The photo at the top is my favorite update from a canvasser this year. It came from our only Tennessee campaign and perfectly reflected all three words in our organizations’ names: Faith, Family, and Freedom.

Because Holly Klucarich personally ran the entire Tennessee effort—and her teams along have now surpassed 100,000 door knocks this year—I wanted to share her description of the “boot camp” up Lookout and Signal Mountain that our Wisconsin canvassers endured before all returning to Wisconsin this week. As I’ve often said, Holly could run this organization herself if needed. I just happened to survive another day.

Michele Reneau first became one of our favorite candidates when she pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Tennessee politics, defeating House Majority Leader Patsy Hazlewood. That especially caught our attention since I was the only one in U.S. history to defeat a sitting U.S. House Majority Leader in a primary.

This year Michele had hundreds of local volunteers. The one challenge was that the hardest parts of the district to reach were Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain—ironically the two areas she had lost during her upset victory by 142 votes two years ago. Holly decided the perfect training exercise for our Wisconsin canvassers would be to head to those mountains, provide Michele’s campaign with voter feedback, and simply try to keep the margins respectable in those difficult areas.

Instead, Holly’s team helped accomplish the unthinkable. Michele won both mountains on her way to an overwhelming 60-40 victory.

We especially appreciated the tremendous church support she received, particularly from Calvary Chapel. The Chattanooga Times Free Press incorrectly reported tonight – while sulking about Michelle’s win, that the church was violating federal law by supporting her. In reality, the IRS interpretation long used to silence pastors has thankfully been abandoned. While our own 501(c)(3) does not endorse candidates, churches are no longer forced into silence regarding political issues and candidates. It was encouraging to see people of faith exercising those freedoms.

The other incredible woman in the photo above with John Pudner is Hamilton County Republican Chair Gail Greene, who led an outstanding local effort while also celebrating her husband Derek Greene’s victory in another race that same evening.

The third incredible lady, pictured below, is my close friend of decades, Rhedona Rose. Rhedona headed the Tennessee Farm Bureau during the decade-plus that I ran the political operation for the Alabama Farmers Federation—one of three states where we helped Republicans take control of the legislature while I was living there.

I wrote last week that Rhedona’s brother, Congressman John Rose, might rally enough to erase what had once been a 53-point deficit, and he mounted an incredible comeback. He ultimately convinced 57 percent of to vote against the popular Marsha Blackburn, erasing an astonishing 43 points of that deficit.

The obstacle, exactly as I noted last week, was the presence of another excellent grassroots conservative candidate who connected extremely well with talk radio listeners—Monty Fritts. His 23 percent of the vote prevented Rose from consolidating enough anti-Blackburn support, leaving Rose about ten points short.

When we engineered Dave Brat’s historic upset of Eric Cantor, we erased a 50-plus-point lead as well. But one of our earliest priorities was convincing a third candidate not to run. Had that candidate remained in the race, the 55 percent of voters we ultimately united against Cantor would have been split, and Cantor almost certainly would have survived—just as the divided opposition allowed Blackburn to prevail here.

In Tennessee there were three strong Republican candidates. There were no bad choices—just as we believe there are no bad choices heading into next week’s Wisconsin Republican primary.