Club for Growth PAC invests $3.6 million to oust Niceley and Richey
The School Freedom Fund, a national political action committee, will pour $3.6 million into five Tennessee state legislative seats to support pro-voucher candidates to oust longtime incumbent Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) and take on Rep. Bryan Richey, who is vying for a state Senate seat in Maryville.
School Freedom Fund is affiliated with the libertarian advocacy group Club for Growth Action and supports candidates who support school choice, including publicly funded vouchers for private schools. The PAC spent nearly $4 million on Texas elections earlier this year, targeting 14 candidates who opposed state funding for private school vouchers and defeating 10. Other groups, including Americans for Prosperity Action, were also part of this effort.
“You can no longer call yourself a conservative if you oppose school freedom, and you face a very expensive primary that you will probably lose,” said David McIntosh, president of the School Freedom Fund. “Following the recent failure of a bold school freedom bill in Tennessee due to Republican opposition, the School Freedom Fund is investing heavily in five elections.”
The group’s $3.6 million in ad buys will:
“This is the beginning of a school freedom movement that gives parents – not bureaucrats – control over their children’s education,” McIntosh said. “We want to repeat our result in the Texas primary, where we defeated 10 incumbents who oppose school freedom.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, the School Freedom Fund is largely funded by contributions from Jeff Yass, the owner of one of Wall Street’s most successful trading firms, Susquehanna International. Susquehanna has invested in hundreds of companies around the world. One of the firm’s most valuable holdings is ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, according to Forbes. Yass has donated $5 million to the PAC this cycle.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X @Vivian_E_Jones.
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