Free Republic

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee angered his Facebook fans after endorsing Sen. Lamar Alexander against conservative state Representative Joe Carr last month. Carr has been endorsed by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham for the August 7th primary. And Carr has been relentlessly hammering Alexander for voting for the Senate's amnesty bill even after law enforcement officials warned Alexander that it would lure more illegal immigrants from Central America. Nearly every one of close to 450 comments beneath Huckabee's announcement on his Facebook page blasts Huckabee for supporting Alexander. One Huckabee fan said, "We...

New federal data published Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families showed Tennessee received 760 of the more than 30,000 children who have been released to sponsors this year through July 7.

NASHVILLE, July 23, 2014– U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R) is facing a tough primary challenge from State Rep. Joe Carr (R). Carr’s momentum has built over the months and Lamar is sweating bullets underneath his red flannel shirt. More than 20 state legislators have endorsed Carr over Alexander. They join more than 60 conservative Tennessee organizations, vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin, the National Association for Gun Rights and more. In natural form, Alexander is placing his bets on misleading the Volunteer state on just where his record stands on the issues. Most insulting of all is Alexander’s attempt to...

Conservative talk-radio host Laura Ingraham urged a ballroom full of Tennessee conservatives on Tuesday night to retire Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) like an “old sweater” that’s gone out of style. "He was really comfortable and sharp looking at one point, but now it just takes up room in your drawer," she said, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Ingraham spoke Tuesday at a 500-strong rally in Nashville for Alexander’s main primary challenger, state Rep. Joe Carr, who’s gained traction in recent weeks in his underdog bid to unseat Alexander. According to reports, she shied away from personal attacks —...

NASHVILLE — A national conservative group said today it is putting $20,000 into get-out-the-vote efforts in hopes of boosting turnout for Republican state Rep. Joe Carr in his GOP primary bid to beat incumbent U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Jenny Beth Martin, chairman of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund said the money is going to the Real Conservatives National Committee. The goal is beefing up the "ground game" run by the Real Conservatives' "Beat Lamar" campaign, she said. Martin didn't rule out putting more money into the race, saying there "may be more in a week or so." Both...

On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin endorsed conservative Tennessee state representative Joe Carr in his primary bid to oust incumbent Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). Carr has been hammering Alexander before the August 7th primary for voting for the Senate's Gang of Eight comprehensive amnesty bill even after he was warned by law enforcement officials that it would exacerbate the border crisis. Even Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) voted against the final bill. Palin thanked Alexander for his service and then promptly said it is time for new leaders who will have the guts to tell the Obama administration, "no mas."...

MARYVILLE, Tenn. – A Tennessee restaurant owner has placed a sign in the window of her business welcoming gun owners -- a move she says has brought in more customers and saved her business from closing.

Citing Maryland’s recently enacted firearm laws and the prospect of more restrictions, the U.S. arm of legendary Italian gunmaker Beretta announced Tuesday that it would move its manufacturing operations to Tennessee next year. The move makes Beretta the latest maker of guns or ammunition to move all or part of its operations to another state because of tightened gun control laws. General Manager Jeff Cooper said an early version of a statute passed last year by the Maryland state Senate would have prohibited the company from manufacturing or storing products in the state. “While we were able in the Maryland...

Beretta U.S.A. announced Tuesday that company concerns over a strict gun-control law enacted in Maryland last year have made it necessary to move its weapons making out of the state to Tennessee. The well-known gun maker said it will move to a new production facility it is building in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin that is set to open in mid-2015. Beretta general manager Jeff Cooper said that a sweeping gun-control measure that was passed last year initially contained provisions that would have prohibited the Italian gun maker from being able to produce, store or even import into Maryland the...

Beretta U.S.A. Corp., located in Accokeek, Maryland, announced today that it has decided to move its manufacturing capabilities from its existing location to a new production facility that it is building in Gallatin, Tennessee. The Gallatin facility is scheduled to be opened in mid-2015. Beretta U.S.A. had previously planned to use the new Gallatin, Tennessee facility for new machinery and production of new products only.

