Real Solutions for Real Problems
Tennessee First & Families First: Fighting Poverty & Opioids by Providing Work, Economic Recovery, Educational Opportunities, Better Healthcare, Protection for Families, and Empowerment for Small Businesses
In District 38, poverty has been neglected for far too long. Everyone wants to solve the opiate crisis, address healthcare needs, improve educational outcomes for children and adults, and protect children and families - but we don’t want to address the root of the problem - a cycle of poverty.
POVERTY/LOW INCOME = POOR NUTRITION = WEAKER BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND POOR PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS = POOR EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AND MORE PEOPLE OUT OF WORK BECAUSE THEY ARE SICK AND DISABLED = INCREASED GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE NEEDS & SUBSTANCE ABUSE = HIGHER TAXATION & POVERTY
A real America First, Tennessee First position is one that brings work, economic recovery, educational opportunities, protection for families, supports our first responders, and protects small businesses. I support President Trump’s America First agenda and want to apply it here at home.
How will I fix it?
I will advocate for responsible tax cuts for honest businesses that produce full-time jobs and offer competitive wages, competitive benefits, and work/life balance. The last thing we need is ten more part-time jobs with no benefits and wages that cannot support a family with a high cost of living. Parents shouldn’t have to work multiple part-time jobs to provide for their families. Kids shouldn't have to raise themselves and grow on fast food because their parents always work.
Parents who work full-time jobs with competitive wages, competitive benefits, and work/life balance can be more active in their children’s lives—parents with more time can provide better food choices, help with their homework, monitor their children more closely for mental or physical health issues, are happier and have less health issues, less likely to engage in substance abuse, and can afford to pursue higher education or help their children pursue higher education.
Since those who aren’t worked into the ground are less likely to develop chronic illnesses, physical/mental disabilities, there will be less dependency on government assistance and less healthcare costs for families. Additionally those with less health issues will be less likely to engage in substance abuse to alleviate mental distress and chronic pain.
I will advocate for heavier criminal penalties for predators who provide our children with drugs and alcohol. The importance of a stable family has never been greater than now. Our children are faced daily with peer pressure. Enabling parents to be at home and active in their children’s lives allow parent to know who there children are associating with and protect them from outside dangers such as drugs and alcohol.
I will advocate for corporate accountability. A business that profits from harming the wellbeing of its employees and their communities should face heavy fines and penalties. Businesses should not prosper off of breaking their employees backs. Employees of large corporations often report wages that aren’t congruent with their workload—they report skeleton staffing that leaves them to perform multiple jobs that increases mental and physical strain, causing burnout. They report inadequate coverage for mandatory lunches leading to malnutrition. They report hazardous working conditions and hostile/intimidating work environments. The law allows their employers to employ wordy mutual arbitration agreements that prohibit them (the employee) from taking litigious action against their employer for failure to provide a positive/safe work environment, lunches, and their most basic human/labor rights. They are left with nothing but government hoops and channels to file a complaint through. As a result, their employers stack the record, reprimand them, fire them, and create unfavorable working conditions. The employee is left with the impossible challenge of proving retaliation in “at-will employment” state.
I will advocate for legislation that recognizes written or verbal reprimands as retaliatory in accordance with Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White (2006) in the United States Supreme Court which ruled that adverse actions need only to be material adverse enough to dissuade a reasonable employee from making or preparing to make a complaint or protected communication. I advocate for protecting employees wellbeing. They are the heart and soul of a business.
BETTER INCOME/BENEFITS = BETTER FAMILY INVOLVEMENT & NUTRITION = STRONGER FAMILIES, BRAIN DEVELOPMENT, and BETTER MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH = BETTER EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS and LESS DEVELOPMENT OF DISABILITIES = DECREASED GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE NEEDS & LESS SUBSTANCE ABUSE = LESS TAXATION & A BETTER LIFE
If we want less dependency on government assistance - we need to create jobs people can depend on while protecting the rights of workers, health of families, and create an environment in which they can thrive. Right now, the people of District 38 to remain captive to a corrupt system. I will fight the corruption.
