KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Election Day, an incumbent Republican senator from East Tennessee lost his party's nomination and will likely need to vacate the seat. Republican Sen. Frank Niceley represents the Strawberry Plains area and blamed political advertising for his election loss to Jessie Seal.
Many of the ads were paid for by the School Freedom Fund, a political action committee that heavily supports universal school vouchers. The voucher programs would allow public money to be spent on Tennessee families' private education expenses. Several Democratic lawmakers, and some Republican lawmakers, said they effectively take money away from public schools.
The proposal took on three forms in the Tennessee legislature during the General Assembly's last session. None of them passed, and Niceley said he opposed the proposal altogether.
“The leadership in Nashville told me if I didn’t sign on to the governor’s voucher plan, I would be the number one target in the state,” he said. “So, I knew they were going to target me.”
The School Freedom Fund has an address out of Washington D.C. and is backed by a billionaire businessman out of Pennsylvania — Jeff Yass. He donated more than $5 million to the PAC. Some of that money went to ads against Niceley.
“A billionaire out of Pennsylvania doesn’t come down here and spend enough money to beat me because he is concerned about little kids in Memphis, or concerned about an opponent beating me,” said Niceley. “There is an angle somewhere and he is making money on this, some way.”
Niceley said he wants out-of-state money to be limited in the state's primary elections.
“If we are not able to limit this out-of-state money, then elections as we know them are a thing of the past," he said. "I think the best thing to do, at this point, is no out-of-state money in primaries. Let Tennesseans elect Tennesseans.”
Niceley also said would not change anything about his campaign, or his opinion on school vouchers.
Funds from organizations supporting school voucher proposals appeared in several races across East Tennessee. Mailers from the Team Kids PAC advocated for Dasha Landa in a Democratic primary for a state House seat. She was running against incumbent Sam McKenzie, who voted against school vouchers. McKenzie kept his party's nomination for the seat.