When asked why he is challenging Tennessee Rep. John Ragan in the Anderson County Republican Primary on Aug. 1, Rick Scarbrough, former Clinton police chief, had a simple answer.
“I’m an ‘Anderson County first’ person,” he said. “I’ll listen to the community and then take action to form coalitions to solve problems. For me, the state is second. I think John wants to listen to what’s being said at the state level first. For him, Anderson County is second.”
Scarbrough, a Clinton resident, and Ragan, who lives in Oak Ridge, are the two candidates on the ballot for the Aug. 1 Anderson County Republican Primary for the state House of Representative's race for District 33, which includes most of Anderson County and all of Oak Ridge. Early voting for the Aug. 1 election is underway now through July 27.
The two, along with Anne Backus, the Democratic challenger, spoke July 9 at a candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. The forum was held at the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College.
Ragan, a retired Air Force fighter pilot, has been a representative of Anderson County in the Tennessee General Assembly since 2010. Currently, he is chair of the state House and Senate's Government Operations Committee and serves on the House's Calendar and Rules, Education Administration and Education Instruction committees.
Scarbrough served as police officer for Clinton for almost 30 years; for 16 of those years, he was the police chief. For the past five years, he has worked at the University of Tennessee’s Executive Law Enforcement Innovation Center, where he has taught leadership skills, including building coalitions and forming partnerships.
Also running for the District 33 seat is Anne Backus, an engineer and former project manager at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. She is involved in social advocacy as the founder and co-chair of PFLAG’s Oak Ridge Chapter and as a member of the Anderson County NAACP. She also acts as a court appointed special advocate for Anderson County Juvenile Court.
In her opening statement, she said that she supports public education, affordable healthcare for all, women’s reproductive rights, common-sense gun safety, unions (because they provide a living wage, she said) and equal opportunity and equity for all, “no matter a person’s race, gender, disability, age, socioeconomic, gender and gender identity.”
Ragan reminded the audience in his opening statement that Tennessee now ranks 22nd instead of 49th out of 50 states in K-12 educational achievement, thanks partly to the state legislature’s policy changes and substantial funding increases that he supported. He noted that this year the Anderson County and Oak Ridge school systems received an extra $50,000 and $48,850, respectively.
Scarbrough said in his opening statement that his focus is “on kids, families, safe communities, great schools and terrific, high-paying jobs. When it comes to schools, every focus needs to be on the students first.”
He said he agrees with national immigration policies, but added that, “Local law enforcement needs to be empowered to enforce immigration policies that the Biden administration has failed to do.”
In his closing statement, Ragan noted that he co-sponsored a bill that funds the Tennessee National Guard for deployment to the Texas border to slow the flow of migrants.
School vouchers and other issues
The three candidates were asked to respond to selected questions written on cards by audience members. All three candidates were asked if they support Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed legislation to provide private school vouchers for any student across Tennessee.
Backus, who opposes the proposal, said, “I believe we should spend our tax dollars on public education, not on private schools. We need to fully fund public education, including teacher salaries, and we need to provide support for all the children in our school system to make them successful.”
"I didn't support Gov. Lee's proposal," Ragan said. "I did support his proposal as modified by the House. We had a bill with 49 provisions in it. One of them was his. The other 48 were about improving our public school system and increasing funding for it, including increasing pay and coverage of health care for the teachers."
The bill died because the Tennessee Senate’s bill was far from matching the House bill, which Ragan said he would support again if elected to the House.
Scarbrough said that he was aware of the different versions of voucher bills being debated in Nashville and that he would have voted "no" on the bill that Ragan approved. He seemed skeptical about where the money would come from to increase support for public schools.
“Reducing standards is never an option,” he said. “Excellent education programs are what our kids deserve here in Anderson County. We’ve got three great school systems. Let’s focus on improving those first.”
None of the candidates - in response to a question, said they supported the elimination of the Early Head Start, and free and discounted lunch programs by the federal government. That is reportedly part of Project 2025, a product of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, and described as a playbook for the next conservative president to follow.
