Knox News invited the Democratic and Republican nominees for Tennessee House to our office for in-person interviews and to complete a questionnaire so they can speak directly to voters.
Here are their responses for the districts near Knoxville.
Be sure to vote Nov. 3!
Tennessee House of Representatives
District 14
Tennessee House District 14 includes west and southwest Knox County including Farragut, Northshore and nearby neighborhoods.
Democrat
Lindsay Young Honaker
Age: 44
Occupation: Project coordinator
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
We absolutely cannot close the primaries. We already have
some of the lowest voter turnout in the whole country. If we close it, we’re gonna reduce that. I don’t want to close them, but we need to look at reforms to make them different so that more people have a say in the elections. My priority is simple: Get more people the opportunity to have a say in who’s elected.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
I would like to see some real down payment assistance tied to someone’s income. We don’t have rent stabilization or local tenant protections here, and I’m not entirely certain what all of that looks like, but there’s definitely things we could do to make it easier for people to afford to live here. The people in my district, they’re not looking for a handout. They’re looking for their town to help keep them housed. Let them stay there, where they want to be and where they already live, not getting pushed out of their home.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
I think I’d have to say (Kentucky Gov.) Andy Beshear. He has really proven, like, pragmatic results first. Leadership really can win in states that are even more red than ours. He focuses on competence and getting things done for working people, not partisanship. That’s the kind of leadership I would like to bring not just to House District 14, but the general assembly.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
Before a data center gets a dime of public support or a green light from a local board, it should have to prove it won't cost residents more than it delivers. That means, first, ratepayer protection: the operator, not homeowners, should cover the cost of new grid infrastructure needed to serve it, the same principle TVA itself adopted this August when it moved data centers into their own rate class specifically to stop shifting costs onto families.
Second, water and power use should be disclosed publicly before approval, not after. Third, any tax abatement or incentive should carry real job and wage commitments with clawback provisions if the company doesn't deliver. Fourth, local governments and utilities need a real public process, not a rubber stamp, before a facility over 50 megawatts locks in years of demand. Tennessee families should never be the ones absorbing the bill for someone else's server farm.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
The biggest challenge is that our infrastructure and cost of living haven't kept pace with our population growth. Middle Tennessee and now East Tennessee are absorbing thousands of new residents a year, but roads, schools and housing supply were built for a much smaller state. Right here in West Knoxville, three of the nine worst traffic bottlenecks in Tennessee sit inside our district, according to the state's own I-40/I-75 corridor study, and Knox County is carrying a real infrastructure backlog that the state's TACIR report has documented. At the same time, housing costs have climbed faster than wages, and the legislature's 2024 "voluntary" attainable housing law hasn't done enough to change that math for working families. Growth without planning just means longer commutes, more crowded classrooms and higher costs for the people who already live here.
The greatest opportunity is that growth brings revenue and talent we can actually put to work solving those problems, if we plan for it instead of just permitting it. New residents mean a larger tax base, more workforce for the jobs already here, and more political leverage to demand our fair share of state infrastructure dollars instead of watching Nashville and its suburbs get first priority. I'll leverage that by pushing for growth to pay for itself: impact fees and developer contributions tied directly to road and school capacity, not passed down to existing residents; full local input on where and how fast we build; and holding the state accountable for directing infrastructure funding like the Transportation Modernization Act to the corridors, like ours, that are already failing under the weight of the growth we've had.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
I'll work to eliminate Tennessee's 4% state sales tax on groceries, one of the most regressive taxes working families pay every week. Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that still taxes food at the register, and it hits lower and middle-income families hardest because they spend a much larger share of their income on food. A $100 grocery bill costs $4 more in state tax alone, before local add-ons, money that comes straight out of budgets already stretched by rent, gas and child care.
I support state Rep. Aftyn Behn and state Sen. Charlane Oliver's "End the Grocery Tax by Closing Corporate Loopholes Act," which has been refiled for three straight legislative sessions and pairs elimination with a real funding plan: worldwide combined reporting, which requires multinational corporations to count their global profits rather than just what they book in Tennessee, plus a corporate minimum tax on companies earning over $100 million a year. That covers the roughly $800 million the grocery tax currently generates without cutting schools, roads or public safety. That's what's missing from Republican-led versions of this bill: they've proposed cutting the tax without a real plan to replace the revenue, which just sets up cuts down the road.
