Randy Boyd is a successful Knoxville, Tennessee entrepreneur running for the state’s GOP nomination for Governor, but he has a big problem that may tank his prospects. Up until recently his outsider campaign has been going pretty well, as he chips away at opponent Congresswoman Diane Black, who has represented the state’s 6th district since 2011.
Despite Black’s strategy as portraying herself as one of Donald Trump’s key allies on the Hill, Boyd’s attacks on her voting record as not reactionary enough on the issues that matter, notably immigration, have been making headway. Indeed, polls show that, although Black has an advantage in name recognition, her negatives are high, and Boyd’s assertions that she isn’t the total Trump supplicant she claims, have been resonating with the wretched core’s Tennessee contingent. Latest polls have Boyd within 5 points of Black and closing, but that could change for the worse due to a disturbing new revelation.
Conexion Americas puts forward on its web site a mission of helping to build a community “where Latino families can belong, contribute and succeed.” Indeed, the site points to programs aimed at learning English, employment opportunities, mastering finances and paying taxes…even home ownership. In short, Conexion Americas appears to be the worst of the worst as far as Tennessee GOP primary voters are concerned, a generous, caring organization devoted to assimilating Hispanic immigrants.
But how is this a crisis for Boyd? After all, he has been out ahead defining illegal immigration as issue one of this election. Black, despite her obssessive pronouncements for all things Trump, the Wall, Mideast travel ban, MS-13 destruction…you name it, is still too soft, Boyd has declared in debates and on the stump; she can’t be trusted, she’s tainted by the requisites of governance. I am the pure nihilist you can count on to live down to your worst inclinations, your ugliest grievances, Boyd promises.
Not so fast. Turns out there is an unseemly bright side to Boyd that has been uncovered. In September of 2016 he donated $250,000 to Conexion Americas, the single largest check they have received since the organization’s inception in 2002. Founder, Renata Soto, who Tennessee state republican legislators suspect supports illegal immigration, rallying against a resolution recognizing her initiative, praised the donation as instrumental in aiding CA’s expansion.
It gets worse. Apparently, Boyd was also affiliated with the College Promise Campaign, an effort to provide two years of free community college, and headed up by none other than Jill Biden. Boyd served on the bipartisan board, filled with liberals and RHINOs, and actually collaborated to provide assistance to needy students. Worse, as Black was quick to screech, some of the aid may have gone to illegals!
Of course Boyd has been downplaying his philanthropy, telling anyone who will listen there is no place Trump can go on immigration that he won’t follow, and besides, isn’t the GOP all about second chances at awfulness? Rest assured, vows Boyd, put me in the governor’s mansion and I won’t let you down, “illegal is illegal”, build the wall, send em packing!!
Tennessee GOP voters are no fools. They’ll watch closely to see who is truly the nastiest ethno-nationalist, and they’re hardly different from Republicans throughout the nation. This is not your father’s GOP, it’s Trump’s. It’s ok to be a hypocrite, but bleeding hearts need to get the hell out. In Tennessee it’s a race to the bottom, just like in Arizona, or in Georgia, or every other GOP state primary. Being entrusted to clean out The Swamp means never having to say you’re decent… or at least making sure everyone believes you are damned ashamed of when you were. BC