Policy Positions

ECONOMIC LIBERTY & OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

MORE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

Government accountability is essential to protecting our natural rights, taxpayer resources, and preventing corruption. We support any legislation that requires public employees to be more transparent, responsible, and answerable for their actions. We believe in restoring a culture in Tennessee where public service—whether elected or appointed—is viewed as a temporary duty rather than a lifelong career, while promoting private sector employment as the preferred path for long-term prosperity. We believe that elected and appointed officials work for the people. Every act undertaken by our legislators should be to the benefit of the voting taxpayers of Tennessee and not entrenched special interests or lobbyists.

LOWER TAXES

Taxation is the government's compulsory collection of financial contributions from individuals and businesses to fund public services and infrastructure. We believe that taxation should be minimized to prevent undue burdens on taxpayers and to avoid abuses of power, as government programs frequently lack accountability and become rife with waste and fraud. Government actions too often diverge from the principles held by the taxpayers who fund them.

We strongly support a constitutional amendment to ban any future legislature from instituting state income or state property taxes in Tennessee. Furthermore, we advocate for the reduction or elimination of as many taxes and fees as possible and demand that budget surpluses be returned to the people of Tennessee. We believe policies that slash or eliminate burdensome taxes respect individual rights, support voluntary transactions, and allow for greater human flourishing.

LESS REGULATIONS

Government regulations—bureaucratic barriers and costs imposed by authorities—stifle economic freedom by raising compliance costs, reducing profit margins, hindering innovation and investment, and distorting supply-and-demand signals. Over-regulation disproportionately favors larger corporations, harming smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. We support significant reduction of existing regulations and strict limits on new ones. Regulations should be introduced only after rigorous cost-benefit analysis and must be broadly "economically significant." Following the lead of Idaho’s innovative regulatory reform that adopted zero-based regulations, we propose that Tennessee adopt a policy where every regulation imposed includes a sunset clause, expiring after ten years unless reviewed and renewed. This approach ensures that no regulation remains permanently on the books without periodic review and justification by legislators. The burden of proof must rest with the government to demonstrate the continued necessity of every regulation.

ANTI-CRONYISM

Cronyism occurs when politically connected businesses collaborate with corrupt legislators to secure regulations, mandates, subsidies, or other special treatments that give them an unfair advantage over competitors. We oppose legislation that allocates millions of taxpayer dollars to corporations in sweetheart deals to lure them to Tennessee. While such deals may be a “win” for politicians and their select constituencies, they are an inefficient use of tax dollars and unfair to businesses already operating in Tennessee or those coming here without this special treatment. We strongly advocate for more robust private property protections, especially against eminent domain abuses by state-owned monopoly actors such as the TVA. We support legislation that makes Tennessee attractive to all businesses—large and small alike—through extensive reduction of existing business taxes and fewer burdensome occupational licensing requirements.

PRO-FREE MARKETS

Free markets empower individuals to innovate, create jobs, and generate prosperity without harmful government intervention. We support simplifying business registration procedures, reducing administrative obstacles, and implementing unbiased, comprehensive tax benefits to facilitate the establishment and operation of business. Entrepreneurs are crucial to Tennessee’s economy, offering employment opportunities for Tennesseans and invigorating local and rural economies. Additionally, the state government must respect the sovereignty of Tennessee entrepreneurs over their private property and allow the adoption of policies that may be controversial but amount to an expression of freedom of association. Our state legislature should pursue policies that make Tennessee the most business-friendly environment in the nation.

ABUNDANT ENERGY

Abundant energy is essential for economic liberty as it fuels growth, industrial development, and individual prosperity. We support policies that meet Tennessee’s current and future energy needs with an open regulatory environment that encourages innovation in energy production and transmission while offering consumers competitive energy pricing and choices. We oppose taxpayer-funded subsidies for any energy source and believe that Tennessee consumers are far more capable of determining their best energy source than the government. Tennessee should embrace an “all of the above” approach to energy, allowing businesses in our state to reduce costs, expand, and compete in the global economy as the consumers vote with their wallet.

SECURE ELECTIONS

Public trust in the integrity of our elections is vital to protecting our free and fair democratic system. We support policies to secure state and local elections for Tennessee residents who are American citizens only. In-person voting, paper ballots, and hand-counting ought to be the norm, and we oppose mass mail-in ballots and experiments like ranked-choice voting. We support closed party primaries, regular and thorough audits of elections, and maintenance of accurate voter rolls. We also support a state constitutional amendment to explicitly prohibit non-citizens from voting in state and local elections in Tennessee, and strongly encourage the federal government to adopt the same.

PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

We strongly oppose the unionization of state and local public sector workers whose salaries are funded by taxpayers. Negotiating with elected officials, who may offer favorable terms for political reasons, creates a moral hazard that cannot be ignored. Public sector employees serve the public, and we believe the idea that they should have the same right to unionize as private sector workers is wrong. Public sector union members should also be strictly prohibited from lobbying the Tennessee legislature in their official capacity as public employees in all cases.

NULLIFICATION

Tennessee, along with its counties and municipalities, has the fundamental right under the Tenth Amendment to nullify or refuse to enforce certain federal laws that overstep constitutional bounds and infringe on state sovereignty. We support nullification laws to ensure that every Tennesseans' right to self-defense is protected, to reject federal healthcare mandates that reduce consumer choices and increase costs, to challenge federal affordable housing mandates that erode private property rights, to resist federal education mandates that force one-size-fits-all government schooling on Tennessee families, and to protect our brave Tennessee National Guard troops from being thrust into harm’s way in undeclared foreign conflicts. We believe that our elected legislators have a crucial responsibility to stand up and push back against Washington overreach and protect Tennesseans from unconstitutional or otherwise illegal federal action.

PERSONAL LIBERTY & RESPONSIBILITY

PROTECT CIVIL LIBERTIES

We support the fundamental right to freedom of religion, to practice one’s faith as one wishes without government interference, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of the press to publish news, information and opinions without fear of government censorship to ensure an informed citizenry and accountable government, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. We believe that government is uniquely ill-equipped to determine what constitutes love between consenting adults, and ought not be involved in the institution of marriage at all. We oppose all legislation that seeks to sanction or endorse government discrimination on the basis of certain immutable characteristics, violating the fundamental American concepts of meritocracy and equality before the law.

RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

We unequivocally support the inalienable right of every Tennessean to keep and bear arms as reaffirmed by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. We support the total elimination of all existing arbitrary distinctions between "concealed" and "open" carry and oppose any law that allows for the confiscation of firearms without due process, such as so-called red flag laws. We believe that a well-armed society is a polite society, and maintain that public safety is significantly enhanced when more responsible citizens exercise their right to self-defense.

INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY

Privacy is essential for personal dignity and autonomy. Tennesseans have the right to make independent decisions without undue influence or coercion. We support strong privacy laws to limit state surveillance activities and to restrict the collection, use, and sharing of personal data by public entities. A potential digital bill of rights that ensures consent-based data collection with clear language for opt-in should be key components of this protection.

EDUCATIONAL CHOICE

We support reducing federal and state control over education to allow more choice for families. Parents should have the freedom to decide how to best educate their children, and our state government should ensure a fair, open, and vibrant education market rather than enforce a government-run monopoly. The quality of a child’s education should never be contingent on their zip-code. We believe that school choice – when properly understood as funding students rather than bureaucratic systems - does not undermine public education, but rather enhances it.

HEALTHCARE CHOICE

We advocate for easing healthcare regulations to create more competitive and innovative healthcare options. By eliminating harmful barriers such as certificate-of-need laws, Tennessee residents can enjoy more healthcare choices. We also support legislation promoting pricing transparency to empower consumers to make informed decisions about their care. Additionally, we view the heart-breaking reality of drug addiction as a medical issue, rather than a criminal offense, and support compassionate approaches to tackling Tennessee's opioid abuse crisis.

FOOD FREEDOM

Food freedom policies reduce government regulations on food production, distribution, and consumption, respecting consumer choice and local control. We support direct farm-to-consumer sales, cottage food laws, and food sovereignty legislation that empowers local or regional bodies to establish and enforce their own standards without influence from Nashville politicians.

ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEPENDENCY

We support public policies that promote economic independence and reduce reliance on costly government aid. Time-limited welfare-to-work programs, apprenticeships, and skills development initiatives that are rigorously evaluated for effectiveness and fiscal responsibility are crucial to breaking the cycle of dependency and fostering self-sufficiency. We are not opposed to the social safety net, we simply believe that it is in the best interest of Tennessee taxpayers that such a net is primarily operated by private charities and community organizations who are most familiar with the need and underlying issues that exacerbate poverty.