How Republican Rep. John Rose Found His Wife

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://prospect.org/politics/how-republican-rep-john-rose-found-his-wife/

In March 2007, 17-year-old high school senior Chelsea Doss (now Chelsea Brooke Rose), traveled four hours from Eagleville to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to participate in the state’s 79th annual Future Farmers of America convention. Over the course of three days, her Eagleville High School chapter competed in the state competition, and nine of its members, including Chelsea, won the State Superior award, a top showing. That wasn’t all. Chelsea also won the State Job Interview contest, and was even named the 2007–2008 Tennessee FFA Association state president.

Among the convention attendees was her future husband, the then vice chairman of the board of the Tennessee FFA and current Tennessee congressman John Rose.

Not even four years later, according to an engagement announcement in the now-defunct local paper the Eagleville Times, the two were married. Chelsea was at the time a 21-year-old college senior at Tennessee Technical University; John was a 45-year-old software executive with a long history of involvement in the Tennessee FFA, a board member of both the FFA and chairman of the board at Chelsea’s college.

It is a bit awkward to report on the personal details of what is evidently a happy marriage with two young children, and Rose violated no laws. But there is a broader context here. The latest fashion in conservative legislation is “don’t say gay” bills, recently passed in Florida and under consideration in more than two dozen other states, which have various ways of de facto forcing LGBT teachers to remain in the closet. Gay teachers in Texas report that an intense climate of homophobic persecution has developed over recent months.

*snip*

[SharonClark]

1. He was 45 and she was 21?

Sounds like he was grooming her from age 17 so he’s a pedophile. Where’s the GQP outrage?

[blm]

2. She went to college on the Rose Scholarship.

She was beholden to him financially, too.

[Strelnikov_]

5. Oh, come on, that's perfectly normal . . .

in the Ozarks.

[Celerity]

3. in a few years she might be saying I want a..............

The Damned - New Rose

[keithbvadu2]

4. Following Roy Moore and Trump. Role model for Matt Gaetz.

Following Roy Moore and Trump.

Role model for Matt Gaetz.