Has Sharon Ford been caught with her hand in the cookie jar? Understanding the drama at TRA.

Hattie Bryant

 by Hattie Bryant, July 9, 2022 - The Tennessee Republican Assembly (TRA) has sued Sharon Ford for production of documents. Subsequent defamation lawsuits are unfortunately having to be filed. Let me explain.

Long-time Republican activist Sharon Ford is working hard to destroy Michelle Foreman in an effort to cover up her own wrongdoing. At the time of this writing, Ford is trying to stall an investigation into the tens of thousands of dollars unaccounted for during her tenure as TRA president unexpectedly uncovered by Michelle Foreman.  Fearing she has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Ford is now working against Foreman, the only known and proven conservative candidate that can give Davidson County a new Republican voice in the General Assembly.  Sharon Ford is out to turn Michelle Foreman into the lying thief that Sharon herself seems to be.

 Sharon Ford
Former President of Tennessee Republican Assembly

Psychologists call this projection.  Democrats have been giving conservatives lessons on projection – every time the far left tells conservatives that we are narrow-minded while it is the far left that won’t tolerate any view other than their own. 

Michelle Foreman is running for State House Representative in the brand new 59th District of Davidson County.  She is currently a member of the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee to which she was elected in 2018 and is serving a four-year term. In May of 2021, she was elected unanimously by her fellow SEC members to chair a newly formed election integrity sub-committee (Permanent Elections Subcommittee) which has made recommendations to the General Assembly on how to make our future elections more difficult to highjack. She also voted “yes” on a resolution to close the primaries, and is committed to sponsoring legislation to require party registration, as reported in the Tennessee Conservative. 

Why would Sharon Ford expend so much effort trying to diminish a person who if elected would work to implement the agenda Sharon has stated she supported for many years?   Why throw up barriers and speed bumps on Michelle’s road to the state house when at one time Sharon was not only proud to work with Michelle but highly recommended her to follow her as TRA’s president?  What would cause such a change?

Sharon was president of the Tennessee Republican Assembly in 2015 when the National Federation of Republican Assemblies held its convention in Nashville.   This meant that TRA was the host of Candidate Trump who was the hot ticket turning what could have been a sleepy forgettable event into one to gloat about.  Unwittingly, while requesting the treasury documents from the former regime, Michelle discovered the activity that leads me to believe that Sharon thought of this cash as her own.  You know the rationale.  “I have worked hard for this organization; I deserve some benefit” could have been running through her mind.  Money was collected to the tune of nearly $17,000.00 to the TRA and put into a separate convention account. We have checks written to Sharon Ford with no documentation spelling out what Sharon Ford did with the money coming her way.  Michelle has been willing to work with Sharon to get the funds back into the TRA account but has been not just ignored but called a liar for discovering the truth.  Therefore, Sharon must destroy Michelle’s character.

Follow along please as I debunk the big lies Sharon and her cohorts are spreading. 

Big Lie #1:  Michelle Foreman stole TRA funds when she moved the TRA account from one bank to another.  

Debunk:  When Sharon asked Michelle to take over the TRA it was impossible to find out who was signing up for the TRA either as a new member or reoccurring member because the online monetary delivery portal was pointed in the direction of the bank account that was in existence when Michelle took over.  The issue here is that the dues from a member would deposit but the name of the person from whom the money came was not attached to the money.  Michelle repeatedly requested from Sharon the information to the website and the software that took both the dues and the name of the person from which the dues came.  Sharon refused. Michelle had no other alternative but to set up a new account and a new payment system so that the TRA would be able to match the money paid for membership dues with the name of the person who paid for the membership dues.  For this, Michelle has been accused of stealing money (though email documentation shows that Sharon was not only aware of this new website being built, but she also advised on the new website and stated she would close the old one down).  

The board of the TRA has been involved with every decision from the very beginning and will attest to the reasons why a new bank account had to be set up.   There was never any money missing from the primary TRA account – it was just transferred to a different bank and linked to the new payment system on the new webpage – so that TRA would be able to follow new members, renewing members and be able to send this information to the NFRA as each club is required to do. This was done after it was discovered by Michelle that someone had gone online, where identity could not be traced, and rerouted the TRA bank statements from the PO Box to the former TRA treasurer’s home address. The former treasurer and friend of Sharon’s was VERY quick to alert Michelle that she knew nothing about the statements being transferred to her home address. Really?

All of this could have been avoided if Sharon Ford would have simply turned over all the documents, the sign-in access to both the website and the payment software and any other paperwork she or her treasurer had in her possession.  To add insult to irony, Sharon went to the bank and demanded access to the account. Sharon had absolutely no reason to do this and it is understood that she falsely attested to the bank manager that SHE was the president of TRA not Michelle Foreman. The bank manager told Sharon her name was not on the TRA account, and he could not give her access. Per the bank manager Sharon stated that if he would not give her access, she would have her forensic accounting friend get the access for her.  Sounds like a rat trapped, right?  Still, Sharon continues to lie and attack Michelle’s character.  This is Exhibit “A” for projecting.  