“I support Early Head Start education,” Backus said. “The vital time for learning is during those preschool, pre-kindergarten years. Every child that needs a meal should be able to get it. They can’t learn without it.”
The candidates were asked whether “all parts of American history should be taught in K-12,” whether local teachers and administrators should choose the curricula and what role the state and county should play in curricula development.
Both Backus and Scarbrough replied that the history of all major American groups should be taught and that teachers should be trusted to teach the subject objectively and fairly. Ragan explained how the system works according to state law.
“The state school board sets state standards,” he said. “County school boards or city school boards develop the curriculum according to the standards. Teachers, who are government employees, are supposed to teach what is handed to them by the school boards. The state standards ensure that all students meet the requirements to qualify them to get a Tennessee diploma.”
In 2021 the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law, co-sponsored by Ragan, that banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. Iit’s mostly taught in graduate schools. The controversial law prohibited teachers from instructing students that one race bears responsibility for the past actions against another, that the legacy of racism endures in the United States and that a person is inherently privileged or oppressive because of their race.
Another question posed to the candidates had to do with the problem that Tennessee ranks 11th in the country in gun deaths, the leading cause of death among children. Backus said she advocates universal background checks, red flag laws allowing the removal of a gun from a person diagnosed with a serious mental illness and a requirement that gun owners store their guns safely.
Ragan said that because almost 60% of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides, he believes “that it’s not the gun that’s the problem, it’s mental illness.” Noting that “38% of gun deaths are homicides” and that the murderers are criminals who would get firearms despite background checks, he called for “more rigid law enforcement to ensure that we get these criminals out of our society and keep them where they are not a threat to anyone.”
Responding to Ragan’s mental health comment, Scarbrough said, “Probably a third of our mental health hospitals in Tennessee were removed several years ago. In our county, probably the largest mental health institution for in-house mental health treatment right now is the Anderson County jail.”
He said at UT he teaches law enforcement officers how to deal with veterans they come across who are struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) issues. He added that he would like to build a coalition to take a “multi-pronged approach to reducing gun safety deaths” in the state.
In the closing statements, Backus urged Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary because “we have a contested U.S. Senate race.” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is seeking re-election in the Tennessee Republican Primary, but is challenged by fellow Republican Tres Wittum. In the state Democratic Primary, the candidates are Marquita Bradshaw, Lola Denise Brown, Glorida Johnson and Civil Miller-Watkins. The winner in each primary will face off on Nov. 5.
Ragan said that “only one of us” has served on state legislature committees that helped boost Tennessee's national ranking in education, overhauled the state’s school funding formula, vacated executive branch boards and agencies for failure to satisfy performance metrics, led the fight against Big Pharma when they lobbied for higher drug prices and increased security by approving funding to hire more Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and Homeland Security agents.
In his argument that he should be the Republican chosen by voters Scarbrough said, “For 35 years, I’ve been a public servant. Only one of us knows what it’s like to get to the grassroots level and solve problems within our community. Only one of us knows how to listen to people, work with multiple agencies, put together task forces, and solve problems within the community.
“Before I take any action, I will listen to you every single time,” he said to the audience. “I want to be your state representative. I’m asking for your vote.”
Other candidates
The other candidates at the forum were Democrat Ebony Capshaw, who is running against Republica Aaron Wells, who was not present at the candidates forum, for Anderson County commissioner from District 6, and Republican Glenda Langenberg, the incumbent, and Democrat David Miller, who are running for election as the District 8 member of the Anderson County Board of Education. District 6 is in Oak Ridge and includes the Oak Ridge City Hall (Senior Center), Robertsville, and West Hills precincts. District 8 is Oak Ridge's Emory Valley, Hendrix Creek and Woodland precincts.
Want to watch the forum? League of Women Voters Candidate Forum https://t.co/O15wgYmWMj https://x.com/bbbtv12/status/1810809911502356699?s=66
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