Tag: Tennessee Democratic Party

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State Party Transitions

Worth Morgan (Photo: Memphis City Council)

In the political sphere, both major political parties chose new leaders over the weekend. 

The executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP), meeting in Nashville on Saturday, elected Rachel Campbell of Chattanooga the party’s new state chair. Campbell, currently chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, defeated state Representative Gloria Johnson, the party’s unsuccessful 2024 candidate for the U.S. Senate, and three other candidates.

The election required two ballots, with Campbell ultimately winning over runner-up Johnson by a margin of 43 to 22. One of the issues militating against Johnson was a concern that, as an elected state official, her direct involvement in fundraising campaigns would be limited by restrictions set by the state Election Registry.

The TNDP elected Nathan Higdon of Blount County as vice chair.

And in Shelby County, also on Saturday, a few hundred delegates turned out for the local Republican Party’s biennial convention at New Hope Christian Church in Bartlett, electing former Memphis city councilman Worth Morgan Shelby County Republican chair over party vice chair Naser Fazlullah.

The contest had generated a fair amount of friction in local Republican circles, some of it carrying over to the convention itself, largely on account of Fazlullah’s charge that Morgan had been insufficient in his support of President Donald Trump.

Fazlullah repeated the charge to the convention attendees on Saturday, and for his pains heard himself being hooted at from the floor by supporters of Morgan, one of whom hurled the deadly epithet “Rino” (for Republican in Name Only) at Fazlullah.

The tally results — 307 votes for Morgan, 100 for Fazlullah— indicated that the advance Sturm und Drang, which was considerable, had been wholly disproportionate to the actual alignment of forces in party ranks.

Morgan’s campaign, run under the rubric “25 [for 2025] to Revive,” had been well organized and clearly included in its ranks a lopsided majority of local GOP influencers.

Patti Possel, a veteran of the erstwhile deannexation-from-Memphis movement in the suburbs, was elected local GOP vice chair.

Jim Kyle (Photo: Tennessee Courts)

• Jim Kyle, the onetime Democratic leader in the state Senate, who gave up his legislative seat a decade ago to make a successful run for Shelby County chancellor, made his retirement from the bench formal last week. 

Some months ago, Kyle had been forced to step down from his judicial duties because of the debilitating effects of CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy). Lawyer Jim Newsom was appointed special judge, a temporary successor to Kyle, by Governor Bill Lee. 

Kyle reports progress in what has been a difficult rehabilitation period, one which has severely restricted his movements and confined him to a wheelchair. He is looked after by his wife, state Senator Sara Kyle, by other family members, and by various ad hoc helpers.

Gamely, Kyle says he is greatly buoyed by the imminent birth of a grandchild to his son James Kyle Jr. and by devoted watching of the televised games — “good, bad, and ugly” —of the Grizzlies basketball team. 

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Early Heat

Terry Roland (Photo: shelbycountytn.gov)

As no one needs to be reminded, the year 2025 is starting off with near-arctic temperatures, but enough political action is ongoing or forthcoming in the near future to generate a bit of heat.

• The executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party will convene in Nashville on Saturday, January 25th, to pick a new chairperson, and no fewer than seven candidates have been nominated for the honor. They are:

— Rachel Campbell of Chattanooga, currently serving both as party chair of Hamilton County and vice chair of the state party. She is one of two co-favorites in the race.

— Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a state representative and, most recently, the Democrats’ unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024. The other co-favorite, she has good name recognition and a residual network within the party, but there is some question as to whether her legislative service would disqualify her from the fundraising duties required of a chair.

— Brian Cordova of Nashville, the state party’s current executive director, and a veteran of numerous Democratic electoral campaigns. In the event of a deadlock between Campbell and Johnson, he is seen as a possible fallback choice.

— Vincent Dixie of Nashville, another state representative and a former chair of the party’s legislative caucus. Like Johnson, he, too, might be conflicted on the issue of fundraising.

— Alec Kucharski, a veteran of Tennessee political campaigns and currently a resident of Chicago, where he serves as a liaison with the Democratic delegation of the Illinois legislature.

— Todd Frommeyer of Pulaski, an activist, lawyer, and Navy vet.

— Edward Roland of Chattanooga, said to be a salesperson. 

