Free Press Opinion: Send Tony Hullender to state legislature in District 27
When he visits District 27 voters, Republican Tony Hullender says no one asks him about raw milk. No one tells him how much they want to have fluoride removed from their drinking water. No one is concerned about inspections of food from small farms. No one is passionate about U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda, though they all want to be healthy.
"Those issues don't come up," he says.
Except those are the issues of first-term state Rep. Michele Reneau, R-Hixson. Those are her priorities.
Hullender, a former Army officer who recently retired from his job investigating Medicaid fraud in the Tennessee attorney general's office, is challenging the incumbent, who upset state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood in 2024, in the August state legislative primary for areas including Lookout Valley, Signal Mountain and Soddy-Daisy.
His priorities, he says, are infrastructure, roads, safety and affordability.
"I think that's what voters are concerned about," Hullender says, adding that he would be "someone who listens and addresses concerns."
We think the district deserves to have someone whose priorities are their priorities, so we endorse his candidacy.
Reneau, he says, is more of "activist — someone who comes into office with a small core of issues, regardless of what her constituents want."
Her most recent vote, in the May special legislative session that approved new congressional lines, has left many, including Hullender and her constituents, baffled despite her explanation.
Reneau asked constituents for their concerns about the legislation, then voted "present," meaning not "yes" or "no." She explained that she had too many questions to vote one way or the other.
Hullender said he dislikes gerrymandering but admits it exists, though it is usually an outlier outside of post-census reapportioning. Had he been in the legislature and heard arguments on both sides, he would have voted definitively one way or the other, he said.
On other issues, he is a proponent of closed borders to stop illegal immigration but wants to leave most operations in the hands of federal officials. He is an advocate of the state's low taxes but wants to dig in and find a way to make goods and services more affordable for citizens. And he wants to ensure fair compensation for Tennessee teachers and technical and vocational education for those who don't want to pursue college.
Just as in 2024, Reneau, despite repeated messages to her campaign, did not want to make herself available for questions from the newspaper editorial board.