MILWAUKEE — Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, took to the Republican National Convention stage on Monday night to hammer home the GOP’s message on the economy and the financial burdens for middle class Americans, the through line of the first night of convention.
The Tennessee senator served as chair of the Republican National Committee’s official party platform, which she briefly presented on stage Monday afternoon before her evening speech. Blackburn is the only Tennessee lawmaker slated to speak at the nearly weeklong convention.
Blackburn referenced Bordeau Metals, a White Bluff, Tennessee, business to criticize “Bidenomics,” which she said is hurting everyday business owners.
“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, their high-inflation, high-interest, high-taxes, and Green New Scam are destroying small business,” Blackburn said.
The Biden administration earlier this year touted new business growth, citing nearly 16 million new business applications filed between 2021 and 2023, the highest average increase since 2004.
On stage, Blackburn referenced her 2001 role in pushing back against a proposed state income tax when she was a state lawmaker in Tennessee.
“We killed that thing,” Blackburn said. “We’re income-tax free in Tennessee.”
The Tennessean in 2001 reported then-Gov. Don Sundquist, a Republican, and other senators blamed Blackburn and conservative talk radio show hosts for encouraging large protests at the Tennessee state Capitol, an event that resulted in vandalism to the building. Blackburn in 2001 said it was “unfortunate it got out of hand.”
In her Monday speech, Backburn said a Trump reelection would return the U.S. to an “era of prosperity.” Blackburn also criticized President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for hiring 85,000 new IRS hires to “harass hard-working Americans,” a debunked claim PolitiFact reports mischaracterizes a 2021 Treasury Department decision that said the IRS would need to hire for positions across the department, not just in enforcement, and to shore up a retiring workforce.
“Who’s going to look at those 85,000 IRS agents and say, ‘You’re fired?'” Blackburn said. “Donald Trump.”
