Barry reflects on where Middle Tennessee is headed as she runs for congress against a Republican
Megan Barry is running for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of Middle and West Tennessee, including a portion of Davidson County. While she does not face an opponent in the Democratic primary, she’ll run against the Republican incumbent. She says she chose to run in a district that’s been a recent Republican stronghold because of the lack of choice in the district.
Furthermore, Barry says she strongly feels her opponent Rep. Mark Green does not effectively represent his constituents — he had actually announced his retirement from Congress but rescinded his decision after the Republican Party urged him to reconsider. Some of the issues she intends to run on are access to healthcare, reproductive freedom for women, accessible affordable housing so that people do not have to leave their communities, and the right of parents to feel and know that their children are safe at school.
Another issue that is always close to Barry’s heart is related to the opioid crisis, where she advocates to expand services to alleviate mental illness, substance use disorder, and overdose crisis. She lost her only son to an overdose while still serving as the 7th Mayor of Nashville and has written a forthcoming book called It’s What You Do Next, which will be published on Nov. 12, 2024.
In today’s Q&A, we asked Barry to comment on several topics about where Nashville is heading.
On Transit/Transportation
Where is Nashville?
We’re behind and trying to catch up. We are the only city of the Top 25 most populated cities in the US without a dedicated funding source for transit.
Where would you like it to go?
There will be a transit referendum on the ballot this year. Nashville should pass it.
Are we on course, based on what you just said?
Nashvillians will need to get energized and excited about the transit proposal and come out to vote in the November election.
On Housing
Where is Nashville?
We’re behind and desperately need to catch up. We haven’t built enough housing at differing price points for Nashvillians to afford to live here.
Where would you like it to go?
We need to safeguard the housing we have and we have to be intentional about building more at different price points. This is a multi-prong approach at the local and state level which includes increased funding to the Barnes Housing Trust Fund, creating new revenue sources for preservation, using existing underutilized publicly-owned land to create housing and incentivizing the folks who are building housing all over Nashville — developers — to include affordable housing in their mix.
Are we on course, based on what you just said?
There are a lot of good efforts across the board and housing advocates have put a tremendous amount of time and energy into this and moved the needle significantly. There is always more to do and under this presidential administration, we’ve seen efforts to expand assistance and support for renters, build homeownership opportunities by reducing mortgage insurance premiums, and boosting the housing supply through renovation, low-income housing tax credits and the new Neighborhood Homes tax credit.
On Education
Where is Nashville?
We need to make sure our children in public schools are getting a great education and we still have work to do. Less than 50 percent of our high school graduates are college-ready, and students in schools in lower-income areas achieve less favorable outcomes than their peers. However, the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) gave MNPS a Level 5 value-added growth score, the highest score that they give, for the second year in a row last year. We are improving but there is always room for growth.
Where would you like it to go?
We can improve student outcomes in a myriad of ways. I will leave the specifics of what that looks like inside a classroom to the professional educators that know better than I do. I trust them. We have to ask what the overall community can do to help our children. Let’s start with making sure they are safe at school by passing real gun safety laws, have stable housing, access to nutritional food, after school activities that engage and challenge them, and as they become older, opportunities to participate in paid internships and job opportunities. Creating all of this is not the job of teachers, but of leaders, elected and others, to make sure our children have everything they need to be successful.
Are we on course, based on what you just said?
I definitely have hope. Dr. Battle has been a great champion and advocate for our children and she and her team are working hard everyday to make this happen.
On Health and Collaborationand Partnerships
Where is Nashville?
Right now, women in Tennessee do not have access to basic reproductive health and our maternal mortality is the third highest in the country. We have not expanded Medicaid in Tennessee — leaving over $22B in federal dollars on the table. Think of all the healthcare and health outcomes our citizens could have benefited from if we had done this. We still can. The state legislature needs to expand this. Tennessee has the highest rate of rural hospital closures in the country. When people don’t have access to a hospital or emergency care in their county, it can cost them their lives. A Beacon Center poll earlier this month asked respondents about the most significant barrier they face in achieving financial stability and growth.
Respondents said, “High healthcare costs that are not covered by insurance or employer.” Healthcare is a basic human right and people shouldn’t have to go broke to make sure they and their families have access to medical care.
Where would you like it to go?
Expand Medicaid in Tennessee. An expansion will ensure that our most vulnerable citizens, especially those experiencing mental illness, will have resources to help them. This can only be done in partnership with the state legislature. The federal government can’t mandate that Tennessee take the money nor can local healthcare advocates circumvent the state. This has to be done in partnership with the governor and the state legislature.
Are we on course, based on what you just said?
In order for us to be on the right track for these issues, we need to elect leaders who care about these issues.
On Equity
Who are we leaving behind in Nashville?
We are leaving a lot of folks behind and that demographic is growing in Nashville as we see more people who are cost-burdened by housing, transit, and healthcare. There are many who have often been on the margins — the unhoused, the poor, the mentally ill and minority communities. Investment in transit, affordable housing, education and healthcare will go a long way toward making sure that no one gets left behind.
What is Nashville doing well to remedy the situation?
Imagine Nashville asked respondents to identify Nashville’s biggest challenges. One interesting outcome was that most Nashvillians believe that growth is making things better in Nashville — bringing benefits and advantages. We need to make sure that everyone is benefiting from the growth and this takes deliberate policies and actions by leaders and elected officials.
What could we do that we’re not doing yet?
We could elect Congressional representatives who would support policies that facilitate better voter participation. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would have strengthened legal protections against discriminatory voting policies and practices, didn’t pass the Senate in 2021, and wouldn’t pass the House today. Tennessee ranks 51st in voter turnout nationally, when you include Washington, D.C. Dead last. It’s a vicious cycle, where bad voting policies create low turnout which elects representatives who enact bad voting policies, and the cycle repeats. But if enough Nashvillians show up in November, we can beat back the effects of partisan gerrymandering and send one, two, or even three more people to Congress to vote for better voting policy.