All these candidates will participate in a forum at 1 p.m. on Saturday, to be streamed on Facebook via the Tennessee Democratic County Chairs Association.

• It will be noticed, by the way, that this fairly sizeable field of Democratic candidates contains no aspirants from Memphis.

One longtime member of the Democratic state committee from Shelby County, David Cambron, takes note of this, saying in a text, “We are not Big Shelby any more.”

Cambron maintains that the Memphis area’s “last chance of relevancy” was lost in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, which saw Democrat Harold Ford Jr. lose to Republican Bob Corker.

And, in Cambron’s view, the problem has bipartisan dimensions. “It’s the same reason every statewide discussion of possible Republican gubernatorial candidates doesn’t mention Brent Taylor.” 

The reference is clearly to state Senator Taylor’s seemingly nonstop campaigning for more assertive state authority over law enforcement in Memphis and Shelby County. Often, such intentional omnipresence in media attention bespeaks an intention to seek higher office.

Yet, as Cambron points out, Taylor’s name is rarely to be found in public speculation about the 2026 governor’s race.

(In fairness, it should be pointed out that when the Flyer queried Taylor about a possible ambition to run for governor, the senator replied, “The short answer is no. The long answer is hell, no.”)

• As it happens Saturday, January 25th, is also the date for a GOP chairmanship decision, this one for the leadership of the Shelby County Republican Party, the issue to be decided at the Venue at Bartlett Station.

The two declared candidates are former Memphis City Councilman Worth Morgan and longtime GOP activist Naser Fazlullah. As noted previously in this space, Morgan has been the beneficiary of a hyped-up PR campaign involving numerous public endorsements from influential local GOP figures.

All of that has gotten the goat of one prominent Republican, however. Former County Commission Chairman Terry Roland of Millington, who praises Fazlullah’s “selfless” service to the local party, denounces the pro-Morgan faction’s “Revive” campaign as nothing more than an “elitist” plot to suppress grassroots Republicans.

And Roland, who has headed up local campaign efforts for Donald Trump from 2016 on, levies what may be the worst charge in his vocabulary against Morgan, whom he calls a — wait for it — “Never-Trumper.”

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Shelby County Dems Call for Resignation of House Speaker Cameron Sexton

Credit: Tennessee Democratic Party/Facebook

Shelby County Democrats called for Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) to resign Wednesday, and a watchdog group wants an investigation of Sexton’s government allowance for lodging. 

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) passed a resolution this weekend “demanding” Sexton’s resignation. The group also began a public campaign that will include billboards and a petition.  

“Speaker Sexton has got to go,” reads the petition. “Not only did he lead the racist charge to expel Reps. [Justin] Jones (D-Nashville) and [Justin] Pearson (D-Memphis), he may not even live in the district he represents.”

The House expulsion of Pearson and Jones drew national interest. This raised Sexton’s profile, with many criticizing him for allowing his party to use such extreme measures for a modest charge of breaking decorum rules. Sexton called the protest “an insurrection.” 

Reports then surfaced that Sexton secretly bought a Nashville home in 2021 and that his daughter attends a Nashville school, in a story first reported by the Substack Popular Information. This has drawn scrutiny on state residency requirements for lawmakers and put into question the per diem — the daily, taxpayer-funded allowance for food and hotel stays in Nashville — Sexton has claimed, even though he lives there.

Tennessee House Speaker’s multiple homes raise questions about per diem

A WKRN report then found that state Rep. Scotty Campbell (R-Mountain City) had been quietly found guilty by a state ethics committee of workplace harassment on charges of having inappropriate conversations with a 19-year-old legislative intern. Sexton did not move to expel Campbell, who resigned hours after confronted by a WKRN reporter about the situation.  

credit: State of Tennessee I How it started.
credit: State of Tennessee I How it’s going.

The Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) joined the state party’s calls for Sexton’s resignation Wednesday morning. The group’s major complaint was the expulsion of Jones and Pearson. They also listed the residency concerns, the non-action against Campbell, and a certain disregard for House rules. 

But they also complained about the “shocking comments” from GOP state Rep. Paul Sherrell’s (R-Sparta) during a debate on the death penalty. Rep. Scott Powers’ (R-Jacksboro) bill would have added firing squads to the state’s options for state executions.

credit: State of Tennessee

During a hearing of the House Criminal Justice Committee, Sherrell asked if Powers would add “hanging by a tree” to the proposal. He did not. Sherell issued a rare GOP apology about his statement the following day. Later, he was quietly stripped of his seat on the committee. 

