The Issues: 

  • Term Limits
  • War On Drugs and Marijuana Legalization
  • Simplify Legislation
  • Standing Up For Individual Moral Values
  • Strengthening our Rural Economy
  • COVID-19 and Pandemic Response
  • Creating Jobs
  • Maintaining Law and Order
  • Ending Illegal Immigration
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Taxes and Spending
  • Keeping our Troops home

 

Term Limits

TERM LIMITS

When our founding fathers started this country, they were normal, average citizens, with a call to serve their country and community. Sometime in the past century, “Politician” became a career path. Career politicians are destroying our country. Their main job has changed from serving our country to serving their careers and interests. They do what they can to keep their career going through the next election cycle. The only way to fix this is by enacting term limits. When elected, one of my first proposals will be to implement term limits. Our president is limited to 2 terms to prevent them from building too much power. The real power of the government is in the House of Representatives and the Senate. As of 2018, the average length of time a federal congressperson is in office is 9.4 years, with the Senate being 10.1. Presently, there are 14 federal congressional representatives and four senators who have been in office longer than I have been alive. My proposal will be to limit both offices at 12 years, 6 terms for Congress and 2 terms for Senate.

WAR ON DRUGS AND MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

The War on Drugs has failed. It needs to be ended with a new approach attempted to solve this crisis. Addiction is not a criminal problem, it is a medical problem. Marijuana is not the “gateway” drug that was preached to me as a child. As a combat veteran with many friends who have benefited from this treatment, there is no way they should face potential jail time for just trying to treat their ailments from their time in service to our country. I fully support the legalization of marijuana (THC), as well as Psilocybin. I also support pardoning all persons charged with crimes relating to either of these chemicals. These efforts will improve community relations with law enforcement officials.

War on Drugs
War on Drugs

Simplify Legislation

In 1948, the average length of a bill passed by Congress was 2.5 pages. In 2013, the last data I could find, that average increased 10 fold to 20 pages. In the news constantly these days are bills brought to congress containing thousands of pages. What is in these bills you may ask? Not many people know because they are so long, no one takes the time to read them. Once elected, one of my first proposals will be a bill to require all bills only contain the topic in which they are titled. 

STANDING FOR INDIVIDUAL MORAL VALUES

I do not believe that as a politician, I have a right to tell you or anyone else what your morals or beliefs should be. I personally believe life begins at conception. I also believe that politicians have no right to be involved in conversations between a man or woman, and their doctor. I believe marriage is two people that love each other, and is a promise to God, not of any business of myself or anyone else. I believe that you should be able to worship whoever or whatever is it that you believe in. I believe we have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, which shall not be infringed. I pledge to fight against any arbitrary ban of certain types of firearms, or firearm accessories. I will fight for you and do what is best for the 81st District, not Nashville or Washington.

Moral Values
Economics

STRENGTHENING OUR RURAL ECONOMY

I am a blue collar worker. Coming out of high school, it was preached to me that going to college is the only way to a better life. I was a tire technician the summer after my senior year, making around $10 an hour changing tires and oil at a tire store. From there I went to college, graduating with $65,000 in student loans and an Associates of Science. I moved back home, getting a job as an apprentice home theater installer, making $15 per hour. Over the following months, my work ethic lead me to branch off into my own business, using the skills I learned as an apprentice to work for myself. Following the economic downturn in 2008, and the intensifying situation in Iraq, I felt called to service and enlisted into the US Army. Following my time in the military, I returned to blue collar work as an industrial maintenance technician. For many that live here in west Tennessee, and elsewhere, a $40,000+ piece of paper will do nothing for your life. Our children are being burdened with previously unfathomable amounts of debt to be qualified for jobs that don’t exist. I pledge to promote the trade and agricultural industry and petition businesses to end requirements for degrees for entry level positions. Blue Oval city will be here very soon. While i don’t agree with the amount of subsidies we provided to bring them here, it will definitely benefit our community. We need our workforce to be ready. 

COVID-19 AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE

Since 2020, our nation and world have dealt with a crisis unprecedented in our lifetimes, as COVID-19 has infected over 58 million people. Here in the United States, the pandemic has revealed a tale of two Americas: the one driven by career politicians in Washington, and the one created by the American people. The American people have risen to the occasion: essential workers have delivered necessary goods and services, and neighbors have looked after one another to make sure they remain safe. Unfortunately, the federal, state, and local governments cannot say the same. The government scrambled for answers, imposing mask mandates and stay-at-home orders, many of which were arbitrary or contradictory. There is nothing wrong with simply stating “I don’t know,” rather than just making up rules and procedures to provide an illusion of safety. Emergency orders were extended by 2 week periods, because once those in control gain power, they will seldom relinquish that power. This was clearly seen with the “delta variant.” Federal mask mandates are once again on the table. Mom and Pop stores were forced to lock their doors while Walmart right next door was open for business. Being required to wear a mask from a door of a restaurant, walk 10-15 feet inside, just to sit down and remove my mask was one of the silliest things I have done in my adult life. Locally owned bars were closed because they didn’t gross 50% of their revenue from food sales, because eating food while drinking with protect you from an airborne virus.
Because of these government failures, tens of millions of Americans were laid off and thousands of businesses have closed. In both cases, those changes could be permanent. The American people are not stupid, and when presented with facts and guidance, are capable of making decisions for themselves, rather than “mandates” be given for safety.
Then, in the wake of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Americans were again let down. As families have had to stretch their dollars, the federal government has been more fiscally irresponsible than ever. $5.5 trillion in government spending, in our country’s most dire time of need, was filled with waste and gave away billions in corporate handouts. While some Americans received a $1200 check and extra unemployment benefits, nearly 90% of the stimulus spending this year went to government cronies and special interests. Inflation has surged uncontrollably during 2021. Multi-trillion dollar bailouts did not “create” American jobs or re-open businesses that have been permanently shuttered. They just added to the federal debt that our children’s children will be paying off.
On the other hand, retailers and local communities stepped in where government failed. They delivered hand sanitizer, personal protective equipment, food, and water to those in need. While the pandemic brought out the worst in government, it brought out the best in everyday people.
When I am elected, I will fight to make sure that the federal government does not bungle and worsen a situation like this ever again. We must reduce red tape and regulation so that medicine and treatments, as well as testing, can get to patients at all times. As we have seen, days, weeks, and months can mean dozens, hundreds, and thousands of lives saved or lost.
In the meantime, we cannot stimulate the economy through more taxing, borrowing, and spending. I instead would simply let Americans keep more of their money. What we are experiencing now is much more than just a “rainy day.” But Americans have shown that they can save and invest for emergencies much better than any government.
Government failures may have created this situation, but as seen throughout history, it is the people who will find the solutions.

