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Louisville Tea Party Members Excited But Cautious After Election

The Louisville Tea Party logo, thelouisvilleteaparty.com

Members of the Louisville Tea Party are excited after Republican victories up and down the ticket on Election Day. But they also expressed a need for vigilance to make sure elected officials follow through on campaign promises.

At a Tea Party meeting last week, the group’s president, Michael Brown, said he was especially concerned about the legislature passing a bill to bring the state into compliance with federal driver’s identification card requirements. “Now our governor is a Republican and our governor was the only person who stood between us and the REAL ID surrender last year," he said,  "It was a big deal, it was a huge deal. It took a lot of guts.”

Kentucky is out of compliance with federal REAL ID standards, which require the state to centralize its driver’s license issuing system and crosscheck license applications with a federal database.

Bevin vetoed a REAL ID bill that passed the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led House during this year’s legislative session.

Kentuckians won’t be able to use their driver’s licenses to get into military bases starting January 7th. A passport will be needed to board flights starting January 2018 if stricter standards still aren’t met by then.

Brown also said at the state level, Republicans need to oppose the Local Option Sales Tax .“In the past there has been some situations in the party where there’s a lot of retreating. And if we have a majority, let’s not be retreating, let’s just move forward and make a good impression, do what we said we were going to do"

Brown also said he hoped Republicans would follow through on promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans won a majority of seats in the state House of Representatives for the first time in 95 years on Election Day. The party now has a supermajority in the state House and Senate as well as control of the governor’s mansion for the first time in history.

Ryland Barton is the Managing Editor for Collaboratives for Kentucky Public Radio, a group of public radio stations including WKMS, WFPL in Louisville, WEKU in Richmond and WKYU in Bowling Green. A native of Lexington, Ryland most recently served as the Capitol Reporter for Kentucky Public Radio. He has covered politics and state government for NPR member stations KWBU in Waco and KUT in Austin.
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