Since announcing my campaign in March, even in the midst of an especially difficult time for our community, the response to my candidacy has been outstanding. Across the city, folks want a leader with empathy and energy, a strong communicator focused on solutions. Nashvillians want stability not the status quo, someone who will step up and meet our challenges.
I am grateful to everyone who has helped make the start of my campaign to serve Nashville such a success. You’re attending events, making contributions, telling your friends. Keep spreading the word! We’re building something special together.
Nashville has been needing some good news, and we received it on Monday when a three-judge panel ruled unanimously in the city’s favor, agreeing that the “home rule” provision of our state constitution prohibits the legislature from targeting Metro Nashville and creating confusion in an already in-progress election. With an injunction in place, we are now almost certain to have races for a 40-member council, with 35 district and five at-large seats, per the Metro Charter, our city’s constitution. Nashvillians had their say on the size of the Council, just five years ago, in a referendum. Hopefully this positive turn-of-events will encourage more restraint by the state legislature’s Republican supermajority, which has lately targeted our city with overreaching bills, punching and grabbing at Nashville.
Standing up to bullies is the best strategy, and I have always been someone who will stand and speak for what is right. I do not suffer fools or abide hypocrisy, but I am a constructive person. I am a bridge builder, not a bridge burner, and I will bring this strength to my service as vice mayor
Also on Monday, the Metro Council voted unanimously to return House District 52 Representative Justin Jones to his seat in the legislature, from which he had been unjustly expelled this past Thursday. The “Tennessee Three” had taken to the floor of the state house to amplify the voices of youth and parent protestors galvanized by the recent shooting at the Covenant School in Green Hills, and now sadly again, at a Louisville bank.
Nashvillians are saying enough is enough. I have received a tidal wave of calls and emails from constituents to the left, right and center politically asking what they can do to help end gun violence. In district service, I have always listened closely to a wide variety of perspectives to better understand people’s thinking and help advance solutions, and I will bring this skill to my service as vice mayor.
Please join me and Voices for a Safer Tennessee at safertn.org in signing their nonpartisan petition for common-sense gun-safety policies and registering for their Linking Arms for Change event on April 18. Then contact your friends in surrounding counties and encourage them to do the same and contact their state representatives. Follow State Rep. Caleb Hemmer in support of his bipartisan legislative effort to require secured storage of guns in vehicles and boats–these thefts have been rising all across Nashville since the state implemented more permissive policies. “Guns everywhere for everyone” do not make our communities safer.
I commend Governor Lee for taking an important step on Tuesday with his Executive Order on background checks and encouraging the legislature to implement judicial orders of protection, so that people who are a danger to themselves and the community, like the Covenant shooter, no longer have such easy access to guns. But we have more work to do. I have been speaking up about these issues for years, and will continue to do so as vice mayor. Speaking the truth is not partisan.
The Metro Council is back in session next Tuesday and voting on the Titans stadium. At our last meeting, I called for a one-meeting deferral and a public hearing because your voice matters, and financial terms were not yet finalized when the East Bank Stadium Committee held community listening sessions in the fall. My motion for a public hearing failed by one vote, but I remain dedicated to ensuring that the full implications of this deal are understood and all voices are heard.
I am prepared to take on our city’s biggest challenges and represent the Metro Council and Nashville as vice mayor, but I need your support to serve. Will you consider making a contribution to help our grassroots efforts?
On Monday, our campaign reported a strong first month of fundraising, raising a third more dollars overall with three times the total number of donors as my opponent–and we’re just getting started! The many mayoral candidates are reporting hundreds of thousands, millions even, raised. And while Nashville has a “mayor-dominant” system, the checks and balances of good government mean it matters who your vice mayor is, so please invest in this race!
I am determined to win with a diverse team of voters and donors. Thank you for your consideration and continued support!