Annual Scott DesJarlais Bonfire Sees 15th Year
- Terri Carter
- 19 hours ago
- 6 min read
The weather may have changed the venue, but the momentum still ran strong as the Franklin County Republican Party hosted their annual Scott DesJarlais Bonfire Night at the Franklin County Annex Building last Thursday evening. The event, usually hosted at the Davis farm located on Tims Ford Lake, welcomed over 200 people as the party members gathered to hear from special guest speakers, enjoy a meal and fellowship together. Special guest speakers included Tennessee GOP State Chairman Scott Golden, State Representative Iris Rudder, Senator Janice Bowling, and Congressman Scott DesJarlais.
Giving a warm welcome was Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party Roger Vetitoe. He graciously thanked everyone in attendance, specifically recognizing local leadership like Franklin County Mayor Chris Guess, Winchester Mayor Sean Crabtree, and Frankin County Sheriff Tim Fuller, among others. He also invited anyone who was interested in getting involved with the party to reach out to the chair members that were in attendance for more information.
The first guest speaker was Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden. After thanking those who were responsible for bringing the event together and those in attendance, he reminded the crowd how important it was to vote in every election.
“Donald Trump is under attack.”, stated Golden. “Every morning when we turn on the television, something is wrong. It is our job to make sure we win every single election. We have an election next week. We have a special election in Tennessee that will determine control of Congress.”
Golden closed out by extending hope and confidence that the republicans would see a great year in 2026, again urging the crowd to show up at the polls during each election to ensure that republicans keep getting elected.
The next guest speaker was State Representative Iris Rudder. Representative Rudder began by recognizing that the Scott DesJarlais Bonfire event has been a tradition for 15 years. She recalled the first bonfire and other memories that had left an impact on her and the republican party throughout the years.
“Such wonderful memories.”, stated Rudder. “We are so thankful for how big this party has grown in Franklin County and the leadership we have had. JoAnne Davis, of course, is a big part of that and now we have Roger (Vetitoe), and all of the people who serve on our board and keep us all in line. I am just so thankful to be a part of all of this that we’ve created in Franklin County since 2010.”
State Senator Janice Bowling was the next guest speaker. Senator Bowling kept it brief, recalling the time when DesJarlais had first decided to run for Congress. She told the attendees that he had reached out to her asking if they could meet and talk about his election. The senator and her husband invited him over for dinner and quickly learned that their values were all aligned.
“He didn’t know we were going to have grilled Scott DesJarlais for dinner. But that’s what we had.”, stated Bowling. “We sat in the kitchen and we asked him about everything from stem to sternum, from high to low. And every answer he gave was on target. He was a true conservative. He was running for the right reasons. He had the ability and the determination to win.”
The highlight speaker of the evening was the event’s namesake, Congressman Scott DesJarlais. DesJarlais gave updates from Washington D.C., and discussed several different current event topics. He began with funding issues.
“Back in September we did something I personally don’t like to do.”, stated DesJarlais. “We passed a clean Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded. We passed a clean CR through November 20th, which is not that far from now. For some reason, democrats, who love CR’s and voted for 13 of them during the Biden Administration and voted for one in March that got us through the end of September, have decided that they are going to hang their hats on republicans wanting people to die because they don’t have healthcare.”
DesJarlais gave a history on the healthcare narrative that had been created, stating that the Inflation Reduction Act included funding, during Covid, for approximately 5% of low-income Americans to receive tax subsidies for their health insurance. It had a sunset clause of five years, which happens to fall at the end of this year.
“Remember who was in power from 2020-2024. Trump has only been in office for ten months.”, said DesJarlais. “They could have made these changes permanent at any time. But the truth is they had other plans for that money. It’s about $400 billion over the course of ten years. They wanted to use that money for other priorities. Green New Deal, other climate change initiatives, DEI wokeness, whatever their flavor of the month was. And so, they knew this was going to expire and they did nothing.”
“Basically, all of this can end with just three or four more democrats doing what they need to do and voting to open the government. We’re one month into spinning our wheels and they’ve got to come out of the alley sooner or later. And I know a lot of them are getting pressure because of SNAP benefits, furloughed workers, air traffic controllers. I would like to think that within a week that we see the shutdown end and we get back to business.”
DesJarlais explained that even though the government is shutdown, work is still being done. He stated that he is still working with the Secretary of Agriculture and they have just completed a soy bean deal, and they are currently communicating an Argentina beef deal that is still in the uncertain stages.
Pivoting to the topic of SNAP benefits, DesJarlais said he has been working tirelessly for years to get information on the program and its recipients. He stated that he has been trying to get information regarding who, of the 42 million recipients, are American citizens, how many are legal immigrants, and how many are illegal immigrants.
“You can go on your phones right now and Google if an illegal immigrant can get SNAP benefits or healthcare and ChatGPT or whatever you look at is going to say no.”, said the Congressman. “But don’t stop reading. Keep going. Because there’s all kinds of exceptions.”
He explained that if someone is 18 or under and comes into the country illegally, if someone is brought in under refugee status, or if someone is granted asylum, they automatically qualify for SNAP benefits. He stated that those examples were only a few of the 11 exceptions that are listed in the USDA Handbook.
Covering what Donald Trump has accomplished since he took office, he mentioned The Big Beautiful Bill, the southern border, the ISIS terrorist group, the current peace in the Middle East, and setting back Iran’s nuclear system. Military recruitment has also seen an increase with DesJarlais stating that the American military has already met and surpassed all of their recruiting goals this year.
“The executive order banning biological men from playing in women’s sports. That’s worth mentioning.”, continued DesJarlais. “And he recently made a deal, and we’ll see how it turns out, but we’re going to get prescription drugs for prices like Mexico and Canada. He’s cut a deal with pharmaceutical companies to bring our drug prices way down. I’ve heard those promises before but that would be incredibly helpful to a lot of us.”
DesJarlais closed out by praising the Trump administration and the current state of the economy and encouraging the attendees to stay active and utilizing their right to vote in each election. He thanked everyone for their patience during the government shutdown and acknowledged all of those who were impacted.
“The economy is doing well.”, said the Congressman. “We hired him because he’s a businessman. We wanted him to turn the economy around. Inflation is down. Job demand is high. I think the fact that we’re sitting here on a rainy Thursday night with a wall-to-wall room full of die-hard conservative republicans who care about our country, it is a sign that we’re in the right place.”
As the guest speaker portion of the evening came to an end, the politicians and local leadership stayed to answer any questions from their constituents and spend time of fellowship with fellow republicans. The annual event proved to be yet another success for the party, bringing friends and family together for an evening of community, unity, and patriotism.
