Joda Thongnopnua seeks District 30 seat

Joda Thongnopnua announced Thursday he is running as a Democrat for the state House District 30 seat.

District 30 includes East Lake, Missionary Ridge, East Ridge, Brainerd, East Brainerd, Concord, Apison and Collegedale. It will be an open seat this year because Republican incumbent Marc Gravitt is giving it up to run for Hamilton County register of deeds.

Thongnopnua said he will focus on issues that matter to working families and solutions that expand opportunity for the residents of his district and all Tennesseans.

"Working families in Tennessee deserve someone who's going to fight for them," he said in a news release. "Not just another empty suit who's only running to rubber stamp a failed agenda of politicians in Nashville. That's why I'm running, to make sure voters have a clear choice: someone with substance or more of the same."

The bread-and-butter economic issues that matter to working families will be at the forefront of his campaign, including raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and fighting predatory lending practices, the release states.

Thongnopnua said he learned the value of hard work and perseverance through his family's story of working their way into the middle class. But the path into the middle class is getting increasingly narrow, he said in the release.

"I was raised in a working family in East Ridge, so I know firsthand that we can't afford to elect a politician who will settle for two more years of the same problems," he said.

"I watched my parents work hard to provide for my sisters and I. Sometimes that meant making tough choices. But that never shook their core belief that if they worked hard, played by the rules, and did the right thing, they could achieve the American Dream.

"But because of the inaction and negligence of our state legislature, too many Tennesseans are falling further behind and find themselves locked out of the promise of opportunity."

Thongnopnua is executive director of the Metro Ideas Project, a nonprofit urban policy startup that works on municipal issues. He has helped city leaders fight for more funding for neglected schools, developed neighborhood revitalization strategies and worked to put a stop to predatory lending across Tennessee.

He called himself a sensible, pragmatic community leader who has worked with a wide range of people, regardless of political party. He pledged to bring the same consensus-building style to his campaign.

Thongnopnua is the only Democrat in the race to date. There are two Republicans, Esther Helton and Johnathan Mason.

Election Day is Nov. 6.