was important to apply some of her book knowledge to real life.
In 1986, she launched a bid for the state House, beating two other Republicans in the primary and challenging Democrat Jan Bushing in the November election.
During this first race, Harwell faced questions about her decision to have some of her students work on her campaign as part of a class assignment. She rejected the complaints, saying she did not believe her role as their teacher exerted any influence on students to join her campaign over another.
Harwell lost to Bushing by just 61 votes.
“The clear lesson there is every vote does matter,” Harwell said.
Two years later Harwell challenged Bushing again, this time beating her by 944 votes. Harwell called campaign contributions Bushing received inappropriate, sowing doubts among voters.
Beth Harwell ‘instrumental in getting both sides to the table’
At the time, Harwell was one of 42 Republicans in the 99-member House. During her first years in office, Harwell had to reach across the aisle to get legislation passed.
In 1993, when she married, she held her wedding reception at the governor’s mansion. At the time it was occupied by Gov. Ned McWherter, a Democrat.
The governor’s bipartisan overtures during her early years provided Harwell lessons, which she kept in mind when she became speaker in 2011, making her the first female to ever serve in the role.
“When I became speaker I gave a little talk to my Republican caucus and I said this is not the time for us to treat the Democrats the way we were treated when we were in the minority,” she said.
Over time, Harwell became known for her support of education and stronger sentencing of second-offense rapists, earning her endorsements in The Tennessean in 1992 and 1996.
Steve McManus, a Republican who served alongside Harwell in the state House for 10 years, said Harwell would frequently bring Republicans and Democrats together to work on legislation.
“She was instrumental in getting both sides to the table to negotiate,” he said.
Among those she credits for her knowledge of state government is Sen. Douglas Henry, the longtime Nashville Democratic lawmaker and budget chairman who died in 2017.
“He taught me more about the state budget than anyone else could possibly have done,” Harwell said, fighting back tears.
“Her longevity proves that she is someone who can work with folks on both sides of the aisle, which is definitely needed these days,” said Randy Stamps, a former lawmaker who also served with Harwell for a decade. He is currently the executive director of the Tennessee State Employees Association, which recently endorsed Harwell’s bid for governor.
But while working in a bipartisan nature, Harwell has not forgotten about her own party. In the early 2000s, she served as the head of the Tennessee Republican Party, helping secure key wins of legislative seats that eventually led to the GOP’s historic takeover in the statehouse. Vanderbilt University, Ph.D; George Peabody College, Master of Science; Lipscomb University, Bachelor of Arts
“I worked with (former Lt. Gov. Ron) Ramsey and recruited candidates so we could spend the money that she raised. She was all a part of that,” said Bob Davis, who took over the state Republican Party after Harwell’s tenure and is not backing any of the GOP candidates running for governor.
Praise for balancing politics and family
The din of shotgun blasts Harwell heard during her appearance at the Nashville Gun Club is familiar. For several years she’s gone duck hunting with a group of women, including Beverly Wheeler Johnson, a real estate appraiser and former commissioner of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Harwell openly admits she’s not a great shot.
“She’s a good shot. She’s not great, but she’s not horrible. The most important thing — she’s a very safe hunter,” Johnson said.
Johnson praised Harwell’s ability to balance her family time — she has three kids — and public office work.
“Every female that works and has a family grows up knowing how to do this,” Johnson said. “She does it great.”
“She’s lucky she has a husband that helps,” Johnson said, referring to Harwell’s husband, Sam, who owns Big Time Toys, a toy manufacturer and seller.
Harwell says outside of her public life and spending time with her family, she enjoys reading — she considers “Gone with the Wind” an all-time classic and the epitome of Southern literature — and walking.
She also reads the Bible every day, a practice that harkens back to her upbringing in a Church of Christ home.
“(Religion) influences every decision that I make in my life,” Harwell said. “I’m not saying vote for me for that reason. I think (people) should vote for me because I’m qualified, but they should know that my faith influences every decision I make in my life.”
