Candidate Alert: Progressive Primary Winner Heidi Campbell In Tennessee

Blue America endorsed one candidate last week in the primaries for the Tennessee state Senate, Heidi Campbell... and she won. Now she's gearing up to face Republican incumbent Steve Dickerson, the last Republican still representing a Nashville district in the state legislature. The largely suburban district wraps around Nashville like a donut with a small bite taken out of it in the southeast and includes small towns like Berry Hill, Forest Hills, Belle Meade, Goodlettsville, Ridgetop, Lakewood and Oak Hill, Campbell having been mayor of for the last 6 years. Before being elected mayor she was in the music business-- and in a band before that. The issues that have motivated her campaign include education, Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform, LGBTQ, and immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, Women's rights, animal rights, environmental issues, medical marijuana and legalization, getting money out of politics, and electoral reform.

This seat, SD-20, may be held by a Republican but it backed Hillary against Trump in 2016 and Bredesen against Blackburn in 2018. Because of her success as a mayor in one of the more conservative parts of the district, Campbell commands some purple support. She has already been fighting against scary legislation like the fetal heartbeat bill which illegalized abortion, and instigated a protracted legal battle. Republicans are banking on one of these bills eventually wending its way up to SCOTUS, and we need to fight hard to get Democrats like her elected to run interference. She has also told me that she intends to work hard to flip other seats once she’s elected. This is a census years and redistricting cycle. No one thinks the Tennessee Senate is going to flip from red to blue in November but replacing Dickerson with Heidi Campbell is a step in the right direction-- and will be another strong voice against GOP gerrymandering. Please read her guest post below and consider contributing to her election by clicking on the Blue America 2020 star legislative thermometer on the right and giving what you can.

Precedented Times
-by Heidi Campbell

A friend posted a meme yesterday that said “I miss precedented times”-  and at first I laughed and started to veer into the nostalgia of the Obama days, when life felt more like it was written by Aaron Sorkin than by an illiterate 13-year-old bully, but then I really started to think about what we’ve been through this past few years; the dismantling of our institutions, the bizarro alternative universe of FOX and Breitbart, and the slate-of-hate that somehow doesn’t bother at least a third of our country. I started to think about the “me too” movement, the unforgivable incarceration of immigrant families, and the criminal negligence of the government Covid response, and I realized that we must embrace this unprecedented time for the opportunity it presents.

In precedented times, we were not addressing many of the problems that have pervaded our society since our country was founded. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the systemic racism that plagues every facet of our lives. Education, affordable housing, healthcare, criminal justice, and so many other issues are so much more challenging for our African American community, and we need to say it and own it; Black Lives Matter!

I truly hope that we are in the early stages of a revolution that will bring meaningful change, and that we will elevate the voices of black leaders on this issue, and that we will learn from them about how we can work to become an anti-racist society going forward.

As a Mayor of a quasi-conservative city in a larger progressive city, I interact with people on a regular basis who believe that the statues of confederate generals in our cities are important historical monuments that should be protected. I live in a city that has streets named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Robert. E. Lee. I worked for three years on a multi-modal path down a major artery in my city, and was confronted by a group of angry neighbors who told me that it would bring “the wrong sorts of people” into our city.

As a state senator, I will proudly and full-throatedly add my voice to the rising chorus of people across our nation who are saying that this is not acceptable anymore. We must do all that we can to make sure that this is not a precedented time, and we must fight to get others elected who will do the same.

Keeda Haynes: "It Is Time For Change And I Am That Change."

Tennessee is spiking really badly right now. An anti-mask governor and legislature have given the state 59,546 COVID cases-- including 1,955 new cases on Friday, 1,460 new cases on Saturday-- and a rapidly rising 8,933 cases per million Tennesseans. The governor, Bill Lee is a clueless Trump fanatic, refuses to mandate masks and the Tennessee General Assembly... well, the state Senate has 5 Democrats and 28 Republicans and the state House has 26 Dems and 73 Republicans-- obviously a full-fledged chapter of the Trump Southern Death Cult.





They're not worried about the pandemic overwhelming Tennessee hospitals; they're worried about maintaining a memorial to savage mass murderer and KKK first Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest in the state capitol where they can all admire it everyday and be infused with its Fort Pillow Massacre inspiration. A friend of mine in the legislature tells me they're also plotting the next state gerrymander. With a very good chance that conservative Blue Dog (and proto-Republican) Jim Cooper is going to be defeated by Keeda Haynes, the Fort Pillow Massacre fans intend to eliminate TN-05 (basically the strongly blue city of Nashville and its suburbs) by dividing it up among several Republican districts, exactly what Tom DeLay did to Austin.





