Knox News invited the major U.S. Senate candidates to come to our office for an interview and to fill out an online questionnaire about issues that matter to Tennesseans.
Their responses are below.
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Democrat
Marquita Bradshaw
Age: 52
Occupation: Environmental activist
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
What specific experiences in your life will guide how you lead all types of Tennesseans?
I grew up in a big family and in family, my siblings and I would make alliances and break alliances quite often. The leadership to hold families together is something you can use in any setting. I have a family-style leadership where I want to make sure the strengths of everybody on the team are highlighted and everybody has room to grow.
From a legislative role,
it’s making sure we put legislation in place to make sure every Tennessean can thrive. Right now, when it comes to domestic policies, that’s totally failing for a lot of Tennesseans. People can’t afford to get simple things like milk, eggs and diapers, or they’re making a choice between medicine and rent or facing homelessness because things keep rising. When you look at trade policy right now, you have to make sure there are mutually beneficial agreements. Right now, we’re seeing the backlash of the failure to utilize diplomacy. The tariffs have hit the farmers hard and a lot of farmers are not only dealing with the backlash from tariffs, but also issues around extreme climate conditions.
When you look at policy from an environmental justice frame, which includes climate policy, you look at what we need for a just transition for an economy that’s not based on pollution. We have to include alternative fuel sources because we need more energy as a nation.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
It was policy that got me into my first home, the first time home buyers' initiative, and it was policy that kept me in my home when I was unemployed for 18 months. That came from a federal initiative that went down to states hit the hardest during the recession. It made allowances for people to enter into the housing market and gave incentives for builders to make housing affordable.
We have to make sure we have policies that support families for affordable housing. It’s making sure that people have a livable wage. If you can’t afford to pay for simple things like milk and eggs, it’s going to be hard to pay for actually pay for housing, too. Raising the federal minimum wage is one thing. We have to make sure that health care costs go down for families and that makes housing affordable, too. It’s not just one fix. It’s looking at the whole system and making sure that we have not only fair wages, also cutting down on medical costs by making sure people have access to health care. We need to make sure that where rural hospitals have been closed, that we actually fund the programs that make sure people don’t die on the way to the hospital because there’s not a lot of hospitals in several communities.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
There’s so many from Dolly Parton, Gloria Steinem, (former U.S. Rep.) Shirley Chisholm, my mom, (former Tennessee House speaker) Lois DeBerry, state Rep.) Karen Kemper, a lot of women that I’ve seen over the years. Not only in politics, like my great-grandmother Susie. She didn’t have a lot but she made sure that what she did was not only for her family, but it fed the whole block and the church, too. Those are the leaders I aspire to be – people who look after people and make sure they’re OK. Not just giving out handouts but making sure that they give people a hand up.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
Marquita Bradshaw did not participate in the Knox News voter's guide online questionnaire.
Republican
Bill Hagerty (incumbent)
Age: 67
Occupation: U.S. senator, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development
Bill Hagerty did not participate in Knox News voter's guide interviews or the online questionnaire.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: U.S. Senate voter's guide for Tennessee: Meet candidates Bradshaw and Hagerty