covid19
Jobs

CREATING JOBS

As a former business owner, I understand the importance of having an environment that allows job creators to create and grow businesses. COVID-19, and the incredibly hurtful policies that came with it, destroyed millions of small businesses. I pledge to you now I will fight against any regulations or acts to close any business by threat of force from our government.
It is long past time to get government off your backs and out of your business. I pledge to dig through the law books and remove any biased or unfair regulations. You don’t need big brother looking over your shoulder and you definitely don’t need anyone in Nashville telling you how to run your business. I also fully support “Food Freedom” and not only allowing, but encouraging our local producers to sell their products directly to the consumer without government interference.

MAINTAINING LAW & ORDER

The safety of our country and community will be my top priority. I fully support our men and women in blue, and will make sure they have the tools to do their job. I will not stand by and watch rioters and looters destroy our communities, as we saw in the headlines of 2020. Our police will not be defunded, but our communities need more support than police alone can provide. I pledge to push for increasing police budgets to allow more training and staffing for these unique situations. We need to take a real look at mental health and how police respond to a mental health crisis. I support the ending of using no-knock raids in most, but not all situations, as they provide a significant tactical advantage which can at times be required for our officer’s safety.

Education

EDUCATION

Local folks know best – our teachers don’t need any national mandates. I oppose Common Core. Only the government can make math more complicated than it already is. We don’t need interference from Nashville or Washington in our local school systems. I graduated from a public school, and fully support public schools. Higher education needs to be reevaluated. I fully support the TN Promise program, which provides “last dollar” support to students pursuing a trade certification and associate degrees.

HEALTHCARE

It is clear that the current system is not working. For decades, politicians in Washington, D.C. have insisted that it’s the fault of the free market, and that, therefore, we need to go to a single-payer system. We haven’t had anything close to a free market in nearly a century. The alternative to our current, big-government failure isn’t an even bigger government failure which would leave behind the very patients who are already suffering the most. When some advocate for “Medicare for All,” what I hear is, “V.A. Hospital for All.” Here in the United States, not only is the one-size-fits-all V.A. the closest thing we have to a single-payer model, but it is also among the worst of our health-care systems. It has been caught falsifying data to show compliance with its own deadlines, and many have died before even receiving care. As someone who has been in the care of the VA, it is the last thing I would want for all Americans. We need to get the government out of healthcare.

Healthcare
Taxes

TAXES AND SPENDING

Americans are taxed at every turn, from taxing income you earned, the property you own and live on, the items you purchase, and even your estate after death. Politicians have made the income tax system so complicated that only those who can afford personal accountants and tax lawyers can effectively navigate the code. People live in fear of the IRS, which has the power to probe every detail of our financial lives to decide how much we will be forced to pay. Voting for more government spending inevitably leads to higher taxes to pay for it – now, or in the future.
Government spending is wasteful, inefficient, prone to fraud, and often harmful to those that politicians claim to be helping. In contrast, money left in the hands of regular Americans creates two to three times as many jobs as does the same money taken and spent by government. Tax cuts are important, but they are rendered useless if we do not also address the out-of-control spending we see year after year enabled by both the executive branch and Congress. The government must balance its checkbook in the same way American families like you and I do. I am tired of hearing of bills that contain unrelated spending items in them, as we saw with many of the “COVID-19 relief bills” passed. I pledge to fully read any bill on my desk prior to voting on it.
No one spends money as responsibly as those who worked for it. Individuals know what is best for themselves, their families, and their community – certainly better than out-of-touch bureaucrats and politicians in Washington and Nashville. St Jude Hospital, right here in our back yard, is primarily funded through charitable giving. No one forces you to support them, yet they still have the funding to bring the fight to pediatric cancer.
It’s time to move money out of the government sector and back to the people who earned it. Politicians and bureaucrats don’t know what you need — you do. From our founding until 1916, our economy and nation thrived without an income tax or the IRS.
As your State Representative, I will work tirelessly to slash spending, make government much, much smaller, and push to eliminate the federal income tax, so you can keep what you earn, and spend it how you see fit.

Keep our troops home

The first priority of our government is our nation’s security. I am a Veteran of the war in Afghanistan, spending 4 years in the Army, 10 months in country from March-December of 2011. In 2022 we have increasing tensions in Ukraine with Russia. While I sympathize with the Ukrainian people, it is not our role as a nation to go to war with Russia over this. I will not support sending our nations troops to another country unless there is a direct attack against our nation. 

Ending War on Terror