Tennessee's Lamar Alexander is one of a number of incumbent Republican senators caught in the cross hairs of Tea Party groups, taking on several challengers in next month's GOP primary. But while Tea Party groups may be optimistic about the race, challengers like Joe Carr face an uphill battle to unseat the two-term senator. Carr's campaign office is just across the street from Murfreesboro's antebellum courthouse. An American flag hangs out front, and in the window a big campaign sign calls on Tennessee Republicans to vote for "Carr, not Lamar." Carr, a 56-year-old state representative, says there are a lot...

The Lamarer is a grassroots video rebuttal to Lamar Alexander's campaign claims that he is a conservative.The Lamarer

A new poll conducted by Triton Polling, shows that Carr has jumped sixteen points in his race against Alexander in Tennessee since May. Alexander now leads Carr 43-36 percent. The results show that 6.7 percent of voters chose long shot candidate George Flinn, four percent chose another candidate and 10.1 percent were not sure. In May the same poll showed Alexander leading by 44-20. The new results show that Carr has coalesced opposition to Alexander, although the incumbent senator retains a similar margin of support.

Given the link between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and birth defects, should expectant mothers who drink be arrested for assault? If not, it is hard to see why Mallory Loyola is in jail. Loyola, who was arrested last week after giving birth to a baby girl who tested positive for amphetamine, is the first woman to be charged under a new Tennessee law that criminalizes drug consumption by pregnant women. The law, ostensibly aimed at protecting children, is really about punishing what its chief sponsor described as "the worst of the worst": women who not only use arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants...

Calling someone the “queen of the tea party,” may be an odd appellation for a movement that has no leaders. Sarah Palin was regarded by some as the “queen of the tea party.” Conservatives immediately rallied around her in 2008, when John McCain tapped her to be the vice presidential nominee. She remained popular, but her role with the tea party exploded after the First Tea Party Convention in Nashville in 2010. In 2010, Palin held court and made appearances and endorsements. Those endorsements turned out to be very valuable to candidates in 2010. In 2012, she lost a bit...

Thousands of illegal immigrant children who have been arrested for crossing the U.S. border are merely pawns "in a political game" by President Barack Obama, Rep. Marsha Blackburn charged to Newsmax on Saturday. "I find it just horrific that these children would be used for a political point," the Tennessee Republican said after touring a detention center at Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma. .... Blackburn spent about two hours at the Fort Sill center with Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who appeared on Newsmax TV on July 3 to tell "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner how he was denied access when...

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) brought a picture of her grandson to Capitol Hill today. No, she didn’t simply show it to her colleagues to beam about her newest family member – she brought the picture straight to the Senate floor to testify against the pro-abortion S. 1696, or “Women’s Health Protection Act.” S. 1696, which has 25 Senate cosponsors (all Democrats), would override nearly all federal and state laws limiting abortion, including third-trimester bans on abortion, limits on abortion after 5 months of pregnancy, and laws against sex-selection abortion, according to the pro-life organization SBA List, which sent out an...

I just returned from another trip to Tennessee where I was able to catch up with a few folks from the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga and see how things were developing. The conversations there had shifted quite a bit from earlier in the year when the vote regarding UAW unionization was raging, and recent reports make it clear that the big auto union isn’t going to be content with licking their wounds from their recent loss. As Ed reported back in April, the UAW had withdrawn their request for a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board, which some...

Primary battles in Tennessee tend to be very heated affairs. This is not entirely due to the fact that Tennessee holds its primaries in the first week of August as the temperature and humidity sail north of 90 degrees in many parts of the state. While Tennessee’s primary is late compared to many others, what is really surprising is that no one is talking about the Senate primary. Lamar Alexander is running for his third term as senator from Tennessee. Alexander is almost a political legend in Tennessee. He was twice elected governor. He ran for president twice. He was...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam says the state is offering to dedicate Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers to help Memphis deal with a rash of sick calls from police officers upset about cuts to their health care benefits. Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said Tuesday the number of officers who are currently out sick has increased to 554. That represents about a quarter of the total force, which stands at about 2,200 officers.