Megan Barry: Vote Your Heart, Light Your Mind

US House District 7: Former elected official, community leader, businesswoman, Bruce's wife- and always Max's Mom

(Questions? Comments? Suggestions? flynnconsult@gmail.com)

Friends, Because tomorrow is the start of early voting (October 16th), I am quickly posting this interview with minimal text- just enough to provide context for the questions I asked Megan Barry regarding her candidacy for US House District 7. The only exception is Question 3 where Megan talks candidly and lovingly about her son, Max, honors the support of her husband Bruce, acknowledges her errors, and shares her road to redemption.

I am URGING YOU to listen for yourselves to Megan’s responses to all of the Questions here. I know she will light up your mind with the possibility of change and touch your heart with her humility, compassion, and commitment to serve us- again.

This is the time for real leaders, real representation, real change, and especially the importance of centering real dedication when choosing those who will legislate for our Nation. So please watch and listen, check out her website, then go vote, and encourage others to vote, for Megan Barry, US House District 7!!

Believing in what Megan will do next, Michele

Question 1: Nashville Arrival. Question 2: Trajectory to Candidacy. Question 3: Death & Redemption. Question 4: Public Policy Issues. Question 5: Opponent Positions. Question 6: Constituent Concerns. Question 7: Encourages/Challenges. Question 8: Union Impacts. Question 9: Campaign Support.

“At some point, all of us will be at our worst, and while some of us will be remembered for it, none of us should be defined by it.” From “It's What You Do Next: The Fall and Rise of Nashville's First Female Mayor” by Megan Barry

QUESTION 1: Megan arrived in Nashville in the early 90s to attend the MBA program at Vanderbilt University. Expecting to stay just 18 months she, like a lot of folks, fell in love with Nashville, married her husband Bruce, and raised their son, Max in her adopted city.

QUESTION 2: Megan’s Trajectory from her early years to running for a US House seat included birth in California while her dad was in the military and a childhood in a small Kansas community with her extended family. While conducting ancestry research she learned that ironically, “…my family actually came from Tennessee and moved to Kansas.”

Megan graduated from Baker University with an Elementary Education degree but only “taught for about 10 minutes because I figured out it was the hardest job there ever was.” Watching her sister teach Special Education in public school confirmed this belief.

Megan determined that “If you are at the beginning of a journey, you should get educated about the skills that you need to take that next step. For me, it was going into business” so Megan secured an MBA at Vanderbilt.

Megan’s entry into politics began when she ran for Secretary of her 5th-grade class, “This is before anybody would let women run for president or vice president.” Her Mom taught her the first lesson in politics after she lost by one vote: Cast your ballot for yourself because, “If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.”

After losing again when she ran for Junior Vice President at her all-girl High School, her Mom taught her the second lesson political lesson:“If you don't put in the work, you're not going to get it.”

So, when she arrived at college and ran for Officer of her Sorority, Megan put her Mom’s sage advice into action and, “I did win. But like so many women, after college, I put that away, and it never occurred to me again to ever run for office.”

After becoming a corporate executive, engaging in her neighborhood association, and involvement in the PTO at Max’s school, Megan realized, “how much could happen at the local level by people who were dedicated and cared.” So, she decided to run for a Metro Council At-Large seat, where she served for two terms (2007-2015) and then won the race to be the first female Mayor of Nashville (2015-2018).

During her Council terms, they passed the non-discrimination ordinance which required “working with folks across the aisle who were not necessarily going to vote for it, but…not oppose it.”

As Mayor, Megan helped to bring soccer to Nashville because it was “…a sport that so many people could come together around… new Nashvillians, old Nashvillians…Geodes Park…is a beautiful thing, all the great energy that's there.”

Megan also helped to convene the Opportunity Now program that created 10,000 jobs for 14 to 22-year-olds at risk for violence and required employers to “…actually pay them for their labor.” The program was inspired by her son Max.

QUESTION 3: Megan shared insights about the death of her son Max, personal error while in office, forgiveness by her husband, and path to redemption through service.

Megan began by saying, “We're all going to have our worst day, and you hope that that's not what you're going to ultimately be remembered for, because it is what you do next that counts.”