SCDP said Sherell likely knew about the “racist nature of his suggestion.” Also, they said Oklahoma officials were recorded to have made similar statements. 

”Had even a censure been imposed on [Rep.] Sherrell, it might have discouraged the spread of such a senseless attack on a body of people harmed by such a callous and insensitive expression of hatred,” the group said in a statement. 

Also on Wednesday morning, the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Accountability (CFA) asked the Davidson County District Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee to investigate Sexton’s per diem requests for potential tax fraud. 

“Tennessee law makes clear that only those legislators who live more than 50 miles away from the Capitol are permitted to receive a lodging per diem,” CFA executive director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement. “Speaker Sexton is not above the law and must be held accountable for any possible violations.”

The group claims Sexton ”appears to have gone to great lengths to hide his new Nashville residency, purchasing the house through the ’Beccani Trust,’ with only his wife’s one signature was on the deed.” 

CFA analysis found that Sexton’s lodging per diems total about $79,954. They said the payments could violate Tennessee law. If so, it’s a Class B felony that could come with eight to 30 years in jail and $25,000 in fines. Sexton may have also violated federal tax law, CFA said, if he failed to report the money as taxable wages. 

CFA’s complaint reminds judicial officials that the Davidson County District Attorney general prosecuted then-Nashville Mayor Megan Barry for similar charges. Those were theft of property charges stemming from domestic and international travel expenses the mayor and her bodyguard, with whom she was having an affair, improperly charged to the city of Nashville.

CFA also mentioned that, at the time, Davidson County DA Glenn Funk said, “it’s the role of the district attorney to bring charges when crimes have been committed even if those crimes are committed by public officials.”

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‘Bogus Ballots’ to Exist No More, Orders Judge

Judge William Acree

Remember the sample ballots you always saw at election time purporting to be “endorsements” of a group of candidates by this or that “Democratic” organization? Glossy with color mug shots of the lucky “endorsees,” these broadsheets did their best to resemble official documents of the Shelby County or even state Democratic Parties.

In reality, advertisements for the candidates in question is all they ever were — advertisements paid for by their campaigns and tricked out to look like official party statements by the local entrepreneurs who sold space on them.

“Endorsements” they were not, except in the technical sense that they signified the support of the shell companies that published and distributed them, most of these with the word “Democratic” in their name.

It was the misleading aspect of these advertisements that made them targets of litigation by candidates, Democrats in the main, running legitimate campaigns for office and boasting no such false endorsements.

Now, several hearings over several years later, a judge has imposed a permanent injunction against such published products.

The ruling comes from Judge William B. Acree, a senior jurist from Jackson, after a January 6th hearing in the case of Tennessee Democratic Party and candidate John Marek vs. Greg Grant, individually, & d.b.a. Greater Memphis Democratic Club and M. LaTroy Williams, individually, & d.b.a. Shelby County Democratic Club. This was the climactic one of three hearings — the others having occurred on October 20, 2019, and October 3, 2020.

Those prior hearings had imposed temporary injunctions against the defendants and imposed penalties for renewed infractions.

Judge Acree based his judgment Thursday on TCA statute 2-19-116, which reads:

No person shall print or cause to be printed or assist in the distribution or transportation of any facsimile of an official ballot, any unofficial sample ballot, writing, pamphlet, paper, photograph or other printed material, which contains the endorsement of a particular candidate, group of candidates, or proposition by an organization, group, candidate, or other individual, whether existent or not, with the intent that the person receiving such printed material mistakenly believe that the endorsement of such candidate, candidates, or proposition was made by an organization, group, candidate or entity other than the one or ones appearing on the printed material.

Acree’s order states:

The court finds that the Defendants engage in the distribution of campaign literature on behalf of candidates seeking public office, are paid for such activity, and have violated the statute and restraining order on previous occasions. Thus, the Court finds a permanent injunction shall issue enjoining the Defendants from: Distributing literature, disseminating information, or, in any way, communicating, utilizing work, symbols, or graphical schemes reasonably implying endorsement of or affiliation with the Democratic National Convention, the Tennessee Democratic Party, or the Shelby County Democratic Party.

