Wyatt Rampy, the Republican nominee for Tennessee State Senate District 20, said he is working hard to talk to as many people as he can in Davidson County to get out the vote and defeat incumbent State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) in the November 5 general election.
Tennessee State Senate District 20 wraps around downtown Nashville and includes parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills, Goodlettsville, Madison, Joelton, and Hermitage.
Campbell, a Democrat, has represented the district since 2020.
Rampy, who is the founder and president of Poplar Hill Realty Company in Bellevue, also serves on the boards of the Bellevue Community Foundation, Nashville Christian School, God’s Word for Warriors, and World Christian Broadcasting while also serving as an elder at Bellevue Church of Christ.
In 2022, Rampy ran for the Tennessee House of Representatives District 59 but lost in the primary to Michelle Foreman.
Now, Rampy said he is ramping up his campaign efforts and “applying” himself more in order to emerge victorious in the general election.
“The plan is to talk to as many people as we can to get the message out that Heidi has, what I consider, destructive ideas,” Rampy explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
So far, Rampy said he and his team have knocked on approximately 5,000 doors in District 20 and have learned that voters have a negative view of Campbell.
“Honestly, as I go throughout the district, it is either that voters don’t know [Campbell] at all or they don’t like her, but they want her out,” Rampy said.
In regards to Campbell’s record in the State Senate, Rampy said that he was troubled when the incumbent senator voted against a bill authorizing the death penalty as a punishment for rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child.
Rampy also pointed to Campbell’s votes against lowering taxes for business and her lack of support for law enforcement.
If elected, Rampy said he would “focus” on “meeting the needs” of his constituents, which includes focusing on the issues of crime and the economy.
“The things that we’re seeing today – the economy, crime, and surprisingly, men in women’s sports – voters are very upset by that. We have issues facing the city that come with the growth that we’re having. We want to grow. A city that isn’t growing is dying, so we’ve got to have somebody in place that wants the job that’s going to focus on meeting those needs,” Rampy said.
Noting how Campbell has run for two different offices – Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District and Nashville Mayor – since being elected to the State Senate in 2020, Rampy said the incumbent senator is not focused on meeting the needs of the people she represents.
“She got in office and almost immediately decided that she wanted to run for Congress, and so she occupied herself with that, lost that job, and decided she wanted to be mayor, occupied herself with that, and lost. Now she wants to come back and say I’d like to be senator after all,” Rampy explained.
“She hasn’t been doing her job,” Rampy added.
Looking forward to the general election, Rampy was optimistic in his chances of defeating Campbell, noting how the makeup of District 20 is approximately 34 percent Republican, 36 percent Democratic, and 40 percent Independent.
“We have a shot and that’s why we’re working so hard,” Rampy said.
“This idea that Davidson County is blue is not accurate. There are a lot of people from the cities that we don’t want to become who are coming here. They’re fleeing those cities for a reason. They don’t want to be like those cities. They do not want the policies of those cities and they want to support what we’re doing,” Rampy added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