Megan continued, “We were experiencing a child that had a substance-use disorder…People know, if who have experienced it, the kind of shame and guilt that you deal with when you're in that situation…I was the Mayor, and I didn't tell anybody…It's not an excuse” but “When you have a sick child it puts a lot of stress in your life, on your marriage, and on your relationships.”

Max died of an overdose in 2017, the same year “over 70,000 families lost somebody” to opioid death in Tennessee. Megan has since spent her time talking about coping with this challenge. “What I know now is that by keeping in the darkness that shame and that guilt we don't let other people know they're not alone…Over the last six years” Megan showed up anywhere, to talk to any group, any place, and share our story and Max's story, in the hope that there's somebody in that audience who needs to hear my message that day, to know that they're not alone.

“Inevitably, somebody will come up to me afterwards and say, ‘I'm just so grateful to hear the story because this is happening in my life, and I don't have anybody to tell. I don't have anybody to talk to. And if I acknowledge this out loud, then my community, my faith community, my family, they just won't understand.’

“I try to maintain those connections. My phone is full of folks that I try to keep in touch with to say, ‘Hey, look, you're not alone. I'm thinking about you today, and I hope today you can get through whatever is going to come at you.’”

The three things Megan loved the most in 2017 were, “My son Max, my job as the Mayor, and my husband Bruce. Over the course of a short amount of time, I lost two of those things: my most precious Max, but I also lost my job, which I loved deeply. There was one thing I could redeem and put back together: my marriage to Bruce. That started with trust and forgiveness, but it also came with forgetting. Bruce forgave me, but then he also gave me the ultimate gift, which is he forgot.”

Megan has found “many, many folks who are kind and caring” in Nashville, “and want to hug me in the grocery store and tell me that they could care less…I don't know if that'll be reflected in the ballot box…” but it is not stopping her from running to serve, because that is what she does.

(NOTE: Information about pre-ordering Megan’s book, “It’s What You Do Next, The Rise and Fall of Nashville’s First Female Mayor” is included at the end of this piece).

QUESTION 4: Megan outlined her major Public Policy priorities.

Overdose Death Prevention: Megan referenced the 70,000 opioid deaths in 2017 and noted the rate rose to 100,000 in 2023, “a dramatic increase.” While there’s been a“tick down in actual deaths” in 2024 “we're still seeing a rise in actual overdoses.”

This decline in deaths is due to the public policy change making the overdose prevention drugs Naloxone and Nalmefene (NARCAN) more readily available. However, gaining access to these costly drugs in rural areas continues to be a challenge. Therefore Megan proposes “expanding the distribution of Narcan and Neloxone nationally” and at no cost.

Megan bemoaned the “continuing…fentanyl flow over our borders,” which is having a devastating “impact on our communities.” Megan said this could have been curbed by the recent bi-partisan bill that included more detection machines and security agents but Republicans, including her opponent Green, defeated it (at the urging of former President Trump).

Megan countered the Republican narrative about who is bringing these drugs into our country. “…Fentanyl is not being carried in a backpack from some poor person…coming up the Darien Gap” but rather it’s “coming through our (shipping) ports in very sophisticated ways, through the cartels.” Megan vowed to “absolutely do something about this” when she gets to Washington.

On a recent college visit Megan learned Narcan is “now available on every dorm floor… I think that is a huge step.” Megan compared the need for easier access to overdose prevention drugs equivalent to putting “defibrillators in public spaces so that people can be saved.”

Abortion Protection: Tennessee has one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country and Megan offered, “my opponent supports that.” Because we cannot get a referendum on the ballot allowing us to all vote on this issue, “the only way that women in Tennessee are going to have reproductive freedom safeguarded is if it happens at the national level.

“We have enough instances in our past where we relied on “state’s rights” to make critical decisions about segregation, about marriage…this idea “makes us all stepchildren.”

Gun Safety: Megan affirms, “I'm not taking your guns away. I believe in the Second Amendment” and the “right to bear arms. But we don't say that you have the right to bear ALL arms.”