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Tennesesee Democrats Prepare to Select New Chair

Even as outrage mounts among Tennessee Democrats regarding the Republican state government’s involvement in a suit to overturn the presidential election, the Tennessee Democratic Party (TDP) is preparing to select a new leader for itself.

At least nine hopefuls have announced their candidacy for the chairmanship of the TDP in an election tentatively scheduled for mid-January, on the weekend after the state’s legislature reconvenes in Nashville.

Mary Mancini, who has guided the TDP for the past several years, has announced her retirement from the party helm, and the state Democratic executive committee will name a successor from the nine.

The contenders are: London Lamar, Theryn Bond, Wade Munday, Hendrell Remus, Frank Hundley, Robin Kimbrough Hayes, Jane George, Civil Miller Watkins, and Kate Craig.

The first five of those participated Wednesday night in a candidate forum sponsored by The Tennessee Holler on Zoom. Lamar, a state Representative from House District 91, and Bond are from Memphis, and Remus is a former Memphian.

A second forum is scheduled for Thursday night involving the other four candidates.

Wednesday night’s participants in party chairmanship forum

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Dumping on DeBerry

The yard sign.

Are we to believe that state Representative John DeBerry, who is having to run for re-election as an independent in House District 90 because he was removed from the Democratic party ballot, is now campaigning with large yard signs boasting his picture alongside that of Donald Trump?

Or that DeBerry legitimately belongs to something called “The Republican Club,” the heading of a handout flyer that includes his picture, along with those of bona fide GOP candidates, under this description: “Eliminate Public School Funding; Remove Woman’s Choices; No Masks Needed; Pro-Life; remove Voice of Protestors; Limit Healthcare; No Unions; Easy Access fo Guns; Voter Restrictions”?

Clearly, neither DeBerry nor the actual Republican candidates pictured along with him would publicly identify with the premises of such a handout. As for the yard sign, it is highly unlikely that voters in the ultra-Democratic District 90 would respond favorably to a candidate’s so blatantly coupling himself with Republican Trump.

The handout flyer.

Both these exhibits, in other words, are clearly attempts to mislead voters, or to suggest a common purpose linking DeBerry to official Republican Party purposes. (By contrast, the other side of the handout flyer, whose authorship is not claimed by any organization, pictures Democratic officials under the heading, “Vote Democrat Up and Down the Ballot.”)

To be sure, DeBerry was expunged from the Democratic ballot earlier this year by the state Democratic Committee because of his alleged affinity with Republican views on abortion and school vouchers. It is also true that DeBerry has incurred favorable mention at Republican rallies and has at least once addressed a Republican club during this campaign year. (In doing so, however, he did not identify with the GOP but merely made a pitch for his own candidacy. As he says, “I don’t have a party label. I have to make speeches where I’m invited to.”)

The reality is that negative advertising of one sort or another is unusually prevalent in this campaign year, and it is not the province of a single political party. DeBerry is opposed on the November 3rd ballot by Democratic nominee Torrey Harris.

flip side of the handout

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It’s No Go for Three Democrats Appealing Ban from Primary Ballot

M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams

Oh-for-three. That’s how things turned out Wednesday Night, April 15th, as a trio of would-be penitents — most notably 13-term State Representative John DeBerry — pleaded in vain for the members of the state Democratic executive committee to restore them to the positions on the August 6th primary election ballot from which they were purged last week.

In the course of a virtual meeting of the state committee that was conducted by telephone and sprawled for nearly four hours, DeBerry’s pleas were rejected for reinstatement in the House District 90 race, as were those of Michael Minnis for House District 93, and M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams for the 9th Congressional District. All the appellants were from Memphis.

Although the cases against DeBerry and Minnis were of a radically different nature — DeBerry’s consisting of alleged anti-Democratic votes and actions, Minnis essentially of not meeting the requirement of having voted in 3 of the last 5 Democratic primaries — the votes against them were remarkably similar — DeBerry’s appeal falling short by a vote of 24 Yes to 40 No, with one abstention, while Minnis’ failed 24 to 39 with two abstentions. Alexandria-Williams went down 8 to 34, with 14 abstaining.

