DANGEROUS INCUMBENTS:

TN ADVOCATES FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD TARGET TENNESSEE'S SUPERMAJORITY
Chase Matheson - September 22, 2024
TENNESSEE -- TN Advocates for Planned Parenthood, a 501c4 who self-identifies as the "political arm of Planned Parenthood Tennessee", hosted a town hall last week via zoom.
In this "Virtual Town Hall" they outlined their plans to bring down the Republican supermajority in Tennessee, starting with 4 candidates they identified as "Dangerous Incumbents."
"This is the moment we've been training for. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win. Lives are at stake," said Francie Hunt, Executive Director of TAPP. "No one is going to come and save us, but us."

The 4 "Dangerous Incumbents" are listed on a slide as Elaine Davis of District 18, Mike Sparks of District 49, John Gillespie of District 97, and Jeff Burkhart of District 75.

Humorously, the slide mixed up and misidentified Representative Mike Sparks & Representative Jeff Burkhart--a mistake that went unnoticed the entire event.
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Though the call was touted as a 'Town Hall' the 35 minute call included about 30 minutes of organizers speaking about these "dangerous incumbents" and bragging about candidates to support in their place and was not spent on taking questions. 

1. ELAIN DAVIS - DISTRICT 18

"One of the districts we want to unseat is Elaine Davis. She has anti-democratic votes, she was one of the folks who tried to propose a bill to get rid of early voting; she's had countless votes harming the LGBTQ+ community and immigrant communities."
Hunt said.

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2. Mike Sparks - District 47
"Mike Sparks is an incumbent in house district 49." "He also passes harmful LGBTQ+ & immigrants community legislation."

3. Jeff Burkhart - District 75
"Burkhart, echoing the same thing, terrible on abortion rights and our right to bodily sovereignty against reproductive rights, against LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities"

4. John Gillespie - District 97
"Same thing, you heard it before. Anti-abortion, anti-reproductive rights, terrible LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities."

"We need to wake folks up and remind them that they are, um, saying really horrible things!" Hunt said, before moving on to the rest of the slide show. 
"We don't just have opponents, we have enemies who actively work to take our right to bodily autonomy away and endanger our ability to raise our families in a safe and healthy environment.
TAPP Representatives also heavily pushed Kamala Harris during the meeting, saying: "She is the first Vice President, and soon to be president that has visited a planned parenthood health center."

Ultimately, the entire "Town Hall" only generated a one question, and it appears to have been asked by one of the organizers after an uncomfortably long period of silence. The question did not relate to policy, and instead seemed like staged question to encourage donations.
Watch the highlights of the meeting at the video below. 

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Full zoom call can be seen HERE
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