Thursday, February 27, 2025
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Tech Professor: State Lawmakers Pressured On Vouchers

A national political group called Club For Growth has threatened Tennessee lawmakers who voted against school vouchers with a challenge in the next primary.

That includes money spent to force the legislator out of office. The group made the threat in a Tennessean editorial. Tennessee Tech Political Science Professor Lauren Harding said the threats made by the club are real as the club spent an estimated $75 million in 2024 for national elections.

“They have money to spend,” Harding said. “And it is increasing that these political action committees are targeting that money in state elections to get particular policy outcomes.”

Harding said nationally the average spending for a state senate campaign is $120,000 and for a state house seat it is $72,000. Harding said several rural lawmakers may be nervous about the threat as going against a large financial backing could be the reason they do not retain their seats.

Club For Growth is a conservative political action committee that can raise money to spend on election campaigns as long as they don’t coordinate directly with a candidate, Harding said.

“When you are talking about primaries like the number of voters is low,” Harding said. “The amount of money that is spent is much lower than what you would see say as a statewide or federal election. The ability for Club For Growth to spend almost unlimited amounts of money to pour in advertising is high. All of those factors will come into play and with a good candidate with lots of backing from a group like Club For Growth it could make a difference.”

Harding said some lawmakers may not submit to the pressure put on by Club For Growth.

“The incumbent advantage is still very powerful,” Harding said. “So for you know the name recognition the community support that has been built for a lawmaker who has been serving in office and created benefits and a relationship with their constituents. That is powerful and that is very difficult to overturn so challengers are not ordinarily very successful against incumbents.”

Harding said if the rural lawmakers are voting for what the people represent believe then large amounts of money may not make the difference. Harding said we have seen incumbent candidates in both Democrat and Republican parties lose an election due to being outmatched by funding from political action committees.

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