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Tennessee House District 97 candidates make final push at polls • Tennessee Lookout [1]

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Date: 2024-11-05  

A contested race for Memphis’ District 97 state House seat has drawn the attention of Republicans and Democrats alike.

U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty arrived at one polling place to encourage voters to keep John Gillespie, the district’s two-term Republican incumbent, in the legislature. His challenger, Memphis business owner Jesse Huseth, has received support from a national Democratic fundraising committee.

Huseth visited the poll at One City Church Tuesday after working from 4 a.m. to 7: 30 a.m. that morning. He and his supporters knocked on doors until 5 p.m. Monday night, he said.

“We have folks on phones right now calling folks to get out to vote,” he said, pausing to greet and thank a voter exiting the poll for voting. “We’re just going to meet folks at the polls and thank them for doing their civic duty.”

Huseth said voters have been “really thankful to see a real competitive race, and people just feel like they have something to vote for on the down ballot, which I think that helps turnout all the way up. I don’t believe in the idea that your top of ballot drives downward. I think you should be driving down upward.”

Supporters gathered at One City Church for both Huseth and Gillespie said the location amassed a line of about 20 voters before the doors opened at 7 a.m., with a steady stream trickling in and out throughout the morning.

Just after 9 a.m., Gillespie and his supporters gathered outside of Second Baptist Church with other Republican state legislators awaiting Blackburn and Hagerty’s arrival.

Gillespie said he has no regrets from his first two terms in office, and said his sponsorship of the “truth in sentencing” law, which requires people convicted of certain felonies to serve their entire sentence with no parole eligibility or good behavior credit, is a point of pride. Opponents of the law, including criminal justice advocates and the American Conservative Union, said removing those incentives would hamper anti-recidivism rehabilitation efforts and increase prison populations.

Gillespie said crime is the “only thing that’s keeping Tennessee back,” and he’s focused his political career on it.

“We have to get Memphis under control, and the only thing I keep hearing is crime, crime, crime, and nothing else really matters,” he said Tuesday.

Both Gillespie and Huseth support the institution of safe storage rules for guns in vehicles (Gillespie signed on as a co-sponsor to a bill to do just that, but it died in April) and both are against Tennessee’s permitless carry law (Gillespie was one of five Republicans in the state house to vote against it in 2021, and Huseth has said he would fight to repeal it).

But they differ in opinion on the three gun-related questions on Memphis ballots, none of which could go into effect without state approval.

Huseth said the referenda will give state lawmakers “direct input from voters on how they feel about these things.”

Gillespie on Tuesday said the referenda are “useless and a waste of money, because they’ll be challenged, and they’ll cost the taxpayers.”

They also differ sharply on schools, with Gillespie supporting school choice vouchers while Huseth is staunchly opposed.







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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/2024/11/05/tennessee-house-district-97-candidates-make-final-push-at-polls/

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