Political ads are running rampant this election season. One national organization, Club for Growth, is targeting five Tennessee politicians.
Among them are state Senator Frank Niceley and Rep. Bryan Richey. The organization said some ads target whoever is against school choice freedom.
Those ads reference the school freedom fund. Which is a smaller group tied to the club.
"Calling me everything in the world," Niceley said. "All of them, every single one of them has been a lie but it doesn't really matter. If they tell a lie long enough and loud enough, somebody will believe it."
Sen. Nicely said the ad talking about him being liberal and not conservative is misinforming voters.
He believes he's being targeted due to Jeff Yass, a businessman whose net worth is in the billions. He donated more than $2 million according to the Federal Election Commission.
"They say that I have blocked the governor's parental choice, but we have parental choice," Niceley said. "I have five grandchildren, one goes to public school, one's homeschooled and three go to church schools. We have parental choice. This is about whether or not you want to raise your taxes to subsidize people to send their children to a private school."
David McIntosh, the president of Club for Growth, the group behind these ads, disagrees with the senator.
McIntosh told WBIR how their organization based in Washington D.C. follows politicians and their voting records.
"Senator nicely wants to call himself a conservative, but he's not. So we're telling the voters his record why we don't think he's a conservative," McIntosh said. "He works with the various bureaucrats and teachers unions to try to block the governor's bill that would allow parents and Children to make choices about how the best they can best be educated. And to us, that's a very liberal position."
The way the group works is, under the umbrella organization of the nonprofit Club for Growth. Then they run political groups, PACS that run ads.
While the group is a nonprofit, they are required to file with the FEC for all donations.
One of those donors is indeed Yass who's a big supporter of school freedom, McIntosh said, and has supported efforts in Tennessee, but also in Texas and other places around the country.
"We helped elect 14 new members of the legislature and defeat 12 bad members of the legislature who had blocked Governor Abbott's School Choice bill," McIntosh said. "We're very driven by the principles that we care about free markets, limited government, school choice."
But the senator said this is the first time he has ever had out-of-state groups come at him like this.
He said in Memphis and Nashville they've had vouchers for a few years now and he hasn't seen any improvement.
"Let's wait and see if these things are gonna work, if they're not gonna work," Niceley said. "I don't wanna raise your taxes. I was in the House for 12 years and I've been in the Senate for 12 years. I've never voted for a tax increase."
As for the ad calling him a liberal, McIntosh said they saw his liberal opposition to the school choice bill, and on funding tuition for illegal immigrants and they wanted the voters to know about those issues.
Yet, the senator said he had passed a bill this year to prevent China, North Korea, Venezuela and four other nations from buying land in Tennessee.
Niceley believes he may have struck a nerve because Yass, a contributor, is one of the investors of TikTok. Regardless what the reason behind these ads, Niceley said he'll fight back.
"I'm endorsed by the NRA, I'm endorsed by Tennessee Right To Life," Niceley said. "All these conservative groups that endorse me, hopefully, will have more clout than these slanderous lies."