Hamilton County’s two parties spent years preparing for the 2020 election, and now a week removed from that momentous day the dueling ideologies assessed their future in one of Tennessee’s largest counties. On Main Street, the mood was solemn and introspective during the Republicans’ weekly Pachyderm Club. Arch Trimble IV announced his intention to run for president of the Republican Party in Hamilton County, and he had harsh words for why the party lost several races at the municipal level.
“We have to look at broadening our base,” Mr. Trimble said. “We’ve spent the last four years allowing ourselves to be pushed too far to the right, and quite frankly I don’t think anyone in this room can agree that has done a lot for our party. It has divided us as a nation.”
While by no means a supporter of the Democratic Party, Mr. Trimble did praise the other side while simultaneously critiquing his own.
“They got it right and we didn’t,” Mr. Trimble said. “They didn’t do it locally because they were more well-funded than us. They worked harder than us. That’s something Republicans do better than anyone else, and we got lazy, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves, me included.”
Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Rodney Strong said his party focused on the grassroots level, an area Mr. Trimble said the Republicans have neglected to attend to.
“The HCDP’s direction will be tied to continued growth of the party at the grassroots level,” Mr. Strong said about the HCDP. “We will continue to develop our organization at the precinct level. We will use social media and personal networking to reach out to not only Democrats but to those who are independents to work together to elect people to office who are more responsive to the community’s needs.”
“I think we know where we got beat, and that’s at the grassroots level,” Mr. Trimble said. “Relationships and shaking hands and knocking on doors matters a whole lot more than something coming in your mailbox. I’d much rather have a connection with someone than have a piece of mail.”
“I’d like to ask (younger people) to give us a chance, and to get involved. We’re never going to make everybody happy, but I firmly believe that if we get some new ideas and new faces that want to get around our movement, then we have a way forward.”
Both parties said messaging and the format of said message is crucial to the success of the two parties. District 28’s Democratic representative Yusuf Hakeem said as much when asked for a comment. He said the party needs to do a better job of establishing what the Democratic Party stands for, rather than allow outside entities to shape the perception of the party.
“The Democratic Party needs to listen to the people, learn from the people, and make the necessary changes that are needed,” Rep. Hakeem said. “Our heart is in the right place, but I question whether the message we give the people is one overcome by other people defining what you are, rather than defining yourself. That is what has happened to the democratic party in the state of Tennessee.”
The 40th President of the United States has long defined America’s more conservative party, with Reagan’s grip on conservative politics still ironclad over a decade after his passing and 30 years since his presidency. However, Mr. Trimble said it may be time for the party to move on from Reagan, saying reverence for the former president is not gaining any new supporters for Republicans.
“Although we have looked back at President Reagan with a lot of awe, I think we could do a little bit better than what we did in the 1980s,” Mr. Trimble said. “We were all driving manual cars and had 8-track players. Now we have iPods and computers. It’s just evolution, and both parties can do it. But I believe the Republican party has been the party of innovation, and historically they are a proactive party.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Strong said he believes the Democratic Party has created some momentum after the most recent elections. Aside from the runoff elections in nearby Georgia, Mr. Strong said the party hopes to take advantage of that excitement, with the 2022 midterms and various local elections in mind.
“There was an excitement and energy created by the Presidential election that brought a lot of new faces to the HCDP,” Mr. Strong said. “We will use that contact information to expand our base as we prepare for 2022.”
“We are at least four of five years (from turning the county blue), but there will be incremental progress during that time,” Rep. Hakeem said. “It’s a matter of building that infrastructure or that “bench”, because we have people who will run, and they’re great people. But I wonder if we’ve built that bench that we need to put before the people. So the ideas and concepts put forth by democrats are understood and appreciated by a broader swath of the county.”
Mr. Trimble said he believes Republican economic values can still appeal to voters in America, citing how close the most recent election was. But he said the party has lost seven of the last eight popular elections, and to repeat what the Republican has been doing is “the definition of insanity.” He told the Pachyderm Club “We are not Republicans for what we do in your free time,” and instead said the party needs to focus on government and taxes.
“I believe that small government and smaller taxes, and the belief I can do better with my money and my household than the government can,” Mr. Trimble said. “That should sell to everyone in the country, not just my party. I believe the reason America is great is because you have the ability to bet on yourself.”
Members of both parties expressed satisfaction in seeing the record-breaking number of voters coming out to the polls. Anywhere from 66 to 75 percent of eligible voters voted in Tuesday’s election.
“That’s an indication people believe our process of voting can work,” Rep. Hakeem said. “Some people believe we should make it hard and frustrating to vote, but I think that people said this time, no matter what you do to keep me from voting, I know my votes matters and counts, and then they came out.”
“I would like for all of us to move past this and look forward to the next couple of years,” Mr. Trimble said. “We have a lot of problems in this country we have to fix, but I honestly believe having as many people as we did to vote is amazing for this country, but it’s about 50 percent too low.”
The gargantuan voter turnout is only one of the enduring stories of the election. While former Vice President Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect by most major news outlets, incumbent Donald Trump has claimed rampant voter fraud resulted in a “stolen” election. The president has threatened lawsuits in response to this supposed fraud. However, Mr. Trimble said he believed it would be best if the HCRP, and the national party in general, looked to the future instead.
“I don’t believe the lawsuits will accomplish anything, and I’m a firm believer that if you got beat, it’s time to move on and regroup your forces,” Mr. Trimble said. “As far as if this election was stolen or not, I don’t know and I don’t have access to that data, nor do I care to.”
“That’s an option he has, but from what I’ve heard some of his own people are questioning the wisdom of that,” Rep. Hakeem said. “In a sense of speaking, it is out of my hands and he’s going to do what he wants to do.”