Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee House of Representatives District 59 GOP candidate Michelle Foreman in the studio to describe her door-knocking experiences in the last weeks before midterm elections, despite being outspent by Democrats.
Leahy: Looking fabulous, relaxed, and confident, in the studio right now, Michelle Foreman, who is running for the Tennessee House of Representatives in Davidson County. I am just so very pleased to see how relaxed and confident you look six days until the election, Michelle. Good morning.
Foreman: Good morning. Thanks for having me on again. It’s great to be here.
Leahy: So, you are being outspent. Now, which district is it?
Foreman: It’s District 59.
Leahy: Fifty-nine. Which is Davidson County, the Bellevue area.
Foreman: The southern portion of Davidson County.
Leahy: Now, the Democrats are spending like $400,000, $500,000 in this district. But little birdies are telling me that this thing is neck and neck and that you are perfectly positioned to win in six days provided that our listeners turn out. No wonder you look so relaxed and confident.
Foreman: I’m telling you, we are about to pick up a Republican seat in Davidson County in the House of Representatives. I am thrilled we are here. And they are scared.
Leahy: They are scared, and I’m seeing it all over the place. They thought they had this in the bag.
Foreman: They thought they did.
Leahy: But they don’t.
Foreman: No.
Leahy: And so you’ve got just scores of people out knocking on doors. And you’ve been knocking on doors and you’ve been making phone calls.
Foreman: Thousands, thousands.
Leahy: Thousands of phone calls. You’ve got such a bright, cheery smile and you look so relaxed and confident this morning. I have a sense, Michelle, that this is going very, very well. When you talk to people, what are you hearing?
Foreman: I am hearing that they are extremely frustrated with the things that we’re talking about nationally. It’s the same thing locally. It is fear of the economy, safety, and then some schools mixed in there.
But then when the voter hears that our district has a chance to pick up the seat for Republican, then the conversation changes and the excitement builds. We discuss the polling because, I’ll tell you, there are all kinds of polls being done out there.
This is a hot race right now. And when the voters hear that we’re neck and neck, when really the Democrats should be in the lead coming out of the first week of early voting, it’s a whole other ballgame. And people are fired up and they’re excited. We just need to get them to the polls on Election Day.
Leahy: I think that’s working from what I can tell.
Foreman: It is. People are excited.
Leahy: So what do you do every day for the next six days? What are you doing?
Foreman: Well, I try and sleep. First of all. I try and get some sleep.
Leahy: You look well rested.
Foreman: (Chuckles) Thank you.
Leahy: You look … what’s the phrase? Tanned, rested, and ready. (Foreman chuckles) You’re not tanned, but you look rested and ready to go.
Foreman: Good enough. Good enough.
Leahy: How could you be tanned, because you’re knocking on doors all the time? You haven’t been to the beach.
Foreman: Yes, right. So I get up in the morning, I get my daughter ready for school. I drop her off. I do office work at home, and then I hit the phones or the doors, and I work with a small team, and that is exactly what we do every single day.
Leahy: What’s your favorite door-knocking story? You have so many, right?
Foreman: I’ll tell you what I like to do. When I door-knock, depending on – we have different schedules that we go on; we’ll either knock on doors that we know are Republicans, or doors that we know that swing.
But what I love is, when I go up and I see a beautifully manicured lawn, I look at the arrangements on the front porch, and decorations. (Chuckles)
Leahy: So let me guess. If it’s a beautifully manicured lawn, you’re thinking, this is one of my voters.
Foreman: It may not be. Believe it or not, it may not be.
Leahy: Really?
Foreman: I love that I can talk about something like that. I went up to a very progressive voter one time. I had no idea till I got to the door. Well, you can look inside the app that you’re on.
So at any rate, we were able to talk about the landscaping that she had, the different herbs that she had planted, and just things that I love and she loved. And before you knew it, we’re having a great conversation. So whether she voted for me or not …
Leahy: We’ll find out.
Foreman: … she doesn’t dislike me.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Michelle Foreman” by Michelle Foreman. Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Couple comments here. Ms. Foreman was not my first choice in this district, her primary opponent was. Regardless, one would think what would resonate in that district is (at least) part of Davidson County having a voice in the majority. Bo Mitchell couldn’t get a Mother’s Day resolution passed in the legislature. Of course, that’s because he would include tranny’s in his bill/resolution, but the point being, Davidson County has zero voice in the Republican legislature. They can only sign to the choir at the Nashville Scene and get nowhere.
Obviously I’m not an advisor to Ms. Foreman, but I would (accuately) paint her opponent as a proponent of the Vandy hospital child mutilation project, because, like his brother-in-law Bo, he is a proponent of the mutilation.
After you are elected, how about being an actual conservative? Introduce a bill that rolls back the gas tax to what it was pre-IMPROVE Act, for example…