Although DeBerry’s chances for reinstatement on the primary ballot were not regarded as strong (he had been voted off the week before by a vote of 41 to 18 with two abstentions), he probably did not help them much by declining, unlike Minnis and Alexandria-Williams, to take part in a pre-vote Q-and-A with state committee members.

In the five minutes granted him by state party chair Mary Mancini to make a verbal appeal, DeBerry talked about his past chairmanships on legislative committees and his efforts on behalf of civil rights. He asked that committee members look at “my record in toto, my character, the way I carry myself, and my ability to build a consensus when Democrats are a super-minority.”

Among the minority of yes voters were state Senator Raumesh Akbari of Memphis and Representative Mike Stewart, the House minority leader, both of whom said the question of DeBerry’s party bona fides should be settled by the voters in a primary. The nay-voting majority coalesced around complaints about DeBerry’s seconding Republican positions on abortion, vouchers, guns, and much else; his acceptance of support from GOP financial sources; and his participation in the right-wing ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).

Committeeman Will Cheek of Nashville said his vote of no was not predicated on matters of party “loyalty” but on Democratic “resemblance.”

Though several members commended Minnis for his involvement with a nonprofit working on behalf of criminal justice, the outcome for him, as indicated, was similar to that for DeBerry.

The debate over the appeal of Alexandria-Williams was both the strangest and the lengthiest. At root the issue with the candidate (formerly known simply as M. LaTroy Williams) was his historical involvement with pre-election sample ballots from the “Shelby County Democratic Club,” a shell organization unaffiliated with any organ of the actual Democratic Party and the occasion of several lawsuits pitting Williams against the Party.

Though, as was attested to in the debate, these “ballots” — many of which have favored the candidacies of Republicans as well as Democrats — bore his name as “coordinator,” Williams persisted in denying any ownership of involvement in them. Unspoken to in the committee’s discussion was the fact that the favored candidates featured on them pay considerable sums to have themselves so listed.

Besides denying his central relationship with the sample ballots, Williams mentioned his alleged past association with the athletes Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and, strangely, conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. “Nobody’s done more for the Democratic Party than I have,” Williams insisted. To no avail.

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Rep. DeBerry to Appeal Removal from Democratic Ballot, Has Black Caucus Support

CREDIT: JB

JB

Rep. DeBerry

It ain’t over yet. Apparently, state Rep. John DeBerry, who was voted off the August Democratic primary ballot by the state Democratic Committee on Wednesday, has legal recourse against that action, as well as support for his intended appeal from within party ranks, notably from the legislative Black Caucus.

DeBerry said Thursday he had not yet, as required by statute, received a formal letter from the committee notifying him of its action and of his right to appeal but that he is already busy preparing that appeal, which apparently would need to be completed and submitted to the committee by Thursday of next week.

The 13-term legislator said he had been “ambushed and blindsided” by the action against him, which had been “timely done” from the standpoint of his critics, put before the committee “after the filing deadline and in the middle of a pandemic.”

DeBerry said he had received no advance notice and learned of the pending removal action only on Monday night, not in any official way from the committee itself, but from his House colleague G.A. Hardaway, chair of the Back Caucus, which would go on to send the committee a letter of support for DeBerry as someone who had “faithfully served his constituents in the 90th House District” and “had earned the respect of his Democratic colleagues and the respect of other lawmakers across the aisle.”

Opponents of DeBerry had cited a pattern of his votes they declared to be in violation of the party’s interest, on such subjects as abortion and private-school vouchers, of receiving significant financial support from Republican sources, of voting for Republican Glen Casada over Democrat Karen Camper in the 2019 House Speakership race, and of making a substantial cash contribution to an election campaign of Republican state Rep. Bill Sanderson.

The case against DeBerry had been formally submitted to the Democratic Committee in an April 1st letter by Memphis activist Janeita Lentz. The letter said that DeBerry had “utilized the power of his office to work against the constituents in which he serves, undermining the voice of the people and the ‘vision’ of the Tennessee Democratic Party.”

The committee would end up voting to oust DeBerry in a virtual session on Wednesday morning by a vote of 41 to 18, with two abstentions. Among those publicly opposing the ouster move were members of the Back Caucus, including the aforesaid Camper, as well as Hardaway and state Senator Raumesh Akbari, both of whom were no votes on the committee.

