As the weekend began, several hundred Republicans descended on a country estate in Jonesborough to show Washington County the ‘right’ way to have a party.

On Friday evening, Washington County Mayor Dan Eldridge hosted a gathering that included some prominent members of the Republican Party from the federal, state and local levels at his home at 170 John France Road.

The event was organized by Eldridge and Jonesborough Mayor and State Republican Committeeman Kelly Wolfe, and was anticipated to be attended by as many as 500 people. Among those in attendance were government officials such as U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Gov. Bill Haslam, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, state Sen. Rusty Crowe, and local government and business leaders from Washington, Carter and Sullivan counties.

As Eldridge addressed the crowd Friday night — on the same stage that held the evening’s entertainment, the Jonesborough Novelty Band — he told Haslam that those in attendance were gathered to support both him and the region itself.

“We’re representing several different counties here tonight,” Eldridge said. “We’re here supporting you. We’re here supporting Lamar Alexander. We’re here as friends, but we are also here tonight as partners. I want everyone to know and understand that. We are here as partners in local government for the purpose of working together to promote this region.”

Though many prominent Republicans attended the event, others, such as incumbent Reps. Micah Van Huss and Matthew Hill, who represent Washington County’s 6th and 7th districts in the state House, respectively, were not invited. As the event began around 6 p.m., Eldridge explained how he determined the event’s guest list.

“This is an event for, quite frankly, for my supporters, my friends, Kelly Wolfe’s supporters, his friends and for people who want to support and encourage Lamar Alexander and Bill Haslam,” he said. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about fellowship and joining together.”

Despite the claim that the evening wasn’t about politics, around 10 minutes after Eldridge took to the stage, he introduced Phil Carriger and Clayton Stout to the crowd. Carriger and Stout are running against Hill and Van Huss, respectively.

“They are running for state representative representing Washington County, and, quite frankly, I’m excited,” Eldridge said. “I’m excited that we’ve got two gentlemen who are so qualified for this position. These guys are prepared to serve us in a way that we need right now.”

While some may think Eldridge’s support of Stout and Carriger — along with his exclusion of Van Huss and Hill — at the event denotes a rift in local Republican politics, Wolfe said in an interview before the speech that the vastness of the party’s presence in Tennessee would precipitate the occasional disagreement.

“We’re going to have some Republicans we agree with and some we don’t agree with from time to time,” Wolfe said. “We’re big enough now to where we’re going to have those kinds of disagreements. It’s just the nature of politics.”

Stout and Carriger weren’t the only Republicans to receive the crowd’s support. After Haslam took the stage, he said he thought having Alexander in the U.S. Senate made his job easier.

“It makes an incredible amount of difference to have somebody on the floor of the U.S. Senate who has sat in the governor’s office, because he understands the problems,” Haslam said. “I have a lot of people that help me in my job, but when I have a hard decision and need someone with wisdom and experience to bring some insight to it, I call Lamar Alexander.”

Once Alexander took to the stage, he asked for the support of everyone in attendance, not just for him, but for the Republican party as a whole.

“If we do our job well, and show we’re serious about governing — not just making speeches — we might govern well enough to finish the job and elect a Republican president of the United States,” he said.