Harwell opts to stick to state issues
Over the years, Harwell’s name has often been floated when various congressional seats have opened up. Ultimately, Harwell has decided state issues are more for her than national politics.
“I know there’s a glamour and a glitz to the federal issues, but I really have always believed if we’re going to turn our nation around and accomplish things it’s going to be at the state level,” she said.
With such interests, Harwell’s supporters say she has gone out of her way to help them.
Terry Roland, a Shelby County commissioner, says Harwell was instrumental in helping him in his unsuccessful state Senate bid against Democrat Ophelia Ford in 2005.
“I think the biggest thing that I could say about Beth that I admire about her is when you come to her with a problem, she puts a family touch to it,” he said.
Struggling to gain traction in campaign
Although Harwell launched her campaign from a high-profile perch, it’s been a struggle to boost her name recognition and recruit financial backers in a crowded field.
A May poll by Vanderbilt University found just 53 percent of respondents recognized her name. Outside of loaning her campaign money, Harwell raised just over $2 million from donors in the early months of the race.
She’s also been outspent by her three Republican competitors — U.S. Rep. Diane Black, Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd and Williamson County businessman Bill Lee — in terms of television ads.
“It would be nice at one point in the state of Tennessee and throughout the nation when it comes to elections if they could be just that — elections and not an auction,” McManus said. “If it’s an election, Beth, I really believe — when people know the person she is and the background that she has had — she would win this race.”
As Harwell campaigns, she tries to portray her lengthy legislative record as her greatest asset. She hasn’t been the most vocal candidate nor has she overtly stressed her affinity for President Donald Trump, like many of her GOP competitors.
But given her history in the legislature, she can, and often has, claimed responsibility for many of the policies of Gov. Bill Haslam.
After voters elected Trump — a real estate mogul with no political experience before his 2016 campaign — and chose not to send many longtime incumbent national lawmakers back to Washington, Harwell’s move could be a gamble. She disagrees. “I’m amused at people running for governor telling you what they’re going to do when they’re governor. The bottom line is they’re not going to do anything unless the Tennessee General Assembly lets them,” she said.
Harwell questioned her opponents’ desire to “shake things up” in a state where unemployment is at historic lows and economic growth is on the rise.
“Do they want to move to being a high-tax state? Do they want to move to a high-debt state?” she asked rhetorically.
Harwell said she’s most qualified to become Haslam’s successor and “hit the ground running.”
“I’m very proud of our state and the position we’re in, and my number one goal as governor is to keep our financial house in order and then continue to make this a great state for education,” she said.
But Harwell’s tenure as speaker hasn’t always been a breeze.
She considers the 2016 scandal with expelled state Republican lawmaker Jeremy Durham among her most challenging moments in public office. Durham faced allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, eventually prompting his ouster from the statehouse. He once called the expulsion a “medieval beheading.”
“Our state and our legislative body is in a better position now than it was before that crisis,” Harwell said, referencing an update to the legislature’s sexual harassment policy and her decision to order an independent investigation led by the attorney general into Durham.
“I clearly sent the message that (sexual harassment) won’t be tolerated in the General Assembly,” she said.
Harwell’s calls for Durham’s resignation were not her first public statements against a member of her own party. In 2005, she encouraged Chris Newton, a GOP lawmaker busted in Tennessee Waltz — the FBI’s investigation into bribery that led to the arrest of five former lawmakers — to resign.
Just as she faced criticism for the way she handled the Durham matter, critics have seized on other parts of her legislative history.
They point to her absence during a vote on a bill that would have allowed in-state tuition for students who entered the country illegally as children and her vote against a bill to allow guns in parks as evidence to question her conservative credentials.
In 2017, she also faced criticism for waffling on Haslam’s proposed gas tax increase, after she backed a last-ditch alternative measure.
But such critiques do not seem to have affected Harwell.
Harwell’s listening and longevity are gambits in an era where Trump is president, candidates champion business credentials over public service, and politics devolve into touting issues that have little to do with state governance.
“I think when you look at leadership it’s very important to be able to stand up and talk, but it’s also just as important that you sit down and listen,” she said.
Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.