“District 46 needs a financially responsible representative
who believes children and families are more important
than big businesses and special interest groups.” ~ Joni Cochran

Education

The Tennessee General Assembly wants to destroy public education.  One of their members has said as much quite bluntly.  Being successful in life requires a robust public education system.  My personal story illustrates how a strong public education is the key to freedom and economic independence, but the journey was not without traps.  I had poor grades in the early years, and I don’t have fond memories of school then, but my school experience changed in the fourth grade.  My fourth-grade teacher sparked my love for reading, and my sixth-grade teacher sparked my love for math. 

Because my teachers found that spark for me, I excelled in college and earned successive promotions in the retail tax business, culminating as Regional Director, with P&L responsibility for over $45 million in revenue, 122 retail locations, 14 direct reports, and over 2,000 seasonal employees.  In 2009, I moved to Tennessee to open a The UPS Store franchise, which I built from the ground up and sold after nearly 8 years in business.  Public education made that kind of economic success possible for me.  Then, in 2019, I enrolled in a Montessori teacher training program and earned Early Childhood teaching credentials.

While working in a classroom brought the importance of a quality education full circle for me, what isn’t obvious, though, is the social and economic impact that public education had for me, for other women like me, and for men, too.  To be blunt, public education was my ticket out of a bleak existence.

Repealing Taxes

I am running because we deserve a sensible and responsive representative who understands that the tax on groceries and infant products must be repealed now.  Taxing you and me on living our lives and raising our families instead of taxing billionaire corporations on the record-breaking profits they earn is cruel and despicable.

Families need to be able to thrive, not just survive. Extremists, including my opponent, continue to give rich and out-of-state corporations tax breaks after tax breaks, but not Tennessee families. They pat themselves on the back for the three-month grocery sales tax holiday we had last year, but they never say anything about the increase in the state gasoline tax that occurred at the same time. 

If that isn’t enough, Clark Boyd and his extremist colleagues like to talk about how fiscally responsible the state is, but just how responsible is their leadership when teachers and nurses pay a higher tax rate than billionaires and billion-dollar corporations?  How responsible is it to give $1.9 billion in corporate handouts while Tennessee has the second-highest inflation rate in the country?  And how responsible is it to have the highest per capita rate of hospital closures, record traffic congestion, and be ranked 45th in the country for student funding?

The regressive tax structure in our state rigs our entire tax code in favor of the ultra-rich at the expense of working families, and it must stop!

Gun Safety

I am a gun owner who fully supports the 2nd Amendment and the rights it conveys to us as citizens of the United States, but I am gravely concerned about your and my ability to live our lives free from gun violence.  I also believe in gun owners exercising responsibility when it comes to handling guns and storing them.

I spent only four years teaching in the classroom, but it brought home a reality that our teachers live with, but few talk about openly.  What would I do if an active shooter came to my school? One day in early March 2023, I observed the children working and thought about the “drill” we would have later that morning.  Children move very quickly, but they can’t outrun a bullet.  If the children didn’t move fast enough, would I be able to shield them?  Would I be able to distract the shooter long enough for them to get to safety?  What would happen if none of that worked?

Then Covenant happened, and I observed the lack of action our legislature took in the aftermath, including one legislator who asked a protesting high school student, “What kind of gun would you prefer to be shot with?” as if being shot at school is inevitable.  It was at that moment I decided to run for office. 

Clark Boyd and his extremist colleagues voted to prohibit any municipality or county from passing Extreme Risk Protection Orders while refusing to pass one statewide.  State House Speaker Cameron Sexton told a group of Wilson County residents last October that a person who wants to kill someone with a baseball bat is no different from someone who wants to kill using a gun.  I wonder how many people the Covenant school shooter would have injured if she had had a baseball bat instead of a high-capacity firearm?

Since 2010, the Tennessee General Assembly has established a racist, anti-female, and “profits over people” agenda that now includes sacrificing school safety to appease the gun lobby.  I am not willing to risk my granddaughter’s life or her freedoms to fall in line with such an agenda.

Freedoms

I grew up in a time when girls didn’t have equal opportunities in education and sports, when gay people lived in the shadows, and when women earned 59 cents on the dollar that men earned for doing the same work while carrying all the responsibilities for raising children without any of the economic and legal rights that ensured financial security.  Extremists in our state government are trying to turn back the clock, and Clark Boyd is helping them do it.

The idea of equality is simple:  Everyone has the same rights as everyone else; everyone should be treated the same under the law.

The Tennessee legislature is attacking women, transgender people, the poor, people of color, and anyone who doesn’t get in line with their way of thinking by attacking the things that enable us to exercise our rights.  Consider these examples.  They passed a law that would allow guns inside Wilson County schools without us knowing who is carrying a firearm.  Thankfully, our director of schools and sheriff publicly said they oppose this.  Clark Boyd and his extremist colleagues have taken from parents their right to do what they believe is correct for their transgender children.  They also passed laws regulating what teachers can and can’t say, what they can and can’t teach, and which books must be removed from our school libraries, many of them classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Catcher in the Rye.”  They tried – and are actively working to try again in 2025 – to pass a statewide school voucher scam that will lead to economic and racial discrimination. 

The GOP super-majority refused to expand Medicaid, which led to the closing of 13 rural hospitals.  Then, they passed laws that restricted women’s access to reproductive healthcare.  Pregnancy is not foolproof, but they think it’s as easy as stepping off a log.  Extremists don’t care about the gut-wrenching decisions women must make when pregnancies go wrong.  Clark Boyd co-sponsored the law that stripped abortion care from women.

A woman’s entry into motherhood should not be decided by a rapist, nor should a child be required to become a mother when she isn’t old enough to vote, drive a car, own a gun, serve in the military, or drink beer.