Your vote for Tennessee House District 30 representative should be an easy lift: Democrat Joda Thongnopnua has the heart, the mind, the training and the temperament to help Tennessee's government find common ground for the good of all of its people.
Thongnopnua, the son of two immigrant families, grew up in East Ridge where his father was the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church.
"I watched them work their way into the middle class," he says of his parents, recalling times when they had to decide whether to pay the power bill or something else. He remembers his parents sitting their children down and asking if they could agree on just one present for Christmas.
Thongnopnua, 25, became the first person in his family to graduate from college. He has a degree in public policy and now is the executive director of @ThinkMetro, his own policy research startup firm focused on helping mid-sized cities like Chattanooga.
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The trouble with Tennessee's state government now "is not a party thing, it's a super-majority thing," he says. "They talk about who should go to what bathroom and when and where and give teachers guns, not books. We have a nursing shortage statewide. We have a teacher training program that's not getting things done. I don't think our lawmakers' priority should be investigating which college contracts are with Nike. This is not about party. It's about having more representation."
His opposition for the open House seat vacated by Rep. Marc Gravitt, who was elected Hamilton County Register of Deeds, is Esther Helton, a 56-year-old licensed practical nurse who has said she will be a GOP party-line voter.
That's exactly the problem with Helton. She has no vision or plan - just a tired mantra: fiscal conservatism, smaller government, lower taxes (the state has no income tax and a soon-to-disappear investment tax, so our revenues depend on the nation's second-highest sales tax) and less regulation.
Helton has declined a debate. But in her endorsement interview with the Times Free Press, she said she she wants to "put health care back in the hands of patients." How? She couldn't really provide any specific ways to do that. She said "school safety is a huge issue" and she wants a school resource officer in each school. How? "Look and see where there's waste" to pay for it, she says.
Thongnopnua says government should be about ideas, not ideologues.
"I got into this race to fight for struggling families. If you're working 40 hours a week, you should not be on public assistance, but we have Head Start teachers teaching our kids to read and they only make $10 a hour.
Government is supposed to be about showing up and problem solving.
Thongnopnua and his campaigners have knocked on 12,000 doors in East Ridge, Apison, Collegedale, Concord, East Brainerd, Ooltewah and Westview.
He's all in for you, District 30. And he will serve you well. Vote for him.