wow

Tennessee GOP Lt. Gov has “no intention of stopping” his flaming admiration for young Insta-twink

 Randy McNally
Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (Photo: US Gov.)

The social media activity of a prominent Republican in Tennessee has raised eyebrows. He’s been consistently leaving love hearts and flame emojis on the thirst traps of a twinky, gay Instagram user.

Randy McNally is the 79-year-old Lieutenant Governor of the state. Last week, the Tennessee governor, Bill Lee, signed a new law banning drag performances in front of minors. According to ACLU, the GOP-controlled state is currently moving forward with 26 anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation

McNally is married to a woman and has two grown-up daughters and grandkids. Despite this, for several months, he’s been posting approving comments beneath the thirsty photo of Instagram user Franklyn McClur. TN Holler was first to break the story and it caught up with McClur to ask him about it.

First, here are screenshots of some of the messages. McNally posted them publicly from his government account.

(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)

In some, he leaves love hearts and flame emojis. In others, he posted comments, even referring to Franklyn as “Finn”, suggesting they may know each other. Under one video of Franklyn dancing in his underwear, McNally says “Love it.”

In another, McNally says, “Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine.”

(Screenshot)

“I just thought he was older and out of touch”

Franklyn, 20, grew up in Knoxville, part of the district overseen by McNally. Franklyn said he’d found it a bit random that the Lt. Gov of the state left messages on his Instagram, but he didn’t think about it too deeply as he’s not very political.

He said he and McNally became friends on Facebook a few years ago through a mutual friend. From there, McNally started following him on Instagram. They have never met in person.

“I just thought he was older and out of touch. I’ve always taken it as a compliment. I don’t dislike him or think he’s a bad person, he’s one of the only people who has consistently uplifted me and made me feel good,” Franklyn said of the messages to TN Holler.

Asked if he thought McNally’s account had been hacked, Franklyn pointed out the fact they’d been Facebook friends since around 2020. McNally had also been leaving messages on his Instagram for several months, and he’d have thought McNally’s team would have worked out sooner if he’d been hacked.

“They would be aware by now if he was hacked. It’s evident he’s not hacked.”

Franklyn stressed he appreciated McNally’s support, even if he personally didn’t agree with the state’s recent drag ban.

“I don’t hate him, I don’t dislike him. I don’t have a negative opinion on him. I’ve had a transformation since we started talking — I was more Christian, now I’m more not Christian. We were friends back before I was more openly myself. Before I was posting things more mature… If he’s hitting on me it’s real out of touch hitting on me.”

“He enjoys interacting with constituents”

The story has since blown up in the last 24 hours. A spokesperson for McNally has now issued a statement blasting the media for raising questions about the exchanges.

“Trying to imply something sinister or inappropriate about a great-grandfather’s use of social media says more about the mind of the left-wing operative making the implication than it does about Randy McNally,” they said. “As anyone in Tennessee politics knows, Lt. Governor McNally is a prolific social media commenter. He takes great pains to view every post he can and frequently posts encouraging things to many of his followers.

“Does he use the proper emoji at the proper time? Maye not,” they added. “But he enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of religions, backgrounds and orientations on social media. He has no intention of stopping.”

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