State Senator Changes Her Mind About Re-election Bid

A veteran state senator made an abrupt political about-face Thursday, announcing that she will, after all, run for her Senate seat. The decision could potentially stop a domino effect for Republicans.

State Senator Mae Beavers announced last year she would run for Wilson County mayor.
Now, she says she’s changed her mind.

“So I’m honored to officially announce today that I’ll be a candidate for my Senate seat again, for District 17.”

The announcement came as a surprise to state Representative Susan Lynn, who is running to replace Beavers. Both are Republicans, setting up a battle in the GOP primary.

Representative Lynn says the political fallout from the about-face reaches further than just Senate race. Lynn says it impacts those who were lining up to replace her in the House.

“Senator Beavers announced back in June that she was running for county mayor. And I and a lot of other people made decisions about our lives, based on that.”

Lynn says she plans to talk to her constituents this weekend, but says as of now, she’s in the Senate race.

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Representative Lynn says she was surprised by Senator Beavers’ change of heart.

“No, Senator Beavers did not call me.”

Senator Beavers casually suggests she’s willing to debate, but that Lynn may not want to face her.

“You know we’ll be getting into those issues as the campaign goes forward, if she decides to stay in.”

At her news conference, Beavers explained that nine fellow senators and a House member from her district were there to support, but not to endorse her. It’s a basic rule that politicians don’t get involved in other candidates’ Party primaries. Or as Beavers says:

“I never ask another politician to endorse me and I don’t endorse another politician. I think that’s just good campaign sense.”

Representative Lynn says, however, that Beavers wasn’t following that rule in the 2002 party primary for Beavers’ old seat.

“She supported a primary opponent of mine in my first race, and you know, I won, and it was obviously a big disappointment to her.”

In 2002, Lynn got more than 50 percent of the vote in a four-person field in the Republican primary. But rather than her first race, it was the second, in 2004, where Beavers endorsed her opponent, Tom Wood.

A semi-biographical piece in the Tennessean notes the fight between the two Republican women in the 2004 election.

Lynn beat Wood 3228 to 1620, almost two-to-one.

Lynn has campaigned for nine months for the Senate seat. Lynn says Republicans are lined up to run for the House seat in Mount Juliet that she would vacate.

“It’s astonishing. I really am astonished.”

“It’s [not just] me, there are a lot of candidates that have already qualified to run in the 57th district [to replace Lynn in the House]. And they have been working since September. They’ve been working very hard. Senator Beavers is aware of this. She’s aware of how hard I’ve been working. And of course I’ve seen her working very hard for county mayor. So I would have no reason in the world to think that she wasn’t sincere in her plans to run for county mayor.”

Although Lynn and Beavers are both political conservatives, Beavers says she’ll find a way to debate the younger Republican.

“We don’t have exactly the same voting record. There are some issues that we disagreed on, so I’m sure there are gonna be some things out there that we can run on.”

Responding quickly, Lynn found one area where her record differs from the incumbent senator’s.

“You know, I have tended to vote in support of the budget, which supports our schools, which supports our police, our transportation, our infrastructure. I have voted in support of things, you know, that definitely help our district, and help the infrastructure of our district.”

Beavers routinely votes against the state budget.

Beavers says she is representing her district.

“I had calls from all over my district, from Clay, Cannon, DeKalb, Macon, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale and Wilson counties, asking me to stay in the Senate, that they thought they had good representation and they wanted me to continue to represent them.”

Lynn is just as sure of her backing.

“You know what, in the last 24 hours I’ve received a lot of phone calls from supporters, asking me to stay in the race. They believe I can win, they believe in me. And you know what? I filed to run.”