If Tennessee is the testing ground for Project 2025, then the nation must look to the South as the blueprint for resistance.
✨️Honored. Inspired. Fired Up.✨️
This weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to share space with two of my movement heroes—Stacey Abrams and Julián Castro—at the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Board of Directors meeting right here in Nashville. Their presence in the South was not just symbolic; it was a powerful affirmation that our bold solutions are worth listening to and funding.
For too long, the South has had something to say! But donors in coastal blue states have overlooked non-battleground Southern states as worthy of bold investments. This has to change!
As an organizer, comms strategist, and democracy entrepreneur who’s been in movement work on the ground for years helping to expand our electorate and secure policy wins for marginalized groups, I know firsthand that the South is not just the ultimate battleground—it’s the blueprint for reclaiming our power to take back this nation from billionaires and authoritarian bullies.
If we want to build solidarity and lasting people power in Tennessee, we must:
✅ Invest in leadership pipeline programs that recruit, cultivate and financially sustain homegrown movement leaders, candidates, and electeds.
In 2022, 49% of state legislative seats held by Tennessee GOP members were uncontested by a Democratic candidate. Gerrymandered districts have made state House and Senate races uncompetitive, which disincentivizes investment in general election cycles and undermines voter turnout. That means a Republican candidate from a small rural district can make their way to the Tennessee General Assembly – with all their extremist ideas and conspiracy theories in tow – and enact our state’s laws without ever being challenged, checked or battletested. Leadership development programs, such as Run For Something, Emerge America, Re:Power, or Vote Run Lead, exists on the national level to help build a bench of civic leaders ready to run for office, lead campaigns, and govern effectively but their footprint in Tennessee has not yet been comprehensive nor sustaining.
✅ Establish communications infrastructure that directly speaks to and mobilizes our base.
Conservatives have damn-near perfected how to dominate the media airwaves. Whether it’s creating podcasts and radio shows, buying up cable news and newspapers, or taking over social media platforms, the far right has created their own echo-chamber ecosystem in a way that shapes public opinion, shift narratives about reality, and undermine public trust. How do we resist and counteract this machine to harness the power of Black and Hispanic podcasters, influencers, reporters and media outlets that people actually tune into and read? Greater investments are needed in creating and curating our own communication hubs that can test messages, tell our own stories, and shape narratives that mobilize our unique constituencies.
✅ Build legal and policy think tanks to craft bold legislative solutions and challenge extremism in the courts.
It’s no secret that the Tennessee legislature passes lawsuits, not laws. Progressive groups and left-leaning institutions are constantly having to file legal challenges in the courts to protect civil liberties, bodily autonomy, and local control. Too often we look to national pro bono legal organizations to swoop in and take our cases. Greater coordination and infrastructure is needed within Southern states like Tennessee to build an in-house apparatus of attorneys, policy analysts, and researchers that support elected officials and advocates with bold policy proposals.
✅ Fund base-building orgs to do mutual aid, community care, and safety/security programs as mechanism for organizing.
When the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic struck, organizers like myself found ourselves pivoting from Census outreach and voter registration to rapid response efforts, financially helping ordinary Tennesseans pay their bills, keep their businesses open, and stay healthy. Fast forward to today where federal career civil servants are being terminated arbitrarily and deep cuts to safety net programs are being threatened by Elon Musk and Trump’s cronies. Where does this leave our vulnerable neighbors? Who will step in and carry the burden when our economy takes a downturn? Progressive base-building organizations should – and must – be there alongside direct service nonprofits to welcome people with open arms and a well-funded bank account to meet their needs.
Tennessee has been living under Project 2025 policies for nearly two decades. We know what’s coming because we’ve been fighting against it for years—making gains and securing small victories. That’s why we must have a seat at the table to strategize on how we survive, thrive, and win back our country.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak alongside my comrades in the fight – Councilwoman Delishia Porterfield, Lisa Sherman Luna (TIRRC), and Austin Sauerbrei (SOCM); to be joined for dinner by Mayor Freddie O’Connell; and commend Marguerite Casey Foundation for bringing this conversation to Tennessee and committing to resourcing the real changemakers doing the work.
Peace.
