We prioritize the working class by focusing on Main Street as much as Wall Street.
Wall Street is currently stabilized by 7 major tech companies, with ⅓ of the entire stock market invested in Alphabet (GOOGL; GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA).
Main Street, however, is feeling the real impact of unreliable supply chains and shifting consumer behavior. As the daughter, sister, and friend of so many small business owners, I have a front row seat to hard work, and it shouldn’t be met with economic insecurity. A good business would never offer a service, and then have you guess how much you should pay for that service. Our government should work more like a business and take the guessing game out of our tax system.
You should be able to expect what to pay, expect what you can receive, and then plan the rest of your life around those stabilized expectations.
The strength of our nation is very much tied to the strength of our economy. After 15 years in the counter-trafficking space, it is clear to me that the best way to fight economic crimes is through economic solutions. I have spent years researching and advising policy on economic empowerment solutions at the global scale, and now I’m ready to focus directly on Tennessee and our state’s hardworking citizens. If we don’t make it easier for moms and dads to have dignified jobs and then be well at home with their children, we will raise the next generation on the corners of the internet instead of in the corners of our arms.
We prioritize schools as safe and well-funded institutions of discovery.
Education should be funded, not weaponized. The 2nd Amendment should be made safer, not politicized.
The battle between Republicans and Democrats over education issues is not new, but it has escalated significantly in recent years, causing great stress to Tennessee families. In 2021, the TN Legislature passed a law allowing candidates for local school board elections, traditionally non-partisan races, to run on party platforms. In 2025, a controversial school voucher bill was passed by TN lawmakers and was rolled out with greater impact in urban areas than rural communities across the state. From 3rd Grade retention laws to increasing screen time at school, from fears surrounding school violence to a desire to protect the family unit, more parents in Tennessee are choosing alternative school options for their children.
As a former elementary educator, I drew my love for my job from the creative control of teaching excellent content standards to my students. Those who enter the teaching profession do so because they love the work. Unfortunately, Tennessee is seeing 40% less candidates graduating from educator preparation programs compared to 10 years ago. Our current technology boom is outpacing our education practices, sometimes overpowering us and sometimes paralyzing us. We can solve many problems in our schools by better equipping local school boards, centering teachers and parents in policy decisions, and raising expectations for students as reciprocal learners.
There is a public health argument for food safety regulations, but these regulatory burdens must meet with legitimate support to small farms. If farmers cannot afford to hire the staff necessary to manage federal reporting, they are forced to sell out to large-scale farming operators.
The agricultural industry is ripe with labor exploitation, but workplace raids have also led to massive lawsuits for racial profiling like the 2018 raid on a meat processing plant in Morristown, TN. What’s more, financial stress and the grief associated with losing a family farm may be having catastrophic impacts. This year alone, the U.S. has seen a 57% increase in farm bankruptcies compared to the same quarter last year, and suicide deaths among agricultural workers is now 3 times the rate of the general workforce.
Tennessee is incredibly blessed to have Farm Bureau offices in all 95 counties supporting local farmers and advocating fiercely on their behalf in Nashville. Where federal policy has imposed unrealistic financial stress on our local farms, I am interested in exploring TN-branded agricultural products that are safe for consumption and sold within the borders of our state.
My home is located 6 miles from the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. I have the honor of sharing the same Rotary Club and the same church with Farm Bureau executives, and they are well aware of the number of generational farms that are closing their businesses in Tennessee. I grew up surrounded by soybean farms in West Tennessee, and married into a family of dairy farmers who were forced to close their farming operations in the 1990s. During my local Chamber of Commerce Leadership course, I heard from farmers directly who were trying to make ends meet while their business was swept up in mounting liabilities.
We can, and we must, bring creative solutions to the men and women who manage our farmland as the heartbeat of Tennessee pride.
We prioritize human life by freeing patients and their doctors from a flawed health insurance system.
TennCare coverage has worked with remarkable success in Tennessee, with one recent report boasting a 96% satisfaction rate among recipients. As one of the oldest Medicaid managed programs in the country, TennCare provides healthcare coverage to 20% of the state’s population, 50% of the state’s births, and 50% of the state’s children.
Self-employed small business owners who utilize marketplace healthcare plans are planning for their insurance costs to rise significantly this year due to sweeping federal legislation passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill. The domino effect of this legislation will cause a catastrophic disruption on the entire balance of Tennessee’s healthcare system. With insurance premiums increasing and many times doubling, families may be forced to seek coverage outside of TennCare, and many will choose to be uninsured due to an unsteady economy.
A lack of insurance coverage leads to a lack of doctor visits. A lack of doctor visits leads to health concerns going untreated until they are significant or out of control. At this point, the patient enters into uncompensated emergency care, possibly creating a 29% increase in hospital budgets by the end of this year. When hospital budgets are pressured in this way, they have no choice but to increase their reimbursement costs to private-pay insurance companies, leading to an increased burden on the Tennesseans who do not use subsidies to help pay for insurance.
Each night, I watch my husband, Gavin, catch up on notes from his clinic visits that day. He is consistently trying to navigate the hurdles of insurance requirements while seeking excellent patient care. He spends a significant amount of time learning which medications are covered by which insurance companies so that he can save his patients the frustration and disappointment after he has written a prescription they cannot afford. I hear so many stories from Gavin and his fellow physicians (all told within the boundaries of HIPAA protections), where their ability to care for their patients is challenged by insurance providers blocking drug coverage, imaging approvals, or treatment authorizations.
All Tennesseans deserve the right to health, and it is the role of the government to hold systems accountable when they block citizens from accessing that basic human right.
