Shelby County Republican Party Chairman Cary Vaughn wanted former President Donald Trump’s running mate for the Memphis-area party’s annual Lincoln Day Gala.

So he put off the party’s largest annual fundraising event until June 23 in hopes Trump would have picked his vice-presidential choice by then.

And he as well as others thought there was a good chance Trump would pick South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

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So that’s who the local GOP leaders booked for Lincoln Day.

But between the move to book Noem in April and the announcement this month, Noem’s position in the race to be Trump’s running mate changed considerably.

Politico reported in May Noem was all but off the list and what finished her prospects was a disastrous book launch. Noem wrote about killing a hunting dog and made a false claim in the same book that she met with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un.

Axios reported this month Trump’s advisers have requested financial and other documents from eight potential VP picks, and Noem is not one of the eight. Although, Axios also said Trump may go beyond the eight.

Noem has equal billing with state Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, who is the major sponsor of the event again this year.

Lincoln Day isn’t always about the keynote speaker. The local party is usually looking to raise enough money to be able to circulate an endorsement ballot in the next elections.

In a presidential election year, it’s also a way to gauge where the party’s most active base is when it comes to national candidates.

In this case, that’s a presidential general-election campaign that is already well underway and focused exclusively on battleground states.

Tennessee is not one of those states. Memphis didn’t even see so much as a campaign surrogate, Republican or Democratic, in the set of Super Tuesday March presidential primaries.

That leaves candidates from other parts of the state dipping a toe in the political waters via Lincoln Day as they try to figure out if they want to run for governor in 2026. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee turned up at several Lincoln Day galas in Memphis ahead of his 2018 campaign.

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For Republican candidates considering statewide runs, the Memphis Lincoln Day event is one of dozens that are sometimes called Reagan Day that are spaced out to make them a circuit of political events.

And there will be various local contenders from this year’s county and suburban elections as well the races for the Tennessee Legislature and those looking at the 2026 county elections.

The xAI announcement

When local leaders have an economic development win to announce, there is a certain political framework that comes with the announcement.

And it can seem like much ado about nothing until it doesn’t happen, which was the rare case in last week’s announcement of the xAI move to Southwest Memphis.

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Noticeably absent from the announcement was anyone from the state department of Economic and Community Development, much less the governor’s office in some form or shape.

Part of the ritual usually includes some last-minute shuffle of the governor’s schedule to be in the city for unknown reasons or with a notation of the amended schedule that the governor is there for an announcement with no more detail than that.

None of that happened with the xAI announcement involving billions of dollars of investment by the company, the largest investment of its kind in the city’s history by the dollar amount announced in what looks to be the artificial-intelligence version of a space race.

Then there are the kudos that come following the announcement from other elected leaders.

That did happen for the most part with U.S. Reps. Steve Cohen and David Kustoff as well as U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, who is a former state commissioner of economic and community development.

Missing was reaction to xAI on the day of the announcement from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

While the holes in protocol were noticeable, there was a continuation of the high hopes that come with the high-dollar figures.

For several years now, the highest of the high hopes have been around the impact Ford’s BlueOval City development in Haywood County will have on Memphis.

It’s become an article of public faith that coexists with a stubborn yet understated skepticism within a city.

Some of both were present in the search for details immediately following the xAI announcement that left some questions unanswered for now.

D-Day observances

Blackburn was in France for observances of the 80th anniversary of D-Day along with Cohen and Kustoff the day after xAI was announced in Memphis.

Cohen met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the trip to Normandy.

Cohen linked D-Day’s anniversary with U.S. ongoing support of Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Kustoff stuck with the anniversary and talked with actor Tom Hanks and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

Changing the MLGW board

When the Memphis City Council talked about a possible November ballot question that would allow for two suburban seats on the MLGW board this past Tuesday, there were a lot of other issues in the room.

The goal is two more seats on what is currently a five-member board. The city charter says those board members must be Memphians.

The ballot question would ask Memphis voters to change the charter to allow the board to have two more voting members who live outside the city. Like the other five, they would be appointed by the Memphis Mayor and confirmed by the Memphis City Council.

Getting council approval to even put the amendment to city voters on the November ballot will be difficult, judging by the council’s initial reaction.

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Council member Dr. Jeff Warren said the suburban mayors pushing for the voting seats on the MLGW board can help the city specifically in trying to get state acceptance of some kind of carve-out from state law that would allow the city to have more-restrictive gun ordinances.

“We need help with gun control,” he told Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo and Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner. “We need all of that going on. And we need the state helping us with that and not necessarily hindering us.”

Warren also said the city should have some kind of say over the Shelby County Health Department, which is currently a part of county government.

“You have to figure out how to win this election as opposed to saying let’s all share,” he told Palazzolo and Joyner.

Council member Pearl Walker is concerned that having two voting members from the suburbs is opening the door to more changes on the utility board down the road.

The concern raises the issue of trust and the spectre of suburban leaders going to the Legislature down the road for an expansion of suburban seats on the board.

“My main concern is if this passes at some point because of some loophole or fancy language … the possibilities are endless,” she said. “My concern is that we will end up with a majority board that is non-Memphian.”

She also bristled at suggestions an all-Memphis aboard amounts to “taxation without representation,” saying suburban customers of the utility pay for services and don’t pay a tax.

Council member Jana Swearengen-Washington said paying the rate doesn’t mean there should be a seat on the board.

“There has to be a compelling reason to change a charter or a constitution,” she said. “To change a charter just because someone wants to have a seat at the table, it makes no sense.”

Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas said votes on the board for the suburbs should come with “collateral”

“Is it taxes, a one-time large sum? What could we gain that is actually financially tangible?” she said.

“This isn’t a buy-in,” Easter-Thomas said. “This is a service that somebody in the past chose to let you all tap into. That, I feel, is the biggest benefit that you all have.”

Meanwhile, Walker pointed to texts she got while the committee discussion was underway Tuesday from those living in unincorporated Shelby County.

Walker mentioned complaints the unincorporated areas are the largest customer base for MLGW outside Memphis when separated from the populations of the six suburban towns and cities.

But suburban mayors would be able to suggest nominees to the Memphis Mayor for appointment to the two new seats under the tentative proposal.