Why would they suddenly do this to Nashville? Look closely-- Keeda is a woman; Keeda is progressive; Keeda is African American... and not likely to celebrate the Fort Pillow Massacre with them... or wink and look the other way as some conservative Southern Democrats do.

"I believe that those of us that are closest to the problem are closest to the solution," Keeda told me recently. "I understand and have personal experience with a lot of these issues that we are now demanding be changed in the criminal justice system. Experiencing and seeing these disparities first hand, I personally wrote Jim Cooper a letter regarding the various issues and volunteered to work with him and other members of Congress to address these issues. He met with me but did nothing about these issues. That was over 4 years ago, when he had the opportunity to be on the forefront of criminal justice reform and to fight for our community and our issues and not when it became 'popular' to do so. Nashville deserves better than this. We need a leader who understands the issues the community is facing and will actually lead when it comes to those issues."

As a former public defender, Keeda has fought against all of these racist laws, policies and procedures in the criminal justice system from the wealth based detention-- known as money bail-- to sentencing laws that disproportionately impact black and brown communities. She told that when police officers strip searched her client on the side of the road, when they kicked her client in the face and lied about it; when they profiled her Black and Hispanic clients just to make traffic stops, she filed grievances and complaints against police offers to ensure police accountability, and she has advocated with the community and voted for the police oversight board in Nashville. Fighting systemic racism isn’t new to Keeda. For her this is personal. "Accountability and Justice," she has been saying for a very long time, "are long overdue." Here's what she said Saturday:

None of us can deny that a shift is happening in our country right now. And to move our country and the conversations forward, we need someone who has always been fighting to dismantle systemic racism in every area and that brings passion and determination to that fight.

To see the change that we want to see, we must acknowledge that our current leadership, as nice and as respected as he may be, doesn’t fit this moment and can’t help move our community and country forward.

For the past 57 years in this district, we have been represented by 5 wealthy white men… Richard Fulton, Clifford Allen, Bill Boner, Bob Clement to our current representative Jim Cooper, who has been in this seat since 2003. This can no longer work for us.

This election allows us the opportunity to actually have someone that is more representative of who we in this district, someone that will actually be a leader and passionately fight for our issues and that will make sure that our voices are heard and that we have a seat at the table.

It is time that we had a Black person representing us in this district, it is time that we had a female U.S. Representative from the state of TN and it is time that we had someone elected to Congress with a felony on their record.

It is time for change and I am that change.

There are a lot of reasons to support Keeda-- the issues she's running on; her strength of character; to combat systemic racism; to combat gerrymandering-- and believe me, if the Fort Pillow Massacre legislature tries getting rid of her, this will be a case that will wind up in the Supreme Court. Please consider turning that support into a financial contribution. Early voting is just getting started in her race and she has a lot of ground to cover when it comes to getting her message out. The Blue America "Primary A Blue Dog" thermometer on the right will take you to a page where you can watch her campaign video and, if you want to, contribute to that campaign.

New Blue America Congressional Endorsement-- In Nashville, Tennessee

People seem surprised when they find out that Nashville is a Democratic city and that Tennessee's 5th congressional district is safely blue. Obama won the district both times he ran. In 2016 Trump took just 38.2% of the vote- and in Davidson County (Nashville), he only got 34.3%). In 2018, Davidson County backed Democrats in both the gubernatorial race and the U.S. Senate race-- and performed at a D+43 level to reelect longtime incumbent Jim Cooper 177,923 (67.8%) to 84,317 (32.2%). Virtually all of Nashville's elected officials are Democrats including the mayor (John Cooper-- Jim Cooper's brother and their father was a former Tennessee governor) and the 10 state Reps.

TN-05 has a solid PVI of D+7, but Cooper is a Blue Dog, best known for his conservative politics. When he was first elected, in 1982, Nashville wasn't part of his rural district but he gave up that district to run, unsuccessfully, for the U.S. Senate and when the Nashville district opened up, he spent nearly a million dollars of his family's money to buy the seat. He's never had a serious challenger since then. Republicans are happy with his conservative politics and Democrats have been afraid to challenge him in a primary.

Until now! Meet Keeda Haynes, a top-notch progressive reformer who vigorously backs Medicare-For-All, the Green New Deal, a $15 living wage, a national cap on rent and home price increases, top to bottom student loan reform, H.R. 40 (Sheila Jackson Lee's bill to set up a reparations commission), marijuana legalization, a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented individuals currently living in the U.S., competitive prescription drug costs and a whole platform built on solid progressive positions. This week, Blue America has endorsed Keeda and I asked her to introduce herself with a guest post-- and the brand new video directly below-- in the hope that everyone else would be as impressed as I was when I've been speaking with her by phone over the last couple of weeks. Please consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America Primary-A-Blue-Dog thermometer on the right. This is a very special candidate who would make an extraordinary member of Congress. Please dig as deep as you feel comfortable digging!