Tennessee has no income tax, which we're often told makes us a low-tax state. But we make up for it with one of the highest combined sales tax rates in the country, and groceries are where that trade-off hits hardest. Eliminating the grocery tax, funded through corporate accountability rather than cuts, is one of the clearest ways to put money back in Tennesseans' pockets.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
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Republican
Jason Zachary (incumbent)
Age: 49
Occupation: State representative, Americomm president
Jason Zachary did not participate in Knox News voter's guide interviews or fill out an online questionnaire.
District 15
Tennessee House District 15 stretches from downtown Knoxville through East Knoxville and across the Tennessee River into South Knoxville. It includes the Mechanicsville, Lonsdale, Island Home, Vestal and Colonial Village neighborhoods.
Democrat
Sam McKenzie (incumbent)
Age: 60
Occupation: State representative, retired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, small business owner
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
I don’t support closed primaries at all. I’m a Democrat. I’ve voted in the Democratic primary pretty much my whole life. People need to have a choice. People need to be able to say, "I like this Democrat on this side of the aisle" and I still want this person on the other. I think (closing primaries) diminishes our rights as citizens.
I think we’re bigger than a box that I would say the Republicans are trying to put us in. To me, it takes away a person’s choice. This isn’t a black and white type of environment that we live in. There’s all kind of great nuances. It’s going to create a lot of limitations, a system where people are forced into a party when they’re truly independent. We have independent voters and those voters need to have a say in the primary process. The primary, to me, is to choose the direction.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
I think mixed-use housing, getting someone that may have a $1 million flat living next to someone that’s a firefighter that may have a $200,000 flat should be the way cities operate. There should be a mixed-use in certain situations. That’s what’s going to keep rents trending down when they’re still high. I introduced a piece of legislation to give control back to the cities and counties. The state forbade cities from doing any kind of enhancements. They called it rent control, I called it trying to sweeten the pot. I would like to give those back to our local government. At the end of the day, government should be performed at the lowest level. Affordable doesn’t mean welfare, it doesn’t mean free.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
Two locals. One would be Lamar Alexander. He took over as governor in a really precarious time. He had to work with the Democrats to take office early and didn’t make a big partisan deal out of that. He did a great job and served his term as president of the university and was a really good senator. He pushed back against some of (President Donald) Trump’s craziness. He was just a fair person, a fair man. He’s clearly Republican and that’s what I tell folks, you know, "Be who you are." I don’t begrudge anyone for being true to their party, but he did a really good job and worked both sides of the aisle.
The second is Dolly Parton. She was apolitical, but really she wasn’t. She understood Black Lives Matter. She spoke out when it was not easy to speak out against things. She was a friend to all. Someone like Dolly, when she went to school in her county, I don’t think they had an African American in the county. But to still have such a free and open mindset as far as how to treat people. I think she was a public servant.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
This should be a local decision. I believe data centers should be compact and designed efficiently with the community in mind. Nobody wants a giant, constantly humming data center in their backyard or near their neighborhood. Data centers should incorporate energy-efficiency to reduce consumption, and ratepayers should be protected from the increased energy demand. Data centers rely on air conditioning systems to cool system components. This uses a substantial amount of energy. Smaller data centers are able to reduce their energy use by using air-cooling, but using this on a large scale isn't possible without expensive infrastructure.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
One challenge that growth creates is the inability of current residents to compete with those who are moving into Tennessee. Many new Tennesseans are relocating from places with higher costs of living so when they pick up and move to Tennessee, they are able to utilize their existing wealth to overwhelm locals who just aren't able to compete with the lower wages in Tennessee. Tennesseans are right to be frustrated that they can no longer afford to live where they grew up.
Road funding will also be a challenge in the next few years. The state relies on funding road projects with excise taxes such as the gas tax, registration fees and electric car fees. The amount of revenue to the state from these taxes vary due to trends in driving and fuel efficiency in newer vehicles. In 2017, the Department of Transportation projected our road projects to cost $11 billion over 10 years. The final version of the legislation raised taxes over a period of three years and did not automatically adjust the tax rate due to inflation. Now it would require $16 billion to complete the projects and take 50 years to finish at current funding levels. This isn't a sustainable way to maintain our roads with the influx of new Tennesseans creating added pressure.
A growing population also leads to more of a tax base for state and local governments. If the state can capture new revenues, then the state could take care of growing infrastructure needs which will make the quality of life noticeably better for all Tennesseans.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
I will work to repeal the voucher expansion legislation in Tennessee. This would free up nearly $300 million dollars each year that can be put toward school funding by the state. It is estimated that the Education Freedom Scholarship Act will cost Tennesseans $1.1 billion over its first five years. A majority of these vouchers went to high-income families who could already afford to send their children to private schools. We need to reinvest this money into our public schools.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
N/A
District 16
Tennessee House District 16 covers much of North Knoxville, stretching along Broadway from Fountain City and Inskip into Halls and Powell.
