NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With early voting underway in the race for Tennessee governor, Democratic nominee Jerri Green is asking voters to back a platform built around household costs, public schools and health care, set against Republican nominee U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Early voting runs through Oct. 29, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Independent candidate David Hatley is also on the ballot for governor.
Green, a lawyer and former public defender who served on the Memphis City Council, lists ending the state sales tax on groceries as a top economic goal, paired with a plan to shift more of the tax burden to corporations.
Several of her proposals would tap federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money the state holds. She would put $50 million toward clearing the child care waitlist, $10 million toward covering security deposits for more than 100,000 families and another $10 million toward buying and erasing medical debt for more than 100,000 residents.
On schools, the platform calls for fully funding K-12 public education instead of voucher programs, raising teacher pay and expanding universal pre-K. On health care, Green backs expanding Medicaid, with a focus on rural Tennessee, and declaring a maternal health crisis to steer money to prenatal and postpartum care.
Green also promises a set of executive orders. They include one backing a statewide moratorium on data centers along with an end to state incentives for building them, one affirming that the Tennessee Valley Authority should stay a public utility, and one aimed at shielding doctors who provide women’s health care from prosecution.
Her plan would also end cooperation between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and federal immigration agents, decline to renew private prison contracts and seek to end the state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in East Tennessee.
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