I Am That Change
-by Keeda Haynes

Many Americans recently have recoiled in horror at the filmed slaying of 25-year-old, African-American Ahmaud Arbery by two vigilantes in Glynn County, Georgia. Another tragedy of epic proportions also occurred in Louisville when police officers-- without knocking and announcing their presence-- fatally shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an emergency room tech, to death. Sadly, the cases of Ahmaud Armery and Breonna Taylor are not isolated incidents in the United States of America. They are pristine examples of a criminal justice system that too often disrespects and devalues the lives of African-Americans and other persons of color.

But, beyond these high-profile killings of African-Americans, countless millions languish away in prison, shackled by a criminal justice system that locks them away and throws away the key. It’s what Michelle Alexander has called the New Jim Crow-- the systematic oppression of entire groups of people. The human toll of mass incarceration takes on many shapes and forms and no longer can we turn a blind eye to it.

Many care little for our prisoners, assuming a person is in prison because of their criminal conduct. But a prison sentence should not be a death sentence…but that is what it has turned into for the hundreds of inmates that have died in custody due to the coronavirus. They were someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, daughter or son and their lives had value. Our prison population is one of the most vulnerable and they deserve to be protected.

When I sat on the top bunk of my 3x8 prison cubicle in Alderson, West Virginia, looking back over the range at 100 other women, recently sentenced to seven years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, I thought to myself” what if I die here.” The possibility of that happened back in 2003 wasn’t nearly as possible as it is today. Having served nearly four years in federal prison for a crime I did not commit, I know that fear, confusion and frustration that many incarcerated individuals are feeling right now. Only through my faith did I persevere and emerge from prison an even stronger individual, hell-bent on devoting my life to public service and fighting for those in need.

After my release in 2006, I went to law school, passed the bar exam, and became a public defender in Nashville, Tennessee. I advocated in the trenches for those society has considered the least of these amongst us. Every day in the courtroom, I knew the difficulties my clients faced because I had sat in their shoes and felt those same feelings of desperation.

Now, my public service has taken a different direction after working as a public defender for the past six and a half years, but my fight, passion and determination remain. I am running for Congress in TN-05 and I will take the same level of passion and determination to Washington to advocate on behalf of the community of District 5. I will stand alongside the community, fighting daily for access to quality health care, affordable housing and criminal justice reform. I will provide them with equitable access in government decision making and will make sure their voices are heard.

Armaud Arbery shouldn’t have been killed while jogging. Breonna Stewart shouldn’t have been killed in her sleep. Hundreds should not have died in jails and prisons. I shouldn’t have served nearly four years in prison for a crime I did not commit.

It is time that we in TN-05 have someone in Congress that understands that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world; that mass incarceration disproportionally affects black, brown and low- income communities; and, that we need to address the racist policies and procedures that have caused this large disparity.

It is time for change in Congress. I am that change.

A Progressive Candidate In Nashville… Meet Mary Mancini

Let me introduce you to David Bither, a senior vice-president of Nonesuch Records, where he signed Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Ry Cooder, Buena Vista Social Club, T Bone Burnett and the Black Keys. I first got to know David when he worked at Elektra Records and helped launch successful careers for a diverse group of incredible artists, from Laurie Anderson, Youssou N'Dour and Sam Phillips to Billy Bragg, Tracy Chapman and Allen Toussaint. One of our old colleagues from the music business, Mary Mancini, is running for a Nashville state senate seat and I asked David if he'd write about the race for DWT. Here's this report:

As some of you might know, Blue America’s Howie is Howie Klein, current tireless advocate for progressive candidates across the country but in an earlier life an important figure in the music business, first as the founder of the noted SF independent label 415 Records and later as a key part of the Sire and Reprise labels. It was in that world where, as part of Elektra Records as the late ‘80s turned to the ‘90s, I met Howie. It is also when I first made the acquaintance of Mary Mancini.

Mary worked for Elektra as a youngster, first in publicity and later in A&R (artists and repertoire), the department where artists are signed to a label and records are made. She impressed me in those days as being smart, articulate, passionate…a good spirit and a thoughtful influence at a label known at the time for being the home of an adventurous roster of artists that ranged from the Pixies and 10,000 Maniacs to Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet to Metallica and Bjork.

