On Saturday, March 29th, 2025, the Knox County Republican Party (KCRP) will be holding its reorganization convention. With a conservative Republican in the White House and Knox County voting red, you might ask, “What’s the big deal?” Why should conservatives participate in the Knox County Republican Party reorganization convention?
First, Let’s Explain What the Knox County Republican Party Reorganization Is All About
The bylaws of the Tennessee Republican Party require a reorganization every two years (on the odd numbered years). The chief goal at this convention is to elect party officers for the next two years. The offices to be elected are as follows: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-Treasurer.
The people that fill these five positions, in addition to the six Republican State Executive Committee members, the Knox County Young Republican Chair, and the Immediate Past Chair of the Knox County Republican Party make up the County Executive Committee.
Secondly, Let’s Look at What the Knox County Executive Committee Actually Does
The County Executive Committee is tasked with guiding the KCRP in the following areas: fundraising; social media; recruitment and support of candidates; get out the vote efforts; grassroots training; holding candidates and elected officials accountable to represent Republican Party principles; and challenging radical Democrat narratives.
This list is not exhaustive, but hopefully it is sufficient to inform the reader about the role the party plays in electing Republicans, and why we need energetic and competent leadership to move Knox County in the right direction. Let’s focus specifically on these tasks!
Fundraising
Organizing to help Republican nominees defeat Democrats in general election campaigns requires money. Rental and maintenance of a headquarters, copies of voter lists, mailers, text messaging, paid canvassers, social media, and more are all tools that the KCRP can utilize to help elect Republicans.
While it is true that money is raised by individual candidates, some are more successful than others in this endeavor. And yet, we want to elect Republicans to as many offices as possible. The KCRP has the name recognition and reach to gather funds from across Knox County and direct them strategically to help all Republicans win on Election Night.
It is the KCRP’s job to ensure that potential donors know their money will be used wisely to elect as many actual Republicans as possible. Electing officers who understand the importance of raising funds and directing them strategically is critical to the party’s success and, I believe, the success of individual Knox County residents.
Social Media
The influence of social media has increased exponentially over the last ten years. We need to elect party officers who understand this trend. The KCRP can no longer maintain only a static website and Facebook page. This is out of touch with the way information is disseminated in our country today.
Regardless of the technological skills of the party officials, the KCRP must maintain a robust social media presence if we are to drive turnout and inform the electorate.
Recruitment and Support of Candidates
The KCRP should be seeking to have Republican candidates running for all elected offices to challenge all Democrats. It should go without saying that the candidates hold to the principles of the Republican Party.
Finding good, qualified candidates and helping them become familiar with all the details of running a successful campaign is an important task of the KCRP. In addition, this should be a year-round endeavor and not just something that is thought about around election time.
Having leadership that understands the importance of candidate recruitment, especially in Knoxville City races, is paramount.
Get Out the Vote Efforts
It is the job of the KCRP to take the lead in efforts to get out the vote in general elections. While more general methods may be used (mailers, billboards, radio and television advertising, rallies), it is typically more effective to target voters with canvassing, text messaging, and targeted Facebook ads.
Developing an engaging message and organizing these efforts are critical to the party’s electoral success. We need leadership who understand the importance of these efforts and will utilize the most effective methods for turning out Republican voters.
Grassroots Training
Another important task of the party is providing training for grassroots activists and other interested Republicans. Even as fundraising improves, the KCRP will always need an army of volunteers to help get out the vote for Republican nominees.
There are effective strategies for voter engagement, and the KCRP should be providing training for these volunteers so that when the time comes, they may be deployed to help conservative Republicans win and help inform voters of conservative policy initiatives. A prime example of this is the recent City of Knoxville referendum concerning voting for City Council by district.
Official and Candidate Accountability
One of the most important functions of the county party is holding elected officials and candidates accountable. Too often, people run as Republicans, not because they agree with the party’s principles, but because they perceive that they must be a Republican to be elected.
While a person’s views may change over time, those who have recently (say in the last four years) donated to Democrats, appeared in Democrat campaign ads, and supported a Democrat or other non-Republican against a Republican in a general election campaign should not be allowed to run as Republicans.
We need party officials who have the backbone to use all the legal means at their disposal to prevent these Republicans In Name Only from damaging the brand.
Challenging Radical Democrat Narratives
We live in a world where many in the Democrat Party are radical Marxists. No longer the party of John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton, they push forward extreme policies like open borders immigration; sexual mutilation of children; abortion up to the time of birth; criminalization of Christianity; gun bans; and more. Indeed, they want to fundamentally transform America and Knox County!
We need KCRP leadership that is not afraid to go toe to toe with these extremists and their friends in the mainstream media. Being friendly to those on the other side is fine, but if your desire to be liked by those radicals causes you to hold back from speaking the truth, then you are not fit to serve in Republican Party leadership! We need leaders who will point out extremist policies and how those policies hurt Knox County.
In Conclusion
Participating in selecting those who will lead the KCRP at the reorganization convention is tremendously important for the reasons outlined above. Energetic and competent leadership is needed in order to move Knox County in a more conservative direction.
Please register in advance at www.tngop.org and plan on joining us on March 29th to vote for party leadership that will help advance conservative Republican Party principles and make Knox County an even more exceptional place to live!
Martin Ammons is a founding member of the Conservative Republicans of South Knox County and currently serves as Treasurer of the Knox County Republican Party