Democrat
Eliza Boles
Age: 41
Occupation: Law librarian and professor
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
Regardless of whether we leave the primaries open or close them, I do want to encourage voters to vote within their party. I understand the impulse to feel like you won’t get a say in the governor race unless you vote in the Republican primary, but I think that’s defeatist. I think as liberals in this state, we have been the minority but if we treat ourselves as a minority, we’re going to continue to be a minority.
I don’t think people realize how much data goes into running a campaign and how much of it is centered on pure voter data. It’s hard to get a sense of which races need the most support and which ones are doing well because there’s no way to quantify.
I do want to encourage people to pull a ballot for who you plan on voting for in November, just if for no other reason than to give candidates a better sense of what their resources need to look like going forward. The ability to switch (parties), a lot of people are on the cusp of changing their minds right now and I don’t think we should do anything that discourages people from leaving their party or exploring a new candidate, but it really is a numbers game.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
First-time home buyers need help with what I would call a down payment problem. Because of the rising cost of groceries and gas and child care, saving up that $30,000 for a down payment just seems impossible to so many people.
Before the housing crash in 2008, we perhaps made it a little too easy to buy homes. We certainly don’t want to go back to a time when we’re giving mortgages to people who will not be able to pay, but we have to find some balance between the wild, wild west of home ownership and what we’re feeling right now where I know a lot of people my age may have just given up on the idea of buying a house. I think it’s going to come from credits that go towards the down payment. The other thing is, we have a finite amount of space in Knox County. We should reward the builders that are trying to increase the number of houses in Knoxville and not just developing what used to be a meadow into five big houses.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
Frances Perkins was FDR’s labor secretary and came up with demands that we see now as like, "That’s part of working," like paid leave, five-day work week and 40 hours a week. I think labor leaders in general and union leaders in general are people that I don’t think the populous understands how important they are. Labor leaders and union leaders in general, especially women, are just such a force that I don’t think get enough recognition in this country. That’s something I’d like to emulate and a group of people I would like to see get more recognition.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
Before a company gets a dime of public money or a green light from local officials, it should have to answer one basic question: What's this going to cost the rest of us? What are you going to do to offset that cost?
Right now, too often, the answer is "not our problem." That's backwards. If a company wants to build a facility that draws as much electricity as a small city, the burden should be on them to show how they're going to manage that load responsibly, not on ratepayers to absorb higher bills so a data center can get a tax break.
I've pointed to what Finland and Sweden are doing as a useful model — not because Tennessee needs to import district heating pipes, but because it shows regulation and innovation aren't opposites. Finland ties electricity tax reductions to a precondition: data centers have to either efficiently use their waste heat or be sufficiently energy efficient. In other words: you want the incentive, you earn it. That's the principle I'd bring to Nashville.
Concretely, before incentives or approval, I'd want to see:
- A real accounting of projected energy and water use, and who pays for any grid or infrastructure upgrades it requires
- Enforceable efficiency standards, not voluntary pledges
- Claw-back provisions if promised jobs or investment don't materialize
- A seat at the table for local governments before state incentives override local judgment
None of this is anti-growth. It's just insisting that "public incentive" means the public actually benefits, not just the shareholders. Tennessee families shouldn't be subsidizing higher power bills so a server farm can get a tax break — that's the same "trust us" approach that's failed us on vouchers, and I'm not interested in repeating it here.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
Tennessee is the 10th-fastest growing state in the country, and Knox County is one of the counties driving that. You don't need a census report to see it — you need to drive Broadway at 5 p.m. That's the challenge, in miniature: growth is outpacing the infrastructure and housing that's supposed to hold it up.
In HD16, that shows up as traffic that keeps getting worse, housing costs pricing out longtime North Knox families, and schools and public services stretched to serve a lot more neighbors than they were built for. Growth isn't the problem. Growth without a plan is the problem — and Nashville hasn't been planning, it's been reacting.
The opportunity is real, though. More people means more tax base, more workforce, more energy in this district — if we build the infrastructure to match it. That means investing in public transit along corridors like Broadway so growth doesn't just mean more cars stacked up at the same red lights. It means increasing housing supply, especially the kind of housing a teacher, a nurse or a new graduate can actually afford, not just luxury development. And it means fully funding public schools instead of siphoning money into a voucher program, because families move here for good schools, not to find out we handed the money to private ones.
