Biden campaign sign causing trouble for Lenoir City business

LENOIR CITY, Tenn. (WVLT)—A business in Lenoir City is attracting attention for a Biden campaign sign hanging above its front door. The issue is that the business has nothing to do with the sign.

Anyone who walks down Lenoir City’s Broadway won’t be able to miss the massive Biden—Harris sign hanging above Honey Blossom Boutique. The sign was put there by the building’s owner, and the city cannot do anything to remove it.

Owner Angie Monahan, who leases the space on Broadway, said she wants to keep politics away from her business.

“Shopping is supposed to be fun and relaxing. It’s not supposed to be political,” she said. “I just don’t make a stance one way or the other. If someone wants to ask my personal opinion, I don’t mind telling them, but that’s not good business.”

Lenoir City is in Loudon County. Taking a look at previous election results, it’s clear that the people who live there lean conservative when they hit the polls.

In the 2020 election, 73% of the vote went to Donald Trump in Loudon County. Similarly, in 2016, 76% of Loudon County voters picked the republican nominee for president.

In such a red county, Monahan said she’s already getting phone calls about the sign.

“I explained to him it was going to cost me a lot of business and that I was already catching a lot of flack for it,” she said.

According to property records, Ricky and Reba Miles own the building. Monahan said Ricky Miles refuses to take the sign down.

“He adamantly, adamantly refuses to take it down,” she said.

The thing is, Ricky Miles is fully within his right to hang the sign.

“There’s really not much we can do as far as our election sign regulation ordinance,” City Administrator Amber Kelso said. “We want to be careful because we don’t want to impede on someone’s constitutional rights for freedom of speech. That would go for whether it’s a Biden sign or a Trump sign or whether it’s some other political sign.”

Looking forward, city officials said they’re going to investigate what, if anything, can be done to make both parties happy. Part of the problem is just how quickly the situation came about.

“This is all kind of new. It literally happened overnight,” Kelso said.

Ultimately, Monahan just wants to keep customers coming into her store. She said she’s not in the business of advertising politics, no matter where she falls politically.

“I had so many people commenting saying ‘I’ll never step foot in that business,’” she said. “This is how I make my livelihood. This is how my manager makes her livelihood, and I’ve spent seven years building this business. I can’t let one sign tear it apart.”

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