07/28/2025
If I had to boil down my role at Tennessee Stands to one most crucial mission, it is the near-impossible task of getting Tennessee voters to turn their attention from the issues that plague our federal government and focus on what is happening here in our own backyard, in Nashville. Focusing on Congress and the White House is the easy thing to do because it’s what we have been trained to do. Thankfully, more and more Tennesseans are realizing that the same swamp we fight in Congress is oftentimes the same swamp that we fight right here at home. Even in the midst of a supermajority of Republicans in the General Assembly, you and I both know that special interests and high-pressure political tactics more often than not rule the day and lead to the demise of much of our conservative efforts here at home.
With that said, I am going to break one of my hard and fast rules and turn my attention to the race for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. I do so because of what is at stake and for someone that I now consider a friend and the staunchest of allies for conservative values here in Tennessee, State Representative Jody Barrett, candidate for Congress.
Here is what I know about Jody to be true because he has proven it time and time again – he will stand firm with Tennessee conservatives no matter what it might cost him personally. Jody is being viciously attacked by powerful and well-funded lobbying firms that sold Tennesseans a bill of goods on school voucher legislation that is neither conservative nor representative of the tax credits proposed by the Trump administration. Bill Lee’s voucher scam diverts taxpayer dollars from rural communities into urban centers, now funds the same student twice for participating in the program, and sends your money to families 65% percent of the time who are already enrolled in a private school, according to the estimates of our own legislative budget office. And our own Department of Education has now publicly acknowledged that they have no plans for tracking whether or not students who receive these funds were indeed already attending a private school. Jody stood with his district and voted NO on this special interest wealth redistribution scheme.
The Tennessee swamp continues to perform according to expectations by pushing civil immunity for pesticide manufacturers, standing against our efforts to ban weather modification, opposing efforts to protect homeschool families from burdensome regulations, opposing efforts to strengthen our resolve against unconstitutional federal overreach through nullification, opposing efforts to secure our elections with paper ballots and precinct-only voting, and codifying a right to abortifacients by redefining words like “emergency” contraception. 100% of the time, Jody stood with conservatives in Tennessee. And 100% of the time, Jody stood against the Tennessee swamp.
Congress is not a place for the weak. Just like at home, conservative legislators in Congress must be prepared to take heat from their own party’s leadership when they stand firm on what is right. The pressure to cave and play ball is immense. And the best of men will cave under that pressure. Jody Barrett has proven with blood, sweat, and tears that he can stand under that pressure in Tennessee. And I am confident that he will stand firm in Congress.
Jody Barrett has my complete and total endorsement in this race for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. And, he will win this race with your support. The Republican Primary for this special election will be held on October 7th. Jody has never let us down. And now, he needs our support. Let’s show conservatives that when they put it on the line for us, we have their back.
Gary Humble
Tennessee Stands, Executive Director
