Conservative challenger Ray Jeter outraises Rep. Scott Cepicky with Maury County contributions

Representative Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, has won three elections for House district 64 by comfortable margins, but this week’s campaign filings show he’s facing a strong challenge in the August GOP primary.Cepicky’s challenger, County Commissioner Ray Jeter raised $40,401 in contributions this quarter compared to Cepicky’s $36,623 according to state reports.

Jeter posted a dashboard on his Facebook page to point out his contributions are also more likely to come from residents who live in Maury County, where House district 64 is located.

“Campaign financial reporting for April through June was due today for my race, and as a numbers enthusiast, I couldn't resist diving in. I've put together a dashboard that highlights some intriguing insights from these reports,” wrote Jeter on his page.

The Tennessee Firefly analyzed the second quarter campaign reports from both candidates and found more than 3 out of every 4 individual contributions Jeter received came from Maury County while less than half of Cepicky's contributions came from his home county.

Pie graph by the Tennessee Firefly

Education a big issue

Jeter says he decided to challenge Cepicky after hearing from teachers who were upset with comments the lawmaker made to home school families about the path he hoped to follow to improve education.

“We’re trying to just throw the whole freaking system in the trash at one time and just blow it all back up,” said Cepicky in the recorded conversation, initially reported on by News Channel 5 in Nashville.

Jeter says he’d take the exact opposite approach to improving education in Tennessee and focus on building it up.

“You’ve got good and bad apples in every organization, and I think you find the good apples in that public school education, and you build upon that. And you work with those individuals, you get back to the basics,” said Jeter. “We can stand up all day long on a platform and scream we want change, we want change, but if you don’t get the people involved who are actually the boots on the ground in the classrooms, if you don’t get them involved and them excited about the change, and excited about the opportunity to right and better the situation, I’m sorry it ain’t never going to happen.”

Cepicky chairs the House Education Instruction Subcommittee and sits on two other committees that deal with education legislation.

He faced criticism in 2022 for voting against arguably the most impactful piece of public education legislation that’s come up this decade. The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act changed the way Tennessee funds public schools to a more simple “student-based” formula similar to what most states including California, Texas, and New York use.  It also included a billion new dollars for public education and provided extra resources for literacy, career and technical education (CTE), tutoring, and teacher raises.

This year Cepicky unsuccessfully led a push to reduce the number of state tests students take along with the frequency of evaluations for their teachers. Independent studies have found that Tennessee’s testing and evaluation requirements have led to improved performance for students.