I'll leverage that opportunity the way I approach everything else: by starting local. I'll push for state investment tied to how fast a community is actually growing, not just how loud its lobbyists are. Knox County residents are already paying the cost of this growth in longer commutes and higher rent. It's time the state started paying its share of the solution.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
I'll make this concrete, because I live it. I'm currently paying $700 a month for preschool for my 4-year-old, and that preschool closes at 2:30. If you're a working parent, you already know what that means: you're either leaving work early every single day, or you're cobbling together afterschool care on top of the tuition you're already stretched to pay. That's not a policy problem I read about. That's my Tuesday.
The specific policy I'll work to enact is universal Pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds — real, full-day, publicly funded pre-K, not the patchwork we have now. Tennessee's voluntary pre-K program only serves at-risk 4-year-olds, and even then, it's not available to everyone who needs it. Three-year-olds aren't covered at all. That leaves thousands of Tennessee families paying private tuition for early education that most other developed places treat as basic infrastructure, the same way we treat kindergarten.
Universal pre-K does two things at once. It gives kids the early learning that sets them up for kindergarten ready to succeed instead of behind before they start. And it gives parents, especially moms, who still do most of the scrambling, hours that actually match a workday, instead of a 2:30 cutoff that assumes someone's always available to pick up.
This isn't a luxury program. It's affordability policy. Every dollar a family isn't spending on private preschool tuition is a dollar that goes toward rent, groceries, or actually getting ahead instead of treading water. I'm not proposing this because I read a white paper. I'm proposing it because I do the math every month, and I know I'm not the only one in HD16 doing it.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
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Republican
Michele Carringer (incumbent)
Age: 64
Occupation: State representative, advertising
Michele Carringer did not participate in Knox News voter's guide interviews or fill out an online questionnaire..
District 18
Tennessee House District 18 stretches through west and south Knoxville from Cedar Bluff Road to Chapman Highway. It includes the Cedar Bluff, Rocky Hill, Sequoyah Hills and Vestal neighborhoods, along with parts of South Knoxville surrounding South Doyle and Mount Olive.
Democrat
Bryan Goldberg
Age: 43
Occupation: General manager at Belfor Property Restoration
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
I do not support closing primaries. I believe fundamentally in Americans’ freedom of personal thought and I know many people who have switched parties over the course of their lives. I believe them on face value for the reasons why they chose to switch. What I do not believe in or agree with is a particular political party defining the reasons or ability for somebody to switch parties. For me it comes down to a freedom issue. I believe that’s a core value of our American culture. I believe what we saw in the mayoral primary was fear-mongering based upon an unenforceable rule where people were scared because they didn’t know if they themselves were a bona fide Republican or Democrat. That’s voter disenfranchisement.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
First I would start at the local level listening to what nonprofits the city council and the county commission see as ways the state could help. I believe a lot of the issues I would address would start in that order. I don’t believe in top-down government. Locals know best. If there’s an argument to be had specifically if we’re talking about policy issued about a unified zoning if we could have some sort of unified version of the standard building code that would reduce some overhead for builders. There are financial incentives for first-time homebuyers and I don’t know what that looks like right now, I’d have to work through the budgetary process and see what investments Tennessee can make. The state budget has done enough to help wealthy Tennesseans and business corporations through tax breaks or TIFs. It’s about time that the average person wanting to have a piece of the American dream gets the same consideration.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
I like (former U.S. Sen.) Howard Baker and (former President Bill Clinton). Howard Baker because I believe he was everything I love about Tennessee politics and what a Tennessee politician can really be. I love his quote, "Walking into a meeting, the other guy might be right." Bill Clinton because I believe that we have gotten out of being able to talk to the average person at their level about complex issues in government. He could go into a room and explain economic policy to the average person so they would understand and get the gist of what’s happening.
We’ve created a political environment where we’ve either made things too complicated for somebody to figure it out or we’ve gone to an extreme where if it doesn’t fit on the bumper sticker, we’re not going to bother explaining any nuance. That leaves us in a place where people can get taken advantage of. I’ve tried to talk about my issues and my policies akin to Bill Clinton’s ability to talk to people at their level about economic issues, and I also try to aspire to the Howard Baker model of not assuming that everything I say is correct and that the other side of the argument might be correct.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
My bar for approving or subsidizing a large data center in Knox County would be extremely high.
Before we even discuss public financial incentives, a developer should have to prove – with independent, verifiable data – that the project will create meaningful long-term jobs, produce a measurable positive economic impact for local families, and generate benefits that clearly outweigh the costs it places on our community.