Environmental Conservation: A Conservative Approach to Addressing Environmental Negligence, Injustice, and Tennessee’s Trash Problem
District 38 has been treated as everyone else’s dumping ground—not just figuratively, but literally. A new landfill and rail-transfer station have been proposed adjacent to an existing landfill and near a school located between Oneida and Winfield. If combined, the total acreage of both landfills would make this the second-largest landfill area in the nation to Las Vegas.
These facilities will likely create a disproportionate amount of pollution, destroy property values, prevent economic development, and poison the Big South Fork Cumberland River—the primary drinking water source for our neighbors to the north. Our children deserve an educational environment that enables learning, not one that increases the likelihood of asthma, cancer, and other chronic illnesses.
I have been active and involved in this fight since the beginning. I obtained the documentation that exposed the identities of those involved in the transaction and discovered corruption on a disturbing scale. I discovered records that exposed conflicts of interest and blatant environmental negligence. After a dedicated citizen discovered important records, I confronted the commission regarding the "disappearance" of documents indicating our compliance with the Jackson Law. I submitted this evidence to TDEC, forcing the registry to be updated to show we had adopted all past and new provisions of the Jackson Law—despite the record previously claiming it had lapsed. This was a big win in the fight against the Roberta II Landfill in District 38.
There were efforts to strip local communities and citizens of their voice. Alongside several remarkable community members, I fought to protect our district from bearing an even heavier burden of pollution. I fought to protect our economic future, our water, our air, our private property rights, and the future of our small businesses, national parks, and tourism. I went to community meetings, collected petition signatures from the community, and traveled to the Tennessee and Kentucky capitols to inform both Governors and state legislators of the threat to the Big South Fork Cumberland River.
Tennessee has a trash problem, but they cannot solve it by sacrificing the people of District 38. My Environmental Conservation & Accountability Plan draws the line.
I will support legislation that ends “zombie permits” by ensuring old permits automatically expire if they sit unpaid/delinquent or haven’t been constructed or operated on within an established timeframe. A new application = a new public hearing with modern community input.
I will continue to support efforts to protect and strengthen the Jackson Law so local governments—not Nashville bureaucrats or out-of-state trash companies—have the authority to approve or deny new landfills.
I will support legislation that establishes an offender registry so that those who have a record of environmental negligence lose the right to do business here.
I will support legislation that empowers local governments (with local input) to set fees for out-of-state trash and larger fees tied to road damage, enforcement, and water testing.
I will support legislation that protects stream buffers and requires adequate cleanup bonds so if something goes wrong, the company—not grandma on a fixed income—pays.
I will support anti-corruption legislation that establishes criminal penalties for those who sit on state or local solid waste decision boards and fail to recuse themselves from decisions wherein they have private interests.
I will support legislation to reform the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC). Our state’s environmental conservation agency should set its sights on conserving and protecting our environment—not the financial gain from landfill construction. Clearly, more oversight is needed in this department.
I will support legislation that solves Tennessee’s trash problem without creating more landfills. I support tax cuts for businesses that reduce waste and reuse/recycle what they can. The cheapest trash is the trash we never have to haul or bury.
This isn’t the Green New Deal—it’s common sense. If we are going to put Tennessee first, we need conservative leadership that defends the rights of private property owners and protects our communities from being turned into someone else’s trash can. Protecting our environment shouldn’t be a Republican or a Democrat issue. It is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and other parties agree needs more aggressive legislation. If those in Nashville can’t see the importance of protecting small communities from a disproportionate amount of pollution, they are a part of the problem—not the solution.
“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children”
Supporting Our Military by Preserving Their Strength and Protecting Their Benefits, Funding Eligibility, and Right to Serve.
Tennessee's National Guard is family to us. They're our neighbors, our kids, our brothers, our sisters, and our coworkers. They raised their right hand and signed a blank check to the United States of America. They don't join to sit aside do nothing — they join to serve.
The "Defend the Guard" bill proposed in the 113th General Assembly sounds good, but it actually cripples our National Guard, harms our troops, and places the tax burden on Tennessee taxpayers.
Under their proposal, the President would be barred from calling up our National Guard for federal missions unless Congress issues a formal declaration of war. That hasn't happened since World War II. The National Guard has deployed under authorizations for the use of military force and other federal authorizations for decades. This bill would brings that to a sudden halt.
