Something about this solicitation caught my eye. It was for the candidacy of Drew Johnson. I remembered a Drew Johnson who some years ago was active in politics in Nashville and wondered if this was the same person. I looked at his campaign website and it was. I remembered him. He was a nice guy. I don't know what the year was, maybe 2008 or 2009, but I met Drew at Liberty on the Rocks. LOR is a non-partisan libertarian-leaning social group that gets together monthly for drinking and eating and non-structured conversation. I remember Drew attended often. I was a regular in those days.
Drew Johnson was the founder and first president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, the organization that is now known as the Beacon Center of Tennessee. He founded the organization in 2004 and served as president until the end of 2009. Under his leadership, in 2006, the organization used the Tennessee Open Records Act to obtain Al Gore's home energy bills the day after the former Vice President won an Academy Award for the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The records showed that Al Gore's Belle Meade home consumed a lot of electricity—more than 20 times the national average. In 2006, Gore spent an average of $1,359 per month to power the home. This generated a lot on publicity for TCPR nationwide. It also generated a lot of anger and Drew got death threats, harassing emails and threatening phone calls from Gore supporters and environmental activists. TCPR when on to become one of the most successful organizations of its kind in the country.
After leaving TCPR, Drew Johnson went to work for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, then served as a reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press and from there moved to The Washington Times and in 2017 joined the National Center for Public Policy Research as a senior scholar. He has since worked in conservative and libertarian circles and has gained national prominence. He has been published in scores of newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals around the world, including The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Forbes. He regularly appears on national and international television and radio programs and has appeared on: Fox News, the BBC, NPR, CNN, Showtime, and Fox Business, as well as The Glenn Beck Program, Hannity, and All Things Considered, among dozens of others. I did not know all of this until just now. You can read his bio on Wikipedia at this link.
Looking at Drew Johnson's website, I am pleased that his campaign is really about something. He is a person of ideas. So many campaigns are simply about party tribalism and are really pretty shallow. Drew has policy positions, and they are positions with which I agree. He is a thoughtful person with ideas and a vision. Please look at his website and see if you do not agree. Look at the "issues" section but also the "media" section where you can read some of what he has written. Also here is a piece about Drew that was published in National Review.
In his campaign solicitation Drew says his opponent is a RINO. Initially that turned me off because "RINO" has become such a term of derision that some use it to denigrate any Republican who is not an extremist populist Trumpinista. The term has lost meaning. In fact, the way it is often used now, I have taking to wearing the label of RINO as a badge of honor. However, in the case of Drew's opponent, she really does appear to be a Republican in name only. She contributed thousands of dollars of her own money to a PAC that supported people like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and Ilhan Omar.
Not only in Drew Johnson a smart, thoughtful, policy oriented true conservative, but he is a down to earth likeable guy. He is one of us. See this from is website:
Born in Tennessee, Drew was raised in a blue-collar family in rural Appalachia by a single mother who worked two jobs – at Walmart and as a maid – to make ends meet.
His grandmother, Wanda, was a huge support for Drew when he was a child – both emotionally and financially. When there wasn’t enough food to feed him and his sister, she gathered them around her table – filling their stomachs with her famous chicken and dumplings and zucchini bread.
Drew was a drummer in the high school marching band. His passion for percussion continued through college where he played as a session drummer for several Nashville country and Christian music artists.
Please look at his website and see if you do not agree with me that he is the kind of person we need in Congress. I wish he had run in Tennessee in the 5th Congressional District.
Please consider contributing to Drew's campaign.
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