Voters just need the facts. They can draw their own conclusions.

I’ve been trying to get this email out for ages. I was going to do it last Friday, but then I was told to clear my schedule for a video shoot. My next chance was this morning.

That’s the way things have been for the last couple of weeks, ever since it was decided that I’m running a competitive campaign. 

I’ve known it in my gut since March. But it took polling to raise eyebrows in Nashville and raise the profile of this race.

According to the polling, I can win if voters know me and my opponent. To be blunt, it works to my advantage if they know me, and it works to his advantage if they don’t know him. 

Sure enough, most voters I talk to when I canvass can’t even name their state representative. They seem to assume that whoever it is holds mainstream views and is working in their best interest.

That’s not a safe assumption.

So my job going forward—at the door, and now in ads and mailers—is to speak hard truths, something I didn’t do in 2022.

After I lost that race, my opponent repeatedly thanked me for “running a clean campaign.” (Actually, he thanked me, his wife thanked me, and he thanked my husband, which was strange.) Of course I wouldn’t talk about him personally. But I need to talk about what he stands for. How can voters know, when he won’t even knock their doors? I can’t speak for him, but his policy positions, legislative record, and financial disclosures can.  

These last weeks, the ads and mailers will be rolling out, and I’ll keep having hard conversations. 

A couple of days ago I handed my literature to a man on the front porch of his small home in Sale Creek. He folded it several times and slapped it down on the railing. 

“This house doesn’t vote Democrat.” He gestured up the road. “No one around here votes Democrat.” He said rural folks are tired of being forgotten.   

I asked him if he knew the man who represents him in the State House. He said he didn’t. 

“So who are you going to vote for? The guy you’ve never met, or the person standing here on your porch?” 

He frowned. Then he grabbed my lit and smoothed it out.  

Voters just need the truth. They can draw their own conclusions

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