(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A bill passed by Tennessee’s legislature could end the congressional campaign of Morgan Ortagus, who is running to replace Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., Daily Caller reported.
The bill, SB 2616, requires congressional candidates to have been residents in the district they hope to represent for three years before they run for office.
Ortagus, former State Department spokeswoman and Trump-endorsed candidate, moved to Nashville in 2021, making her ineligible to run if Republican Gov. Bill Lee signs the bill into law.
The constitutionality of this bill has already been called into question, as qualifications for congressional candidates are set by the Constitution, which mandates that House candidates be 25-years-old, a U.S. citizen for seven years and a resident of the state they seek to represent.
The Supreme Court ruled that states can not “add to the qualification set forth in the text of the constitution,” in the U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton case.
“There’s no question that both left-of-center and right-of-center types have been interested in this issue,” said Derek Muller, an elections law professor at the University of Iowa.
“You never know what the majority of the Supreme Court might do,” he said.
“It’s a heavy lift. Term limits was essentially a neutral rule, and it didn’t directly target a particular candidate. This is pretty targeted.”
State Rep. Dave Write is sponsoring the legislation and denies targeting Ortagus. He pointed to a similar residency requirement in the Tennessee General Assembly as the motivation for this bill.
“That’s basically where the legislation came from,” Wright said.
“Looking at the requirements for me to be a member of the Tennessee state House, the requirement is there that I live in the state for three years, and it seems like a legitimate requirement,” he argued.
State Sen. Frank Niceley, who endorsed former state House Speaker Beth Harwell for the seat, was more direct in his criticism.
“If [Trump] was endorsing a Tennessee candidate that lived here, met the qualifications the party puts out, that’s one thing,” Nicely told NBC News.
“But shipping somebody in and endorsing is a different thing.”
