THUNDER ON THE RIGHT?

For only the second time in the last 15 years, an incumbent Republican member of the Hamilton County state legislative delegation will have a serious primary opponent. In fact, two of them will.

Call it creeping Trumpism.

With Donald Trump firmly in control of the national Republican Party, and the continuing slide to the right of the Tennessee legislature, Republicans like state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, apparently have been judged not conservative enough.

The Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, Lamar Alexander and Bill Haslam, with which Gardenhire and Hazlewood associated, obviously is no longer acceptable.

Between 2009 and 2024, the only Republican primary opponents of incumbents were then-Collegedale Commissioner Ethan White, who took on state Rep. Mike Carter in District 29 in 2016, and perennial candidate Basil Marceaux Sr., who faced incumbent state Rep. Richard Floyd in Hazlewood’s District 27 in 2012. Floyd won with more than 90.3% of the vote, while Carter earned more than 83.3%.

Now former Red Bank Commissioner Ed LeCompte is challenging Gardenhire, who was termed a “Liberal RINO” (Republican In Name Only) by a headline in the online Tennessee Conservative, while fresh-food advocate and stay-athome mom Michele Reneau will face Hazlewood, who was described in the challenger’s news release as “left-leaning.”

Both LeCompte and Reneau prominently mention illegal immigration in their initial news releases, an issue on which they say Gardenhire and Hazlewood have been weak but which is largely a federal issue.

“For too long, career politicians” — Gardenhire is completing his third four-year term in the Senate — “have put the interests of illegal immigrants and globalist agendas ahead of [the] lawabiding American Citizen taxpayer,” LeCompte’s release states.

“Reneau is running as [a] Conservative Republican for voters who want an alternative” to Hazlewood, “who often votes with Democrats to oppose Conservative legislation pertaining to illegal immigration …,” Reneau’s release says.

Both candidates also tout their fealty to the U.S. Constitution, LeCompte promising he will “protect our constitutional rights” and claiming he is “a proud America First Candidate,” a term Trump often uses, and Reneau being termed a “Constitutional Conservative” in her news release.

But are Gardenhire and Hazlewood really RINOs? It depends on whom you ask.

The right-leaning John Birch Society gave Gardenhire a score of 80% on its 2023 legislative scorecard, which was tied for the second highest mark in the Senate. He received an 87 rating from the American Conservative Union, which was only five points off the top-scoring Republican and was nowhere near the lowest-ranking Republican. For the 2022, session, though, he was listed by Americans for Prosperity Tennessee as only “Taxpayer Neutral.”

Meanwhile, Hazlewood got a 60% mark on the John Birch ranking, below the average score for state House Republicans but well above the average score for Democratic members. She also received an 87 from the American Conservative Union, which put her in the middle of the pack among House Republicans. However, Americans for Prosperity Tennessee placed her in the “Taxpayer Foes” category for 2022, and Tennessee Conservative tabbed her as the “RINO of the Year.”

Neither Gardenhire and Hazlewood, though, have been in rock solid Republican districts since their initial elections in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

Gardenhire lost to a Democrat in the Hamilton County portion of his district in each of his three general elections but won each race with the votes he received in Bradley County. Now his district includes a smaller portion of Hamilton County and all of Bledsoe, Marion and Sequatchie counties.

Hazlewood represents a once bright red district that has become increasingly less so. Many of her constituents elected consecutive left-leaning Hamilton County Board of Education members and gave Trump bare majorities in his previous presidential races in 2016 and 2020.

However, the fact that LeCompte and Reneau have announced candidacies indicates the growing influence of constituencies on the far right steeped in the Trumpian point of view. No compromise. No gray areas. No working across aisles. No horse trading. Our way or no way.

We’re not sure how that will work on two of the savviest members of the local delegation. Gardenhire will be having to convince a new constituency of his value, but he’s had several years to get to know them. LeCompte hasn’t been on any ballot since 2018. Meanwhile, Hazlewood appears to model the conservative-on-financial-issues, slightly-lessconservative-on-social-issues view of her constituency. And this is Reneau’s first try for elected office.

So, being primaried from the right may not be a significant threat to the two powerful legislators — Gardenhire is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Hazlewood is chair of the House Finance, Ways and Mean Committee and the Council on Pensions — but it’s a long way to the August primary.