A multibillion-dollar investment may sound impressive at a press conference, but investment alone is not enough. If a project consumes enormous amounts of electricity and water, requires major infrastructure upgrades, and creates relatively few permanent jobs, I do not believe taxpayers should be asked to subsidize it simply so elected officials can announce another economic development project.
Any proposal should first demonstrate that residential customers and small businesses will not see higher utility costs as a result. The developer should pay the full cost of the transmission lines, substations, water, sewer, roads and other infrastructure its project requires. Growth should pay for growth.
Developers should also publicly disclose projected electricity and water consumption, identify the source of those resources, provide drought and emergency plans, and demonstrate that the project will not jeopardize the long-term needs of existing residents and businesses.
Just as importantly, any claims about job creation and economic benefits should be independently evaluated before incentives are offered – not accepted at face value. Incentives, if considered at all, should be tied to enforceable requirements for permanent jobs, wages, local hiring and measurable economic returns, with provisions allowing taxpayers to recover incentives if those promises are not fulfilled.
My priority is improving the economic reality of the people who already live and work in Knox County. I would rather use our public resources to lower costs for families, strengthen schools, improve infrastructure, and create opportunities that produce substantial, lasting employment.
A data center seeking taxpayer assistance would therefore have to make an extraordinary case that Knox County families – not simply the corporation – will come out ahead.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
Tennessee’s growth is an incredible opportunity, but our biggest challenge is making sure the cost of that growth isn’t passed along to the families who already call our communities home.
Tennessee has grown dramatically, but state government has not done enough to anticipate the infrastructure and affordability consequences of that growth. In Knox County, we are seeing that pressure in housing prices, traffic, infrastructure, childcare costs, and the growing demand on our schools and public services. Growth without adequate planning can make a successful community increasingly unaffordable for the people who helped build it.
At the same time, growth gives Tennessee an opportunity to expand our workforce, attract new businesses, strengthen our tax base, and create better-paying jobs. I want the state to be a better partner with growing communities by investing in infrastructure, expanding workforce and affordable housing, modernizing and streamlining building regulations – including consideration of a uniform statewide building code – and making sure we are training enough skilled workers to meet demand.
Growth should improve the quality of life for Tennesseans, not price them out of their own communities. My goal is to make sure we grow responsibly and that the economic benefits of that growth reach working families.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
One specific policy I will work to enact is the elimination of Tennessee’s state sales tax on groceries.
If we are serious about making Tennessee more affordable, we should start with something every family has to buy every week: food. Tennessee still taxes groceries at 4 percent, while states like Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas have recently eliminated their state grocery taxes. If they can find a way to provide that relief to working families, Tennessee can too.
Eliminating Tennessee's grocery tax isn't a liberal or conservative idea – it's an affordability idea.
To me, this is ultimately a question of priorities. Tennessee has repeatedly demonstrated that it can change its tax code when state leaders decide something is important. I want the families earning their living on a W-2 or 1099 to be just as much of a priority as corporations and those at the very top.
Affordability should be the lens through which we evaluate state policy. Before we spend another dollar or pass another tax break, we should be asking: Will this make it easier or harder for the average Tennessee family to afford their lives?
Eliminating the grocery tax would be a priority for me because it is a direct way to return money to the average Tennessee family. For years, working families have patiently waited their turn for meaningful economic relief while watching businesses and the wealthiest Tennesseans seemingly skip ahead in line. I think it is time for working families to move to the front.
Hard work should be enough to build a good life in Tennessee. Eliminating the grocery tax is a practical way to put money back into people's pockets every single week and show Tennessee families that state government is finally making their affordability a priority.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
N/A
Republican
Elaine Davis (incumbent)
Age: 59
Occupation: State representative
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
The legislation did come to the House floor last year and I voted in favor of it because the state executive committee for the Tennessee Republican Party, they overwhelmingly requested it. They are the individuals that represent the Republican Party in our community, so I followed their lead and their recommendation and voted in favor of that.
I think there are concerns that with a lot of people moving into our community that are not familiar with our election process, our parties. They’re unfamiliar with the fact that we don’t have that registration process and they want to be able to understand or know which candidate really aligns with their values. Registering that you’re a Republican, you’re saying “I identify with this party.”