Providing federal protection by passing a federal law for gun safety is not new, according to Megan. If elected she expects to advocate for national legislation requiring background checks, a “red flag” provision, vetting before purchase, banning assault weapons, and installing a serial number on every gun so they are tracable.

Megan is also expecting “the Supreme Court ruling on the ‘ghost gun’ to actually…help protect us a little more.”

Medicaid Expansion: US Congressional District 7 includes 14 counties, “many of them rural communities that have lost their rural hospital.” Megan links these hospital closures to “the fact that our (state) elected officials did not take the Medicare Expansion” and instead left “$22 billion…on the table.”

At a parade in her District, a rural Mayor told her that the single “ambulance he has to serve the whole county is not enough.” Megan informed him “There's ways to get.. federal dollars…into these communities to help with that.” Two weeks later when she returned to the same community for a local festival “a woman fell and broke her hip, and it did take that ambulance a very, very long time to come from the other side of the county to get her.”

Although he knew Megan was a Democrate and he was a Republican, this Mayor “…didn't care. He said, ‘If you can help me fix my problem, then I want to be for you.’’ He just wants “…to serve his people…to have the best quality of life, access to education, access to health care, access to the economy, all the stuff that we all want.”

During the last federal Appropriations, “where Congresspeople…give their wish list of what they want, and then those dollars can flow back into the district” her opponent Green, “didn't even bother to show up…and so District 7 got $0.”

“That's another reason why I want to go to Washington- I will show up.”

Economic Development: Megan wants people in her District to be able to “access good jobs in the community where they want to live, and earn a wage that means they only have to have one full-time job…It also means the ability to unionize.”

Meghan feels fortunate to have been endorsed by several unions. “These are hard-working people who get up every day and make our electric grid work..our pipes work. These folks need good jobs, and unions provide that.”

Megan added “taxes and the tax burden…shouldn't be falling on lower- to middle-class folks. It should be on very high-end earners and corporations” who “need to pay their fair share.”

QUESTION 5: Asked to differentiate herself from her opponent, Republican Mark Green, who has held the District 7 seat since 2019, Megan said there is a bipartisan bill called Restoring Faith in Government Act that “would ban Congress from trading individual stocks.” She noted Green “…makes 400% return on his investments,” which “even if there's nothing untoward going on, the perception is just as dangerous. That’s how we lose faith in our government.” Megan commited to signing onto the bill if elected.

While “one can never know somebody else's heart” Megan pointed to Green’s statement in January, saying “he didn't want to do this anymore” because, “Washington is broken and I can't fix Washington anymore. I need to come back to Tennessee.” By contrast, Megan said “That's why I want to go to Washington, to help fix it.”

In a campaign letter Green sent to Megan (see below) he says “he got back in because Trump had called him and told him to get back in.” Oddly, this would be his 4th run for Congress but he was a co-signer on an amendment that would limit Congressional service to three terms. Megan asked adroitly, “Maybe that's why his heart isn't in it?

“I would hope that the next person who sits in that seat will bring much more of a heart to want to do this.”

Meagn went on to say that while Green’s letter talks about him being a doctor, “he’s the kind of doctor that does not believe in any kind of abortion. He's signed onto the Life Begins at Conception Act” meaning “He doesn't believe in…a carve-out for IVF. That is the kind of doctor he is.”

While he is a veteran, and Megan thanks him for his service, he has never voted “for any bill that supports veterans” including the Pact Act, which “…provides resources for veterans exposed to burn pits” and “has served over a million veterans.” Green also voted against a recent bill that would have provided “additional funding for service members, including a pay raise, resources for housing unhoused veterans, and mental health for veterans… That's the kind of veteran he is.”

While claiming the title of Conservative, Green is actually a Maga-Conservative. “He does not believe in any kind of controls or bans on any kind of guns.” Rerring to himself as a “Two-Air,” meaning the “Second Amendment trumps everything,” and believes in “unfettered access to firearms” with no background checks or red flag laws.

Megan contends Mark Green “is an extremist” and “is out of step with the majority of people in this district” who are Moderates.” A recent Vanderbilt poll found “much more alignment, even from moderate Republicans and Maga Republicans, on reproductive health as well as gun safety.”

