Live from Music Row Friday 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 last-minute TN5 Congressional Candidate, Jeff Beierlein in studio to discuss his professional career and personal life.
Leahy: We welcome to our microphones the most recent qualified candidate for the GOP nomination in the Fifth Congressional District. There are nine qualified candidates, and the most recent is Jeff Beierlein. Jeff, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Beierlein: Hey, good morning, Michael. How are you?
Leahy: I’m delighted to see you here. So you kind of snuck up on us because I was the master of ceremonies at the Wilson County GOP dinner and straw poll a couple of weeks ago. And there were 11 candidates, some of them who had been challenged but hadn’t yet been disqualified.
You were not among the eleven. I didn’t even know that you’d filed your petition. Tell us about when you decided to run for Congress and when you filed your petition. And it took a couple of days, I guess, for all of your signatures to be confirmed.
Beierlein: It absolutely did. And you wouldn’t be the first one. I’m a later candidate. In fact, one of the candidates brought up to me last night, she’s like, so you were the last-minute surprise.
I looked at her and I said, you’re absolutely right. I think you’ve been talking to my mother. But at the end of the day, I decided just a couple of weeks prior to.
Leahy: Just a couple of weeks.
Beierlein: Just a couple of weeks prior to getting my petition together and understanding the process. But I’m new to politics. I’m not a politician. I’m not a lawyer. I hadn’t been down the road.
Leahy: Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do for a living?
Beierlein: Sure, what I do for a living. I work in healthcare. I run the Midwest for a national dialysis company for folks with kidney failure.
Leahy: So you run the Midwest for a national dialysis center. Tell us what exactly that means when you say you run the Midwest. Do you have, like, a whole bunch of people reporting to you? Lots of centers out there? What exactly does that mean?
Beierlein: That’s exactly what I do. But when they report to me, I have about 300 and so people on the team. I run about 30 clinics across six states.
Leahy: So how long have you been doing this?
Beierlein: I’ve been doing this for the last 15 years.
Leahy: You’re a serious guy. That’s a big deal.
Beierlein: I’m humbled. I’m humbled by what people.
Leahy:Â So are you, like, the CEO of this company?
Beierlein: No, I’m just a regional Vice President.
Leahy: This is what we call humility, folks. You’re just a regional Vice President.
Leahy: And how many facilities do you have?
Beierlein: We’ve got about 30.
Leahy: And you’re the operations guy?
Beierlein: I’m the operations guy.
Leahy: Oh, my goodness.
Beierlein: I got about 300 people on the team.
Leahy: No wonder you are on top of things.
Beierlein: I try to be. The folks deserve that.
Leahy: So you’ve been doing that for 15 years?
Beierlein: Yes.
Leahy: Where do you live?
Beierlein: I live on the west side of town near Steeple Chase.
Leahy: Married?
Beierlein: I am, to my bride. I have two kids that go to school. One’s in Alabama and one’s over in the west side of Nashville, Father Ryan.
Leahy: Father Ryan, a great lacrosse team there.
Beierlein: They have wonderful lacrosse. But I got to tell you more impressive, lacrosse is their rugby team.
Leahy: You know, way back when, I guess about 15 years ago, my daughter was in high school at the time and she said, dad, I don’t like any of the sports. I like to play lacrosse. I said, wow, lacrosse. That’s great.
Beierlein: It’s a wonderful girl’s sport.
Leahy: That’s great. I didn’t know anything. I mean, I’ve watched it. It’s great sport, but they didn’t have a team. So dad helped her form a team.
Beierlein: The sacrifices fathers make.
Leahy: And for the first year, dad coached the girls’ lacrosse.
Beierlein: Good for you.
Leahy: I don’t know how good it was for the girls because a guy coaching girls, a guy like me who grew up like in hard nose football.
Beierlein: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: It’s a different game. It’s much more social. Anyways, we actually got a real coach the next year. But it’s a great sport. It’s a great sport. Are sports guy?
Beierlein: I love sports. Been active most of my life.
Leahy: Did you play sports?
Beierlein: I played sports. Three sports every year in high school. And then beyond that, I transitioned the military, where I played rugby in the army.
Leahy: Rugby in the army way. You are a tough guy.
Beierlein: Heading to the National Championship for College rugby for the army, rugby to take on St. Mary’s.
Leahy: You’re rooting for the army?
Beierlein: Are you kidding me?
Leahy: Where did you grow up?
Beierlein: I grew up in Ohio. Cincinnati.
Leahy: Why did you ever leave Ohio?
Beierlein: Cincinnati is a wonderful place. I love the state of Ohio, but I got to move on, too. And at the end of the day, I had a great opportunity.
Leahy: Did you go to Mueller?
Beierlein: I went to Saint X. Okay. Saint Xavier.
Leahy: So it’s competitive with Mueller. Did you play football? Did you ever beat Mueller?
Beierlein: I didn’t beat them when we were there.
Leahy: What did you play? Were you a tight end?
Beierlein: I was an offensive tackle when I played defensive end as well.
Leahy: So I’m sure you had a few sacks there.
Beierlein: We did okay. We were a great team.
Listen to the interview:
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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.
