My Oath Has No Expiration Date: Restoring Accountability to Our Government

I spent a decade in the military and worked in law enforcement because I believe in the chain of command. In those roles, duty and due process are the only things that stand between order and chaos. My life has been governed by a sacred oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I am a public servant. I have spent my career answering to the people and the law.

Today, the highest levels of our Administration are acting as if that oath no longer exists.

Abandoning Those Who Served

The 6th District is suffering because this government has lost its moral compass. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently eliminated roughly 30,000 positions and plans to cut 35,000 more roles.

Bureaucrats in Washington see “unfilled positions” on a spreadsheet. I see empty desks in claims offices and veterans in our rural communities waiting months for life-saving care. While this administration makes deep cuts to TennCare and special education, they are actively abandoning the men and women who risked everything for our flag. This is not just a policy failure. It is a dereliction of duty.

Political Games With American Lives

The deployment of 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis and the unauthorized military strike in Venezuela are absolute violations of due process. The President bypassed Congress and acted outside the proper chain of command to achieve his own ends. Our men and women in uniform are being used as pawns in a political game.

We saw the tragic, final result of this overreach on Wednesday. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Despite the administration’s attempts to label her a “domestic terrorist,” video evidence shows a woman attempting to drive away from a chaotic scene. As a former law enforcement officer, I know that when federal agents are sent into a city without local coordination or clear accountability, disaster is inevitable.

The hypocrisy of this administration’s “war on drugs” is equally deafening. On January 2nd, the President authorized a military raid to capture Nicolás Maduro for narcoterrorism. Only weeks prior, on December 1st, he pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez. Hernandez was convicted of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into our country.

If the goal is truly to stop the drug trade, releasing one of the largest narcoterrorists in history is a total failure of mission. This administration uses the justice system to reward political allies while Tennessee families deal with the reality of the drug crisis.

A Call to Leadership

The quality of life in the 6th District is eroding because our leaders are focused on exerting control rather than protecting the welfare of the people. Now more than ever, our country needs strong leadership in Congress that isn’t afraid to say “no” to executive overreach.

I am running for Congress to bring accountability back to Washington. We must demand an immediate inquiry into VA staffing cuts. We must restore Congressional oversight on military actions to prevent the unauthorized use of our federal forces. We must ensure the law is applied equally to everyone regardless of their political standing.

I still honor the oath I took. I am a public servant, and I am asking you to stand with me to restore the integrity of our government.