Mary moved on, literally, to Nashville. At first she remained true to her music roots, owning and operating Lucy’s Record Shop, a prominent music venue and record store. She also married Kurt Wagner, leader of the great Nashville alt-rock band Lambchop. She worked at two local technology startups. She became part of her new community.

I lost touch with Mary, hearing from old friends that she was doing good work in Nashville. Then one night, to my surprise, I saw her familiar face backstage at a Billy Bragg concert in NYC (what better evidence that Mary’s heart was still very much in the right place?). We caught up and I found out more about what Mary had been doing in Nashville.

It's not easy to be a Democrat in Tennessee. There are pockets of blue believers across the state-- this is the home of the Gores, after all-- but it has become increasingly difficult in recent decades to imagine the state producing a national Democratic leader. It was in this environment that Mary co-hosted Nashville’s local progressive talk radio show, Liberadio! with Freddie O’Connell. It is where she co-produced the documentary film Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, and became a staunch voting rights activist, organizing large scale voter registration drives and creating Davidson County’s largest poll watching operation.

It is where she organized labor rallies with hundreds of union members and lobbied to stop Governor Haslam’s attacks on Tennessee’s worker’s compensation system.

And it is where, for the past three years, Mary served as the Executive Director of Tennessee Citizen Action, a progressive non-profit advocacy organization, where she helped lead the fights to protect workers who are injured on the job, to stop the attacks on teachers’ unions, and repeal the photo ID to vote law. She was a guest on MSNBC to discuss the photo ID to vote law, she published columns in newspapers across the state, and she organized Tennessee’s first progressive priority day at the state capitol.

She has spoken with a voice that reflects not just her commitment to progressive policies but also her experiences before she became involved in politics. When she speaks about issues that affect working men and women, she knows what she’s talking about because she’s been there. She’s been a temp worker, knowing what it’s like not to be sure a paycheck will cover your bills at the end of the month. She’s owned her own small business, and seen large corporations get tax breaks, while her business struggled to keep its doors open. She’s known what it’s like to not have access to quality affordable healthcare and when she speaks about the importance of expanding Medicare, she speaks from experience, having paid an astronomical price for insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Many Tennessee Democrats have become demoralized or apathetic because they are convinced that there is nothing that can stop the Republican legislature’s right wing agenda. They see the now-familiar Republican priorities of increasing tax breaks for corporations but not increasing the minimum wage for working Tennesseans; of expanding access to guns but not healthcare; of privatizing public schools at the expense of students and teachers.

The Tennessee State Senate has become a bastion of ultra-right wing ideology, a testing ground for ALEC inspired legislation and a place where “the wants of large corporations are put before the needs of the people of Tennessee” and big business and Tea Partiers take priority over the needs of all Tennesseans.

All of this has persuaded Mary that to change the priorities of the state legislature will require Tennessee Democrats to elect leaders who stand without reservation for shared Democratic values, leaders with a transparent agenda, who can inspire Democrats to take action and help them do it.

In her words: “If we want lasting improvements in the lives of Tennesseans, we must elect leaders not to simply sit in the senate chamber as just another politician, but to stand up on the floor as an advocate for Tennesseans who need a voice. We have been silenced for too long, and it’s time for us all to stand up for what we believe in.”

So…Mary is running for the State Senate in Tennessee’s 21st District. Due to gerrymandering it is a heavily Democratic district; the primary will almost certainly elect the next State Senator from the 21st. The seat is currently held by Senator Doug Henry, who is retiring at the end of the current legislative session. Mary has been endorsed by SEIU Local 205 and the Women’s Campaign Fund, a non-partisan national network dedicated to achieving parity for women in public office.

To return to a musical message: Nashville has in recent years become home to artists and styles of music that are proudly alternative and independent. It is the home not just of Music Row and the commercial country music establishment but also of the Americana Music movement, of the Black Keys and Jack White and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It is becoming ever more progressive a musical home; it can be the same politically. Mary Mancini offers a fresh and committed voice.

Mary is Blue America's first-ever endorsed candidate from Nashville, a city we all love. You can contribute to her campaign here and you learn more about it at her official website. Supporting Mary means building a progressive farm team in a state that really needs one. Remember, solidly blue Nashville-- in 2012 Obama won Davidson County 138,899 (59%) to 94,464 (40%)-- has a dreadful Republican-leaning Blue Dog congressman, Jim Cooper, who gets away year after year without a primary. Here's a debate she had in 2011 with far right Hate Talk Radio host Steve Gill on his insane Republican Party talk show: