RUNNING HARD FOR YOUR MONEY
DUMMY OF THE WEEK
🚨 RUNNING HARD FOR YOUR MONEY 🚨
Welcome. It’s Wednesday. And if you’re new here, Dummy of the Week is our little midweek tradition where we spotlight someone so puffed up with self-importance, so desperate for attention, so tangled up in their own contradictions, that they practically write their own lampoon.
This week’s repeat champion is none other than Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands. That’s right — and now he’s officially a two-time winner. Humble is the Tom Brady of political self-ownage, except without the rings, the discipline, or the charm.
🎙 The Setup
On Monday’s Tennessee Star radio show, Michael Patrick Leahy and attorney Mark Pulliam dissected Tennessee Stands, Elevate 2025, and the caucus vs. primary brawl. Pulliam nailed it: the caucus push isn’t about lofty principles — it’s about power. Not a cartoonish plot to sneak Humble onto the 2026 State Senate ballot, but a savvier play to stack local races with loyalists, building a machine to challenge Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson. Their chat was loose, sure, but Humble’s ensuing 27-minute “defamation” meltdown on his livestream? That’s just him dodging the real accusation.
It wasn’t statesman-like in the least. It landed more like a late-night infomercial, where Humble played both martyr and salesman.
🏛 The Real Play
Here’s the game: Elevate 2025, Humble’s crew, aimed to dominate the Williamson County GOP. Caucuses — closed-door party votes, not open primaries — pick candidates for local partisan races like school boards and county commissions. That’s Humble’s bench of loyalists, ready to boost his 2026 Senate bid against Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson.
That’s what Pulliam and Leahy were pointing at, even if they didn’t spell it out cleanly. And Humble knows it. But instead of engaging that reality, he staged a near half-hour performance about how persecuted he is, how honest he is, how everybody else is lying.
It was political theater at its most self-serving.
🙃 The Honesty Routine
Humble loves to say he’s “the honest one.” To that, we say: oh really? Let’s check the record.
In 2023, Humble retweeted that Trump was basically a puppet of Big Pharma. He praised Ron DeSantis’ presidential launch as “refreshing.” He sneered at “cult of personality” politics — a jab at MAGA. By 2024, he was openly done with “Trump cultists,” called Trump’s comments “unforgivable,” and labeled him “pure narcissism.” But today? Suddenly he’s a Trump-aligned grassroots hero. Apparently, we’re all supposed to forget his Never-Trump livestreams from barely a year ago.
So pro-MAGA, pro-Trump Sen. Johnson is the “RINO,” while Humble is the true conservative? The mental gymnastics here would win gold in Paris.
💸 Follow the Money
Since 2020, Gary’s helmed two Tennessee Stands nonprofits: Citizens for Limited Government & Constitutional Integrity (a 501(c)(4)) and the Tennessee Stands Foundation (a 501(c)(3)). IRS filings show they pulled in about $1.1 million from patriotic donors by 2023, pitched for lawsuits and activism. Where’d it go? Nearly half — $491,000 — flowed straight to Gary’s Run Hard LLC for “consulting” and “communications.”
The filings tell the story. In 2020, CLGCI paid Run Hard $23,475 — about a quarter of its entire budget. In 2021, it paid $107,510 — half the budget. In 2022, $101,365 — over half again. And by 2023, $123,800, which was seventy percent of the organization’s entire spending.
The Foundation followed the same playbook: $30,450 in 2021, $52,200 in 2022, and $52,200 again in 2023 — roughly a third of its expenses each year.
Add it all up and donors gave $1.1 million. Gary billed nearly half of it to himself. Run Hard LLC? Please. It should’ve been called Cash Grab LLC, but maybe that felt a little too on the nose.
📊 Blurring the Line
And it’s not just the money. Tennessee Stands Foundation, a 501(c)(3), gets tax-deductible donations but can’t legally endorse candidates. Yet Humble’s “Legislative Report Cards” slap A’s, F’s, and “A-List” tags on lawmakers, telling voters who’s a “true conservative.” That’s less education and more of an endorsement, all dressed up in a spreadsheet.
IRS rules are crystal clear: a (c)(3) can present facts about legislation, but it cannot single out candidates for praise or attack. These report cards do both, loudly. And Humble knows it’s risky — because there have already been formal complaints. In 2022, one alleged he lobbied without registering, another flagged campaign mailers missing disclaimers. The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance even opened an 18-month audit into his 2022 Senate campaign, subpoenaing records to check for coordination with Tennessee Stands. It closed in 2024 without penalties, but the pattern is obvious: Humble pushes past guardrails until someone stops him.
Humble isn’t just playing near the line — he’s dancing across it.
⚖️ The Dummy Crown
This week, Humble tried to score points by calling Mark Pulliam “washed-up” and mocking Michael Patrick Leahy for not being on the FM dial anymore. Pot, meet kettle. Let’s talk receipts, Gary: your 2022 Senate run flopped against Jack Johnson. Your lawsuits fizzled in court. Your “movement”? More livestream rant than real wins.
The one thing you have succeeded at is turning donor cash into Run Hard LLC paydays, while shouting about integrity. But every audit, filing, and livestream just proves the same thing: you’re less William Wallace and more Willie Wonka — selling golden tickets that all lead back to your own bank account.
So take a bow, Gary Humble. You’ve turned principled rants into MAGA makeovers and donor dollars into personal paychecks, all while crying about defamation.
Your real achievement? Nabbing Dummy of the Week — twice. But keep the livestreams flowing; the grift is your true calling.