Yesterday, my team and I officially responded to the @TNGOP scheme to remove me and others from the primary ballot, with a lawsuit in federal court. I took this major step to fight for the rights of Tennessee voters, only after the state party, in the face of a detailed legal demand and a mountain of evidence, refused to do the right thing and correct what they did wrong by disenfranchising their own voters.

Our complaint alleges that state GOP officials used secret and irregular means to prevent a FREE and FAIR election consistent with the state party bylaws, and state and federal law. I started my campaign to fight for the people of Tennessee- and now I’m fighting for Tennesseans right to vote for whom they choose-including my opponents. I will fight with everything I have against this illegal disenfranchisement of Republican voters.

The state party is trying to go beyond the scope of what they’re allowed to do by kicking a bonafide Republican like me off the ballot. It’s the same sort of backroom trickery some tried to use against Trump in 2016 at the Republican convention-which is ironic since the state party is trying to land the next Republican convention to Nashville. Tennessee voters won’t forgive this behind the back theft of their choice on Election Day. Disenfranchising our voters robs them of an America First candidate aligned with President Trump, leaving them with only weak alternatives. Tennesseans deserve better.

This is not communist Cuba, where my family escaped from. In America, the party doesn’t get to just hand-pick their buddies -the PEOPLE get to choose the candidate they want on Election Day!

This lawsuit is a testing point- and hopefully a turning point-that could end this type of backroom politics that should have gone out of style decades ago. We’re not going to stop fighting until WE THE PEOPLE are given our constitutional rights back and Republican voters – not party insiders meeting secretly – get to chose their candidates.