“My hope is that this district would be more inclined to send somebody to Washington that reflects the views of this district and wants to work to make sure that the quality of life for every constituent is something that we can all have.”

QUESTION 6: When speaking with Constituents in District 7, Megan found the common themes to be access to good paying jobs, a good education, being able to stay in the community where they live and the ability of their children to buy homes in the area so “families can stay together.” Megan is also hearing about gun safety and reproductive health. These issues, “cross all kinds of lines as far as ideology and party.”

Megan found “people just want to have a conversation.” At a recent event when she spoke with a Veteran to thank him for his service, “We had a nice conversation.” Then “he said to me, ‘So what are you?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I'm a Democrat’ and he said, ‘Yeah, nope.’ And I said, ‘Okay. But let me tell you where I stand on veterans issues.’ At the end of it, I don't know if he's gonna vote for me, but at least I made him think, and we had a conversation. That's been the real value of being out in the community.”

“People want to talk and not fight…but try to find the stuff that we do agree on. That is something I think I do bring that is different from my opponent.” As a Mayor, Megan had to “work with people to get stuff done. I look forward to doing that” in Washington.

Megan acknowledged, “At the end of the day, this is going to come down to voting…Tennesseans just don't show up to vote. The good news is, we saw a couple of days ago there have been over 200,000 new voter registrations in the state. In these rural communities… the majority of those folks are women. I think that's very exciting because I do think women want to make sure their voices are being heard in this election.”

Because registering to vote doesn't get you to the poll, Megan urged everyone to encourage new registrants to get out to vote and suggested “It's so much more fun to go with somebody.”

Megan reminded everyone, Election Day is November 5th. Early voting starts on October 16th” so, “Please make a plan. Please make sure you vote. And please take 10 people with you.”

QUESTION 7: Responding to the question “What Encourages you about District 7 and the State of Tennessee?” Megan responded, “One of the great things…over the last several years was the passing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill” resulting in “a tremendous amount of dollars” flowing into Tennessee to help with broadband in rural communities, along with bridges and roads.

Addressing Challenges in these areas, Megan said we need to make sure “our elected officials in the State House are taking the best care of Tennessee…We have to be diligent” when they return in January, “to make sure they remember that Tennesseans want a great public education system.” In her visits around District 7 Megan was struck by how the high schools and junior high schools are “the heart of these communities. This is where people gather on Friday night to watch a baseball game, a basketball game, a football game…It doesn't matter who you are, you're all part of this system, and it brings the community together.” However, if Vouchers pass, “that will decimate the public education system in these rural communities.”

QUESTION 8: Commenting on the the number of Union Endorsements Megan has earned, she deliberately approached working class union folks to ask for their support. “I believe in union jobs and I believe in unions.” In contrast, “My opponent is co-signer on a bill that would eliminate the ability to unionize.” Given that Tennessee is “already a Right-to-Work State”, it's already difficult” to unionize here, but Megan pointed to the successful UAW organizing of the Volkswagon plant in Chattanooga that’s keeping workers safe and providing important job training.

She went on to recommend the MC3 program that trains anyone wanting to be employed in the trades and “get on with a union” because we need “electricians, pipe-fitters, and (all of the other trades) in a growing community.”

“Nashville's on fire…so we have to make sure we provide good jobs.”

QUESTION 9: Asked how people can Support her Campaign, Megan responded “We would love to have you. We need all kinds of help to wrap this up” including, “folks who are willing to work a poll…make phone calls… and canvas.”

Also, “at the end of the day, we still need money.” While “Campaigns run on money” Megan is proud that 85% of her contributions have come from Tennesseans.

She reminds us: “Nobody is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.”

To get involved, go to: https://www.meganbarryforcongress.com/

Megan also offered her personal phone to answer questions and accept offers of help: 615-480-3008.

Megan concluded, “I'd be honored” for your help and also “I would be honored if you live in District 7 to earn your vote. Thank you.”

To pre-order Megan’s book, which will be on sale just after the election, go to this link at Amazon.