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
Part of the problem, and it’s really one of the critical issues moving forward, is infrastructure costs. That really impacts a lot of so much of what we’re seeing with regard to our housing. We’ve got a lot of people moving. When you’ve got that supply and demand, that does cause rents to rise and our home prices to increase. A lot of the price increase has to do with our increasing infrastructure costs and inflation. What we can do is look at every way possible to mitigate those costs. One of my goals is to get rid of the 4% sales tax on groceries. We can return those dollars back to families, people that are on a fixed income or are seniors. It offsets the cost.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
There’s a lot of folks in the legislature that I’m like, “I like how they do that, I like how they say that.” Some people, you’re just completely impressed with their ability to articulate an argument or the knowledge they have with respect to an issue. I look to leadership and how they navigate situations and then I also look to some of my fellow legislators that have been there for a long time.
In terms of personally who I look up to, obviously I love my husband (Knox County sheriff candidate Mike Davis), that’s a given. But I really admire that he was vulnerable to people and really allowed them to get to know him and who he was. He developed those relationships and he put himself out there in a way that people could know us and who we were and how we serve.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
The General Assembly took an important step in passing legislation in 2026 that prohibits municipalities and electric utilities from paying or absorbing electrical infrastructure costs incurred specifically to serve large data centers. It also establishes protections to prevent those costs from being shifted onto existing residential, commercial, or industrial utility customers. I supported that approach because a project that creates significant new electrical demand should bear the costs of that demand not Tennessee families through higher utility bills.
I do not support public subsidies or taxpayer-funded incentives for data centers in any form. These projects are among the largest in the country, and Tennessee taxpayers should not be asked to underwrite their infrastructure or operating costs.
I also fully support local control with protections for local residents. Counties and municipalities should have the final decision whether a data center belongs in their community. That decision should rest with local elected officials and the people they represent not with state-level incentive packages that pressure communities to accept a project they may not want.
Where a locality chooses to consider a data center, the project should still meet clear standards before receiving local approval: it must pay the infrastructure and utility costs attributable to its operations; demonstrate adequate power and water availability without jeopardizing existing customers; provide transparency about its projected resource needs; and meet appropriate environmental and land-use requirements.
Tennessee can remain a business-friendly state while remaining a taxpayer-friendly state. We should welcome investment that pays its own way and that local communities actually choose to accept.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
Tennessee’s growth is a testament to what Republicans are doing right: low taxes, conservative fiscal policies, a strong business climate, and protection of our natural beauty and a quality of life that attracts families and employers. But, growth also creates real challenges.
The biggest challenge is ensuring our infrastructure and essential services keep pace with the people and businesses coming here to include roads, bridges, utilities, schools, public safety, housing and access to health care.
We cannot allow growth to diminish the quality of life of the Tennesseans who currently live in our communities. We need to make infrastructure investments are the number one priority, accelerate critical road projects, stop reckless and encourage responsible development, and make sure growth pays its fair share rather than shifting the burden onto existing taxpayers and ratepayers.
At the same time, our growth presents an extraordinary opportunity. Tennessee is attracting new industries, investment and innovation, particularly in advanced manufacturing, energy, technology and research. I will continue to strongly support and strengthen our career and technical education (TCATs), community colleges, and partnerships between employers and schools so Tennessee students can graduate with the skills needed for good paying careers. We should also continue to create an environment where entrepreneurs and small businesses can succeed.
My goal is to make Tennessee a better state for families, taxpayers and citizens. We should leverage growth to create better jobs, stronger communities, and greater opportunities for our children and grandchildren, while protecting the affordability, fiscal responsibility and quality of life that made people want to call Tennessee home in the first place.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
One specific policy I will continue working to enact is reducing, and ultimately eliminating, the state sales tax on groceries.
Tennessee has worked hard to remain a low-tax state, but families are still feeling the pressure of higher prices every time they go to the grocery store. When the cost of necessities rise, government should look for responsible ways to leave more money in the pockets of Tennesseans. That is why I sponsored HB 21, legislation to eliminate the 4% state portion of sales tax on groceries. This is a concrete tax cut that would benefit virtually every Tennessee family every time they buy groceries.
I believe we should pursue this responsibly and protect the revenues local governments rely upon. My focus is on the state portion of the grocery tax using Tennessee's strong fiscal position to provide meaningful tax relief.
Eliminating the state grocery tax would particularly benefit working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and households raising children because food is not an optional expense. It also allows Tennesseans to decide how to spend their own money rather than creating another government program with eligibility requirements and administrative costs.
Affordability is ultimately about what families have left at the end of the month. We cannot control every factor driving inflation, but at the state level we can control how much government takes from Tennesseans. I believe one of the most direct things we can do is stop taxing families for putting food on their table.
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District 19
Tennessee House District 19 stretches across east and northeast Knox County, from Carter through Corryton and east toward Gibbs, Mascot and Strawberry Plains. It stretches to Knox County's border with Jefferson County.
