Mary Francis Hoots
Mary Francis Hoots told the Pachyderm Club Monday that women's sports "should stay female."
Ms. Hoots, the newly elected chair of the Hamilton County Young Republicans and director of communications for County Mayor Weston Wamp, added, “It’s disgusting. It’s immoral.”
Colleges and student athletes are preparing for full implementation Aug. 1 of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules which allow transgender athletes in women’s sports, based on varying documentation as required by local sports governing bodies.
Ms. Hoots, who played four years of Division I soccer for Tennessee Tech University, said allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports is “stripping women of their rights” and “killing women’s sports.”
“No one really likes the NCAA,” Ms. Hoots said, as she vowed that she will do everything in her power “to keep female sports female.”
PUBLIC EDUCATION:
The audience voiced concern that Hamilton County public schools will give in to left-wing policies.
County Commissioner Steve Highlander, a former chairman of the school board, told the group to support Republican school board candidates as the election, also Aug. 1, nears.
“If we don’t, we’re going to be in a world of hurt,” he said.
Former Congressman Zach Wamp encouraged the group to “lean in” to public education. He said he supports Governor Bill Lee’s policies to offer support and options for “every parent in the state,” he said.
Mr. Wamp told Republican candidates who lose to stay involved and run again, otherwise “the cesspool sets in,” he said.
Ms. Hoots credited her Catholic upbringing in Nashville with giving her a “strong moral compass,” which she said she relies upon in this “post-Christian era.” She said teamwork similar to that on her college soccer team drew her to the Republican Party.
She began her Chattanooga career as a Local 3 News anchor. She said covering Black Lives Matter “riots” on Frazier Avenue in 2020 showed her that “facts didn’t matter” to media outlets, who she said billed the gatherings as peaceful protests.
“I think they were rioters,” Ms. Hoots said. She described protesters “nose to nose” with police officers, shouting expletives and incendiary chants “with their cameras going.”
“That’s kind of what drew me away from journalism,” she said.
After County Mayor Wamp was elected in 2022, he asked Ms. Hoots to join his team.
“I am so thankful I took that job,” she said.
“He’s very convicted and he stands on principle,” she said of the county mayor, adding that he won’t pull an unpopular item from a vote. “He’d rather lose than just back out of the situation,” she said.
Ms. Hoots is also in charge of the county’s Hamilton Counted report, a data compilation of county crime, drug misuse and homelessness. These statistics will help drive county policy.
Ms. Hoots said 68 percent of unmarried American women vote Democrat and that the Republican Party should “bring more people like myself into the conversation.”
“We need more young conservative voices,” she said.
The next Young Republicans meeting will be at the end of March or the beginning of April. The group has about 60 members, Ms. Hoots said. Membership is open to people 18 to 40 years old.