Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana served as the keynote speaker at the Tennessee Republican Party’s 2025 Statesmen’s Dinner Saturday at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. During his speech he celebrated the return of his party to national power and warned of the GOP's potential loss of power ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The 48th annual event was themed "Tennessee's Golden Age," a reference to the opening line from President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration speech — “the Golden Age of America begins right now.”

Johnson reiterated what he argued is the need to ensure the role of God in government, invoking God 24 times in his approximately 30-minute speech.

“Our freedom comes from God, and our responsibility ultimately is to Him,” Johnson said. “I

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