Democrat
Jenny Fowler
Age: 61
Occupation: Retired distinguished lecturer of mathematics at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
I do not support closing the primaries because we have a large group of voters who are not in a party and they like to be able to choose. The ones I know of enjoy that freedom of not being tied down to choose one party or the other. I think we get better results if we leave those primaries open. I think that there will eventually be less crossover voting. Sometimes people just change their mind about what party they want to support, and I think it’s just better to leave it the way it is.
Closing primaries would create some confusion because of the way we’ve always done thing, and now they’re locked into a certain party and they didn’t realize in time that they had to register with a different party in order to vote. It’s creating more of a hassle and would lead to less voting.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers?
(Democratic governor nominee Jerri Green) was talking about using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to waive some deposits for renters to make that more affordable. I think it would be a great idea to do that. I know that as we build more affordable housing and multifamily high-density units, I’m hoping we’ll be able to increase supply and rents will go down or stay stable. It’s really important that we find some way to build those units for our working people that are just entering the workforce from college who have a job in Knox County. Right now they have to go outside the county because they can’t afford the rents.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
I think Andy Beshear in Kentucky because he is a Democrat who was elected governor of Kentucky even though we think of that as a red state. I feel like he’s done such a great job of leadership there. As far as state representatives, I really look up to (state Rep.) Sam McKenzie a lot. I respect his opinions and the way he speaks is very respectful. Locally, I have a lot of respect for (Knoxville Mayor) Indya Kincannon. Nationally, I have a lot of respect for (U.S. Sen.) Amy Klobuchar.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
I support the current Knox County moratorium on the construction of large (AI) data centers until local policy can be created. Moving forward, our state legislature must take appropriate measures to make sure that these data centers work for our people and we must ensure local populations have a role in the decision-making process. I would support legislation that requires a public input on any data center development that occupies 50+ acres, uses 20+ megawatts of power, or consumes 500,000+ gallons of water per day.
There should be no Non-Disclosure Agreements that allow AI data centers to be built in secret with no community input. We should require transparent public notice periods and conditional use permits so local residents can approve or reject nearby projects.
These data centers must work for our people, and significant planning must ensure that our economy and workers are not displaced. Data centers that are built for national security or for the public good, such as medical research, are more important than those that displace workers or are used to create AGI that could be a danger to the world and must be regulated on a federal level.
Data centers should not replace valuable agricultural land. Our land is an important agricultural resource that must be conserved. I do not currently support tax incentives to bring AI data centers to our state. They do not create many jobs and do not have broad bipartisan support at this time. The problems that are created by these data centers include a strain on our power system, which could lead to an increase in electricity rates to consumers, a significant noise pollution problem which is not easily prevented, and air and water pollution created by generators and water cooling needs. We should require developers to cover heavy energy costs so residential electricity bills do not rise.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
The biggest challenge is that people are moving here from states that have a higher standard of living and they can afford to buy up our land and homes at low prices for them, compared to where they lived before. This demand for homes drives up housing prices and makes it more difficult for the people who have lived here all of their lives to afford a home for their family in the county where they work. These new families are reaping the benefits of a low tax state without paying into it like local residents have been doing for years. The strain on the housing market is the most significant challenge that we have, and is leading to construction of all kinds of new housing, including multifamily, high-density housing and urban sprawl. The conversion of quality farmland and forested land to housing is a concern for many residents of my district, as it puts pressure on our infrastructure, increases traffic and adds stress on our local schools.
The greatest opportunity from this growth is the increase in tax revenue that comes with it, along with an increase in the working population and the broadening of our population diversity. A growing population is a sign of economic prosperity, so we need to be sure that we manage our growing pains so that our local population is not priced out of the opportunities afforded by our hometown, while ensuring that we welcome new people to enjoy the place we call home. We need to continue to build appropriate affordable housing for our local working population responsibly and we need to work with the federal government to secure assistance in improving our roads and bridges to meet the demands of our growing region.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
There is currently broad bipartisan support for ending or cutting the grocery tax in Tennessee. I would like to join in supporting legislation to end this tax that all residents pay, but disproportionately affects our low-income residents. We can afford this if we discontinue the universal private school voucher scheme that will break our budget in future years as it has in other states like Arizona.
I also support expanding Medicaid, which will cover an additional 150,000 working people with 90% of the cost coming from the federal government. This will benefit the working people of our state who are currently falling into the gap of access to healthcare, and will go a long way to help our rural hospitals survive the current crisis that is causing them to close. Expanding Medicaid can also create an estimated 15,000 new jobs in the healthcare industry, and help provide needed help for substance abuse treatment that is needed in our homeless population.
