Incumbent District 61 state Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) is facing two challengers in his bid for reelection and pledging to continue his work as a “culture warrior.”
Bulso is facing both Democratic challenger Claire Jones and independent candidate Alana LeBlanc, with Jones standing out as his biggest competition in the race.
Bulso said that he and Jones’ positions are “basically the opposite in almost everything." In a September candidate interview with Williamson, Inc., he called her “radically pro-transgender, radically pro-LGBT, radically pro-abortion and radically pro-Kamala Harris.”
“I don't know that there are any issues that we really agree on, and so I think what's at stake is for the community just to reestablish what its values are, and consistently, voters in District 61 have been very pro-life, pro-family, pro-limited government voters, very conservative voters, and I think we're going to see that play out again on November 5,” Bulso told The News, adding that he and his team aren't taking anything for granted in the race.
Critics and the Culture War
In September, Bulso spoke at a Williamson County GOP fundraiser and acknowledged his role as a self-described “culture warrior” during his first term in the state House, citing a favorability poll that his campaign commissioned.
“These things have made me very unpopular with Democrats," Bulso said to laughter and applause from the crowd of Republican voters. "In fact, in the poll that we took, anybody who identified as a Democrat universally had an unfavorable opinion of me; it was 100 percent across the board."
“I'm here to tell you, if they don't like me now after the first two years, just wait until we go for two more years, and with your help, we'll get there.”
Bulso has been called a “bully” by his critics, some of whom have publicly characterized him and his legislative efforts as “hateful,” especially concerning his LGBTQ opposition, including failed legislation aimed at banning Pride flags in schools, a bill he's expected to reintroduce in January if reelected.
Bulso has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his work as a lawyer representing some Williamson County parents in a lawsuit calling for the removal of 'obscene’ books from Williamson County Schools' libraries.
In a recent election interview with Williamson, Inc., Bulso said that some people “are trying to put transgender ideology into our kindergarten libraries,” adding that he and some parents were successful in getting a book titled The Little Library removed from the Clovercroft Elementary School library. That book is not included in the above lawsuit.
A WCS spokesperson disputed that claim in an email to The News, saying that “ The Little Library has never been in circulation from the Clovercroft library, and it isn’t now.”
When asked by The News how he can better represent District 61’s diverse constituency, including his critics, Bulso reiterated his position that he's a Republican elected to represent majority Republican voters.
“My goal is to represent all 60,000 constituents that we've got, but it's obvious that if I am reelected, I'm being reelected to go back to do the same type of work that I've done for the last two years,” he said.
Legislative Achievements, Crime and Immigration
Among Bulso’s self-identified legislative achievements is his “10th Amendment bill,” which relates to the state's ability to sue the federal government, a “mechanism Gino plans to use to rein in out-of-control federal spending," according to his campaign website.
Other items on Bulso's list of legislative achievements includes the Baby Olivia Act, a medically-inaccurate fetal development video now shown in schools, and the BOLO Act, which established a pilot program placing therapy dogs in five public schools in the 2024-25 school year.
Another bill successfully carried by Bulso prohibits trans athletes whose biological gender was assigned male at birth from competing in sports against females in private schools, along with restricting shared locker room access based on gender. That bill was lauded by former college swimmer-turned-Republican-cheerleader Riley Gaines, who was featured in a Bulso campaign ad and is a Nashville native.
Bulso said that if reelected, public safety will be “top of the list,” citing concerns over “Chilean gang activity," an issue that Williamson County law enforcement officials suggest may be overstated.
Bulso's statement refers to the recent arrest of several Chilean nationals who allegedly burglarized a Williamson County home and stole cash and jewelry.
A Williamson County Sheriff's Office detective overseeing the investigation told The News that the defendants flew from Chile to Florida and then traveled by car to Tennessee in one day.
That detective said that the burglary had the same modus operandi as several other residential burglaries where affluent homes were targeted and entered through windows, generally when residents weren't home.
None of these incidents have involved assaults or violent crimes, and detectives said that while those homes have been “ransacked,” the perpetrators are intentionally not stealing firearms when those are present in the homes.
Williamson County, like many affluent areas across the nation, has long been targeted by what law enforcement call an organized “South American theft group” as well as the American-based “Felony Lane Gang,” but multiple law enforcement officials told The News that while the burglaries are serious, these incidents are not an epidemic of crime.
Bulso compared his concern over this alleged “Chilean gang” to similar concerns from Aurora, Colorado, about a “Venezuelan gang” which had allegedly “taken over” an apartment complex.
Those claims have been amplified by former President and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, claims that Aurora's Republican mayor called “grossly exaggerated.”
Bulso’s concerns over alleged criminal activity by immigrants highlights his, and of other Republicans, focus on immigration, another hot topic this election cycle, with the statement “every state is a border state” serving as a favorite slogan of many GOP leaders in Tennessee and beyond.
Bulso said that “getting control of the border and getting control of illegal immigration is essential for us to maintain safety and security.”
He said he’s unsure where he stands on undocumented children who have been brought to the U.S., but added that he generally supports Trump's proposed plan for mass deportations, saying that “all law enforcement agencies, local, state and federal, need to cooperate with each other in enforcing immigration laws.”
“If you're here illegally, you need to go back and repatriate yourself to wherever you came from for some period of time before you could be considered, in my view, to come back and be a citizen of the United States,” Bulso said. “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are first a nation of laws.”
The Rule of Law
While he regularly cites the U.S. Constitution and the country's founding legal principles, Bulso a staunch supporter of Trump, who in 2022 called for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution while pushing election lies.
Bulso aslo pushed back against the idea that Trump was involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an attack perpetrated by thousands of people sporting MAGA flags that attempted to stop the legal certification of the 2020 presidential election.
“January 6 was tragic, but it wasn't anything that President Trump orchestrated," Bulso said. "He did not at any point intend anyone to go down to the Capitol and assault Capitol Police or break into the Capitol or do any of that. Anyone who attributes to him a motive of doing that, I think, is just not being fair or historically accurate.”
That attack also saw rioters erect a gallows and chat “hang [then Vice President] Mike Pence”, and resulted in the deaths of seven people and hundreds of injuries, including to police officers. Trump has been indicted in federal court in the election subversion case, one of many legal challenges engulfing the former president.
Early voting runs from Oct. 16-31, and more information about voting in Williamson County can be found online here.
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