Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey announced in an email today that he would not be running for re-election in 2022. The text of Kelsey’s letter follows:
I will not be running for reelection due to a recent, exciting change to my personal life, and I look forward to spending more time with my family.
It has been a true honor to serve you for 18 years and to work with you to pass more constitutional amendments than any other Tennessee legislator in history — including one to forever ban the income tax. But now my service to you is best spent fighting for American values in the court system and stopping the Biden Administration’s failed policies like the attempted OSHA vaccine mandate.
I’m happy to return any recent campaign contributions, and Lord willing, I hope that you will give me the opportunity to run for elected office in Tennessee again in the coming years.
In October, a federal grand jury in Nashville returned a five-count indictment charging Kelsey and Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith with violating multiple campaign finance laws as part of a conspiracy to benefit Kelsey’s 2016 campaign for U.S. Congress. It’s unclear whether his upcoming trial is one of the “exciting changes to [his] personal life” that Kelsey references in his email.