Echoing an accusation made by another Black Caucus member, state Rep. Joe Towns, DeBerry said the case against him was supported by “a group of people who don’t look like us,” suggesting that there was an element of racial bias in the removal action.

He denied absolutely the alleged financial contribution to Sanderson and said his 2019 vote to make Republican Casada Speaker of the House was in conformity with an arrangement made between Democratic leaders and Casada in which House Democrats were promised a number of perks. The arrangement was later disavowed by the party caucus, which opted to support Camper, “but I had already given my word to Casada,” DeBerry said.

As for his votes on various subjects, DeBerry defended those as expressing the wishes of his constituents. On the voucher issue, he added that he had himself, as a high schooler in Crockett County, had the opportunity to attend a school previously reserved for whites, had profited from the experience, and thought vouchers would open such opportunities for others.

Aside from his formal appeal of the committee’s action, which he seeks to have reversed, DeBerry said he was also interested in investigating whether the Anti-Skulduggery Act of 1991, sponsored by then state Senator (now Congressman) Steve Cohen, might apply to his situation. The Act was prompted by a last-minute withdrawal of candidacy in 1990 by then state House incumbent U.A. Moore of Millington, whose friend, then Millington alderman Ed Haley, became an automatic primary winner by virtue of being the only remaining candidate on the ballot.

The purpose of the Act, which allows a seven-day grace period for new filings past the withdrawal deadline, was to prevent such de facto prearrangements. Whether the act applies to this week’s committee action, which theoretically might favor one of the remaining Democrats on the primary ballot, would have to be adjudicated.

DeBerry said that he had no intention, however, of spending months before the election researching other legal loopholes that might invalidate his removal from the ballot.

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DeBerry, Four Others Dumped from Democratic Ballot

John DeBerry

State Rep. John DeBerry, who has represented District 90 in the state House of Representatives for 26 years, has been voted off the August party primary ballot by the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. The committee, meeting online in virtual mode Wednesday, voted 41 to 18, with two abstentions, to oust DeBerry.

The board also acted to remove four other candidates from the party’s primary ballot. They were: William Frazier, in State House District 84 seat; Michael Minnis, state House district 93; M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, 9th Congressional District; and Tharon Chandler, U.S. Senate.

DeBerry’s comeuppance was long in coming. Democrats, including local ones, had been vocal for years about the businessman/minister’s tendency to vote as a de facto ally of Republicans on a variety of issues, notably on bills to outlaw abortion and to legalize taxpayer-supported private-school vouchers.

Michael Minnis, who filed to run for the Tennessee State House District 93 seat, was removed without a vote of the board.

The now ex-Democratic candidate expressed himself stoically about the ouster vote: “The Tennessee Democratic Party has decided that a 26-year representative that spent 12 years as a committee chairman, conducted himself with integrity, served the party well, sponsored meaningful legislation, and built bridges across the aisle to get bills passed is no longer a Democrat. And so, I’m not,” he said.

Since the two major parties have control over their own primary ballots and the deadline for filing, even as an independent, has passed, DeBerry’s only option for re-election is via a write-in campaign, a very long shot. The remaining Democrats on the ballot are Torrey C. Harris, Anya Parker, and Catrina L. Smith.

State Democratic chair Mary Mancini of Nashville said, apropos the ouster of the five candidates from the party’s ballot: “After a long meeting in which we heard challenges and evidence, we did what we thought was best to protect the Tennessee Democratic Party and the values we stand for.”

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Talking Politics Online

Those of you who cannot live without political dialogue are in luck — at least if you’re Democrats. The Tennessee Democratic Party is hosting a town hall of sorts on Facebook every Thursday for the duration of the pandemic. The first one is at 4 p.m. today (Thursday, March 26), accessible via the state party’s Facebook page, facebook.com/tndem.

Subjects to be discussed: “the current stage of TN’s legislature, where we are beginning this campaign year, the expedited budget process, and COVID-19.” Hosts are party chair Mary Mancini and State Rep. Mike Stewart, House minority caucus chair. (Scroll down for “Cocktails and Questions.”)

When we learn of equivalent Republican efforts, we’ll pass on information about those, as well.

Meanwhile, the proceedings of the now-suspended legislative session — including videos — are accessible at legislature.state.tn.us.