Big Lie #2: As President of TRA, Michelle Foreman is not allowed to run for public office.

Debunk:  The by-laws of the Tennessee Republican Assembly state in Section 6.04(b), “No officer, appointee, or director of the NFRA shall be a duly filed candidate for, or hold any partisan, remunerative, elected public office, other than an office within the Republican Party (emphasis added).

I am confident that Sharon Ford is not dumb. This is clearly referring to individuals who hold office in the national organization, National Federation of Republican Assemblies, and it’s clear that those persons can run for office if they run as a Republican.

As President of TRA, Michelle Foreman is allowed to run for elected office, and we are proud of her for taking on this difficult work.

Big Lie #3:  To get herself elected president of TRA Michelle Foreman broke the rules of the TRA.

Debunk:  I have in my possession the paper trail showing that Michelle had nothing to do with the convention that elected a new slate of officers which included her for President.  I was there throughout.  The entire process was conducted by Attorney Connie Reguli, 2nd Vice President Robert Qualls, and Chapter president Kurt Riley (as Michelle felt it would be a conflict of interest for her to be involved and wanted the senior members of Sharon’s appointed board to preside over the election process).  The by-laws were followed and ironically it was Sharon Ford herself who had produced the version of the by-laws that were and are still in effect.

Michelle Foreman
President of Tennessee Republican Assembly 

As President of TRA, it was Sharon Ford herself who positioned Michelle Foreman to be elected. In December 2019 Sharon recruited Michelle to be 1st Vice President of TRA then when Sharon resigned on January 31, 2020, she wrote that with Michelle in position to move into the role of president, “I leave TRA in good hands….” You see, the by-laws state that if the president resigns or is removed, the 1st Vice President moves into the President position.

In June of 2021 the time came for the next election.   Boom.  Sharon had drummed up a rabid posse of opposition to the very person she herself had ordained with glowing words (I have in my possession the email of concern from the venue owner that he felt there may be trouble and a request for security measures was made). How does this happen?  Lies, lies and more lies.  Yet the mystery is why?

I already stated the obvious.  Sharon Ford can’t let anyone see the books or the bank statements that would show how she skimmed off cash.

In addition, maybe Sharon was lonelier than she expected as she had been basically “married” to the TRA for many years.  She has been fired from several jobs and she said in her resignation letter, “Not having a family has made it easier to pour my time, money, and energy into an organization that I love and believe in. During this past year being unemployed again has made it evident it is time to care for Sharon.”

Sharon refused to help Michelle at every turn. Psychologists call what we were seeing from Sharon at first passive aggressive behavior.   

Here’s just one example.  When I learned about TRA and went to the website I called Michelle and told her I couldn’t possibly join an organization that has a website that has been static for at least five years.  At that point Michelle asked Sharon to turn over the website information and sign in coordinates.  Sharon refused, lied, obfuscated.  Fortunately, a volunteer built a new site for no charge to the group, yet TRA had to pay for a new URL and the hosting.  For this effort to move the organization forward, the lies about Michelle came frothing out of Sharon and those who believe Sharon.  Michelle is accused acting behind closed doors and spending money she was not allowed to spend.  Really?  It was Sharon who closed the door.

Sharon Ford obviously missed her power, her perch, her title. Her passive aggressive behavior has turned into sociopathic behavior.  Read the book, The Sociopath Next Door.  The goal of a sociopath is to destroy the person they have in their sights.  And guess what?  This is fun for them.  Sharon is having fun trying to ruin another person’s reputation.  She is running around putting out signs for an unknown from Virginia who associates himself with Democrats and RINO’s, who will be on the ballot opposing Michelle in the primary.  

Sharon is having fun specifically in a way that will hurt every voter in Davidson County. Sharon’s very existence is defined by TRA, and the closer we get to the truth about the missing $17,000 under Sharon’s tenure, the more dangerous she becomes for true conservatives.  Sharon refuses to voluntarily turnover all TRA documents and bank records in violation of TRA by-laws but will legally be required to account for this information.  Until then, she doesn’t care that we all lose. Sociopaths are selfish and solipsistic. I just taught you a new word.

Sociopaths truly believe they are right, and this gives them the moral high ground to lie, cheat and steal.  Too bad that she does have a bit of charisma, thus her story telling has gained a small following. This following includes Michelle’s political opponent, who is using Sharon and her team of story tellers to help him with his campaign against Michelle.  He’s a RINO with no proven record.

Who cares?  I know, it’s hard to care about Sharon Ford’s vindictiveness but we must when she chooses to play out her own drama on our public stage of politics.  

Had Michelle not been made president of TRA, Sharon Ford could just keep the $17,000.  Michelle Foreman is the kind of person I want to be in the General Assembly. Honest, strong, smart, and willing to do the hard things on our behalf.

Hattie Bryant is the District 19 Chair of the Davidson County Republican Party.  Learn more about her at authorhattiebryant.com.

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