Democratic Party Votes To Kick State Rep Off Ballot — Accused of Opposing Abortion & Supporting School Vouchers

After 26 years in office, the Democrat Representative from Memphis, John DeBerry, was voted off the August 2020 ballot by the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee.

Nashville Public Radio reported that DeBerry was kicked off the ballot due to his views against abortion and his support for school voucher programs.

The report states:

“The Tennessee Democratic Party voted 41-18 on Wednesday to take DeBerry off the August 2020 primary ballot because of his support for school vouchers and his opposition to abortion. Those stances have made DeBerry an outlier within his own party.

Brandon Thomas represents Rutherford County in the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee. He voted for removal.

“Maybe this was a thing in ’94, in ’95, in ’96, but this is 2020,” Thomas said in a teleconference meeting the party held to discuss the matter. “And this is a fundamentally different Democratic Party and we need to realize that.”

As if the problems in the national Democratic Party weren’t enough to send voters out of their camp, we are now seeing the demise of the local Democratic Party.

This is the tolerant left everybody. You have a company man that has lived and breathed the Democratic Party for 26 years, and they are casting him out for more progressive views. This is likened to telling a lie long enough that you start to believe the lie yourself.

I know I should be celebrating the demise of the Democratic Party, but this is not right. America is better when we can have civil discussions on topics that affect all Americans. The Democrat party is becoming so progressive that only the extreme radicals will be left in the party.

Where does this leave conservative Democrats that don’t feel at home in the Republican Party, but are told from the Democrats that they do not value their voice?

DeBerry sent this statement to Local 24 News:

“The Tennessee Democratic Party has decided that a 26-year Representative that spent 12 years as a committee chairman, conducted himself with integrity, served the party well, sponsored meaningful legislation and built bridges across the aisle to get bills passed is no longer a Democrat.  And so, I’m not.  I’m appreciative to all the folk who have supported me through my time in Legislature and want to give them my thanks.”

From the same report by Nashville Public Radio, Memphis Sen. Raumesh Akbari offered a defense for the 26-year representative. The report says that Akbari’s argument for DeBerry stated that “we have some policy issues that many of us don’t agree with him on, but again he’s always been consistent in holding these positions. Nothing about this has been new.”

Akbari states that he is not the only Democrat in the state that holds these same views. She said, “I think we need to think about what we are doing when we say that our tent is so narrow that we are not making room for the more conservative Democrats because they do have a place.”

I think Akbari is not aware that Democrats have been systematically pushing out any voice that differs from their extreme liberal agenda. Good for her for standing up for her conservative representative. The Democrats need more voices to stand up to the machine that is ruining their party.