Increasing access to early childhood education will also help working families make ends meet. Universal pre-K would be a benefit to working families and to children.
Lastly, I support setting a state minimum wage. Ensuring that everyone makes a living wage and can keep more of their income can help improve our economy and enable people to provide for themselves and their family.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
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Republican
Dave Wright (incumbent)
Age: 81
Occupation: State representative, retired from AT&T
Dave Wright did not participate in Knox News voter's guide interviews or fill out an online questionnaire.
District 89
Tennessee House District 89 stretches through includes the Karns and Cedar Bluff communities, as well as parts of Farragut and West Knoxville.
Democrat
Randy DeBord
Age: 69
Occupation: Retired TVA operator
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
I don’t think they should be closed. We have varying degrees of opinions and who people are. Sometimes we have far left, we had center left, center right, far right. Depending on the issues, you can cross over. I don’t think you have people going out there trying to stack the books. It’s more of opinions. I may be left-leaning today, and issues that come about and somebody’s changed my mind, now I tend to fall to the right. It would stop the voters' ability to be heard on their terms. Everybody wants you to be a label, and I’m not a label.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
As I’ve gone out and talked to people, one of the communities I came across, the entire community is owned by a corporation and it’s all rental. I’ve never come across that before. When you have a corporation that comes in with large sums of money, people come in from other areas of the country to buy the home for cash. We have to grow together. We have to have infrastructure, whether it’s our roadways, our schools. We just had a vote about increasing our sales tax and they turned that down. You can’t complain about one thing and not want to pay for it, because everything costs money. One way we could do that is through bonds. We need to use bonds for major construction projects.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
I was raised in the '60s and '70s under Republican parents, grandparents, family members. I would have to say Howard Baker. He’s middle of the road but he’s also able to work across the aisle. I’m pretty conservative in my finances but when it comes to feeding children lunches or that type of thing … we’re so far divided and we talk about these subjects that really only affect less than 10% of the population. We have forgotten about the middle man.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
What requirements should large data centers meet before receiving public incentives or local approval?
There should be no public incentives, and local approval should be left up to the voters.
Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. What is the biggest challenge that growth creates? What's the greatest opportunity and how will you leverage it?
Infrastructure and keeping the laidback style of the South. Leverage should be achieved though controlled growth and strict regulation to maintain the nature of our communities.
Describe a specific policy you will work to enact to make life more affordable for Tennesseans?
I have already developed a bill to address housing ownership by investment firms which you can see at my website RandyDeBord.com.
Did you use AI assistance to help write your answers? If not, please write "N/A." If so, please elaborate.
N/A
Republican
Justin Lafferty (incumbent)
Age: 55
Occupation: Small business owner
Justin Lafferty did not participate in Knox News voter's guide interviews or fill out an online questionnaire.
District 90
Tennessee House District 90 stretches across Knoxville from East Knoxville to Cedar Bluff Road. It includes the Parkridge, Fourth and Gill and Oakwood-Lincoln Park neighborhoods, along with parts of Bearden and west Knoxville.
Democrat
Gloria Johnson (incumbent)
Age: 64
Occupation: State representative, retired teacher
IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
Tennessee has open primaries, but some lawmakers have supported requiring voters to register by party before voting in a primary. Do you support closing Tennessee’s primaries, and what problem do you believe that would solve – or create – for voters?
What I hear from my constituents and what I hear from most Tennesseans is they want to vote for who they want to vote for. Sometimes it’s a Republican and sometimes it’s a Democrat. They want to be able to vote in the primaries they want to vote in. If that’s what the voters want then I support them. We shouldn’t be limiting who folks could vote for, we shouldn’t be afraid of who they’re going to vote for.
What would you do to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers? Where will the money come from?
I think one of the major things at the state level is we need to stop preempting local counties and cities from doing whatever they need to do to make housing more affordable locally. Say if your county wanted to say that in every new development, at least 10% of it needs to go to affordable housing. If locals wanted to make those sort of requirements, they should be able to. The state prevents that.
Who is a leader you aspire to emulate and why?
I have to go back to (U.S. Sen.) Paul Wellstone for somebody that I truly admire. He was a congressman, he was the one who said "We all do better when we all do better." He was truly about making sure that people had everything that they need to be successful. He was very much pro-labor and for the working person. For regular families, it’s not that you provide everything for them, but you provide the climate so everyone can be successful.
ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE
Gloria Johnson did not participate in the Knox News voter's guide online questionnaire.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee House midterm election voter's guide: Meet the candidates