Why this is dangerous and un-American:
Our founding fathers addressed Articles of Confederation's weak militia system by giving the federal government ability to call forth the militia when necessary. To pass such legislation is to re-construct the old problem—leaving national defense weaker.
It puts our Guardsmen's benefits on the line. The benefits our troops are entitled to — VA eligibility, federal retirement credit, some health care and training opportunities — depend on the ability to serve federally. If politicians in Nashville prevent our National Guard from being federally activated, they put our soldiers' VA benefits and long-term careers at risk. That is not "defending" the Guard - it’s destroying it.
Recruiting and retention already face extreme challenges. Young men and women don't join the National Guard just to serve during state emergencies or disasters. They join to be part of America's military — to deploy with their unit when the nation calls them. Such legislation would likely create a further decline in retention, as soldiers would leave to go active duty. It would also likely deter young men and women from joining the National Guard in the first place.
As a result of a weakened National Guard and lowered retention, our response to state emergencies or disasters will be weakened. Fewer people joining and more people leaving means fewer trained soldiers when Tennessee gets hit by tornadoes, floods, or faces other emergencies. Hurting recruiting and retention is not a problem we want or need; it means fewer boots on the ground to pull families from the water, clear roads, secure schools, and support law enforcement when things go terribly wrong.
Tennessee receives more than 95% of its National Guard budget from the federal government. Let’s play this out - if Tennessee restricts the President of the United States from using the National Guard as it was constitutionally intended - then the federal government will reallocate funding, federal military equipment, and federal training opportunities to states who’s National Guards they can use to support the mission. According to the a publication in the 2024 Blue Book, the Tennessee National Guard has 2,702 federal employees. The passage of this bill would likely mean their jobs are gone - just like that. This means Tennessee will have only two choices: be complacent with a weaker National Guard, or make Tennessee taxpayers pay more to fill the gap of federal government funding.
A Real America First, Tennessee First Position:
President Trump rebuilt our military and believes in peace through strength. If we weaken one of the most ready, flexible, tested parts of that force — the National Guard — then we destroy that vision. China and Russia would love to see American states tie their own hands and take trained soldiers off the table.
I will defend our Guardsmen's right to serve - fully - as part of the United States armed forces.
I will advocate for the protection of their VA benefits, retirement, and careers by keeping federal activation on the table.
We must keep Tennessee's Guard strong enough to answer the call of our state and the nation.
We must protect Tennessee taxpayers from being forced to cover the defense bill.
This 'Defend the Guard' bill doesn't defend our Guard — it disables them. It makes it harder for our troops to earn their benefits, it destroys recruiting and retention, and it forces Tennessee taxpayers to choose between paying more or accepting a weaker National Guard. I won't support any policy that does that.
Responsible Taxation & Fiscal Responsibility - People Over Corporate Welfare
THIS POLICY POSITION WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.
Protecting Unborn Life
I will fight to protect life. Those who are pro-choice deny the unborn of any choice at all. Poverty and poor conditions are not are not a justification for taking unborn life; they are excuses.
Protecting the Second Amendment: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed.
I will fight to support the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment was created to protect us from tyranny and government overreach. If we want to create laws that increase the difficulty to posses a gun, those laws should be made for criminals—not law abiding citizens.
Defending the First Amendment
The ability to express our thoughts and opinions about personal, social, and political issues helps to increase knowledge, understanding, innovation, creativity, critical thinking, and the development of new perspectives. The study of philosophy and the ability to make ethical decisions relies on the freedom of speech. Many philosophers were executed or silenced for speaking freely. Charlie Kirk was too.
When people, organizations, or government attempts to silence, censor, control, or deprive us of our ability to have a conversation—democracy is in great danger. These tactics are comparable to the use of propaganda by authoritarian regimes. I condemn any acts of violence towards those engaging in meaningful conversation and debate. Our citizens should experience fear when exercising the First Amendment, advocating for the protection of the Second Amendment and the protection of families, the unborn, and yes—even the First Amendment itself. Those who attempt to silence free speech are enemies to democracy. I will not support any legislation that limits your first amendment rights.
“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to publick traytors.”