Diane Black wins Nashville GOP picnic straw poll (update)

by Rod Williams - The Davidson County Republican Party picnic was today, Saturday July 14th, at the Centennial Park event shelter. It returned to Centennial Park this year after being held elsewhere for the last few years. This was a real picnic, with barbecue and all the fixings from Whitt's barbecue and it was a bargain at only $10 a person. About 300 people were in attendance. It was great to see people I had not seen in a while.

The shelter and nearby grounds were doted with campaign signs of various candidates running for political office and a lot of those in attendance were wearing tee shirts promoting their candidate. Several of the candidates had booths at the event. Diane Black, Beth Harwell and Kay White, candidates for governor, spoke to the gathering and other candidates had representatives speak.

Entertainment was provided by JackJohnson and the Austin Brothers Band.  Senator Jack Johnson is a good musician and entertainer, in addition to being a great senator. He plays the type music that I love, the western swing, hard core country music of Merle Haggard, George Straight, Ray Price and similar artist. Senator Johnson also served as master of ceremonies.

Jack Johnson, photo by Randy Foster

The straw poll for governor was won by Diane Black who got 116 votes. Coming in, in second place was Bill Lee with 106  votes, followed by Beth Harwell with 28 votes, Kay White with 11 votes and Randy Boyd with only 2 votes. Many of the candidates it appears brought their own voters to the event. Still, I was surprised that Randy Boyd only got two votes.

Connie Hunter gets the Statesman's award.
photo by Randy Foster

Gene Wisdom and Rod Williams

Rod Williams, Donald Trump and Sue Deuss

The Statesmen award was given to Connie Hunter.  This is an award given to the volunteer who is deemed to have done the most during the previous year to advance the Davidson County Republican Party other than a party official. The person honored gets a framed certificate and a autographed copy of the biography of former governor Winfield Dunn.

Top Stories