Increasingly “red” Putnam County showed its colors in a huge turnout for the annual GOP fundraising dinner. 
Chair Charlotte Sanders and her team did an amazing job! 420 people showed up to the Leslie Town Center in Cookeville where, as Rep. Ryan Williams pointed out, they would have only had a few tables full just two decades ago!
The crowd enjoyed hearing from an great array of conservative speakers and candidates, including state Republican Chair Scott Golden; Speaker Cameron Sexton (with none of the paid protesters showing up; apparently their paymasters unwilling to pay “weekend overtime rates” as Cam noted); 6th district congressional hopefuls Natisha Brooks, Johnny Garrett, Jon Henry, and Van Hilleary; Sheriff Eddie Farris; and Gubernatorial candidates Congressman John Rose and Rep. Monty Fritts; along with dozens of local elected officials.
Two law enforcement Sheriff’s deputies shared the honor as recipients of the Deputy of the Year award, Mark Steinmann and Austen Pevehouse. The late Jim Brown was recognized as the Noble Cody Distinguished Service Award recipient.
Speaker Sexton encouraged the Republican faithful to avoid being divided by those with their own agendas who seek to separate Republicans from each other and who risk giving more power to Democrats. “There are no bad Republicans,” Sexton noted, as he laid out the successes of the Tennessee legislature in recent years. “Some say we need more Democrats in the House to rein in the GOP supermajority,” he said. “I’d like to see a 100% majority!”He also pointed out that he and his team were meeting with President Trump this week to continue the progress Tennessee is making in dealing with illegal immigration.
A straw poll was conducted regarding the GOP primary for Governor and 6th District Congressional Seat being vacated by Rose. Unlike the recent straw poll in Williamson County, there did not appear to be any massive “buying“ of seats/votes to skew the straw poll. Not surprisingly, John Rose dominated the results with 201 votes to 39 for Monty Fritts and 28 for Marsha Blackburn. Rose currently represents Putnam County in Congress.
The results in the 6th District congressional straw poll were much closer. Van Hilleary won with 89 votes; followed by Garrett (61), Henry (57), and Brooks (31).
Steve Gill is editor and publisher of TriStar Daily and spoke at the event.
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