[Politics] GOP donor retreat for 2024 hopefuls collides with Tennessee expulsions fallout

[NesT_YT]

 

Former President Donald Trump and other 2024 hopefuls will be descending on Nashville this weekend for a long-ago scheduled GOP donor retreat, but many state Republicans are worried that the recent expulsion of two Black Democrats from the Tennessee Legislature may overshadow the event.

The arrival of high-profile Republican candidates and their potential donors comes just over a week after Tennessee Republicans took the unprecedented step of removing Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson for having led protests against gun violence on the chamber floor. A third Democrat — Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white — survived her expulsion vote, sparking accusations of racism that focused national attention on the GOP-led House.

 

The fallout from those votes comes as the national GOP is already mired in struggles over how to balance policies and issues that are popular among the conservative base — support for abortion restrictions and opposition to new gun restrictions — but deeply unappealing to swing voters in battleground states that will play a vital role in next year’s elections.

“What happened in the state Capitol last week — I don’t see how it has any positive impact on the Republican Party. Not even a minute amount,” Eddie Mannis, a former Republican member of the Tennessee state House, said in an interview.

Mannis, who in 2021 became the first openly gay Republican member of the state Legislature, left office earlier this year after just one term, alleging that Republican leaders in the chamber had silenced his efforts to guide them away from their intense focus on social issues.

“There’s no doubt in my mind these things steer the national party off course,” he told NBC News.

Tennessee House Republicans were largely caught off guard by the intense national attention sparked by their decision to expel Jones and Pearson. Leaked audio from part of a recent meeting of Republican state representatives included several legislators angrily complaining about how Democrats had portrayed their actions as racist.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee state House GOP caucus did not respond to questions from NBC News.