Bona Fide Republican Natisha Brooks, Candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, Discusses Her Background and Goals

 

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 GOP primary candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, Natisha Brooks, to the newsmaker line to talk about her voting record, top goals, and grassroots campaign money and strategy.

Leahy: We welcome on our newsmaker line Natisha Brooks, a longtime Tennessee resident who is a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 5th Congressional District. Welcome, Natisha.

Brooks: Hello! How are you?

Leahy: We’re delighted to have you on the program. Your website, natishaforcongress2022.org – you must have been listening to this program, because the very first thing I see on your website is evidence that you are a bona fide Republican. I’m looking at it right now.

You have voted. People can go to your website. You are a bona fide Republican. You have voted in four of the four most recent Tennessee statewide Republican primaries. It’s right there – 2020, 2018, 2016, it’s there. You can see it. Congratulations for your transparency on that, Natisha.

Brooks: Thank you. I’m very excited. Actually, there’s a story behind my bona fide Republican [status]. The last time – because I know a lot of people will go digging a little bit deeper, but I promised myself that 2010 would be the last time I ever vote Democrat. And I tell people I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me.

Leahy: The famous Ronald Reagan line. (Brooks chuckles) You actually put your address on your voting record, which everybody can go to Natishaforcongress.org and see. Have you looked to see, do you reside within the 5th Congressional District?

Brooks: Yes, I do. And that was … keeping our fingers crossed, because I started this tour, I have no clue where the lines are and where the counties are going to be. So when I saw that we were in the district, you should have been a fly on the wall, the whole house, everybody erupted.

We don’t have to get up and move. And I’m committed. I’ve always been committed to the 5th District. We were committed to the 5th before the lines were drawn because our aim is to bring African Americans and young people back to the Republican Party and to unseat Jim Cooper, and his brother, too.

Leahy: Cooper’s already gone.

Brooks: Jim is gone.

Leahy: Tell us who you are, what’s your background? What do you do for a living?

Brooks: Thank you for the question. I am a homeschool owner and director of Brooks Academy. Brooksacademyusa.org. We are a Christian homeschool academy. We only use these two curriculums, the Alpha and Omega curriculum.

We don’t apologize for being a Christian Bible-based academy. We focus on life skills and social skills. That’s one thing that homeschool students get a poor rap on. Where are the social skills?

And our answer to that is the same social skills that your children get when you send them to a public school. We focus on how they can perform on a domestic and international level. We take field trips.

And when I say field trips, we are what we call a traveling home school. So, 80 percent of our students are on scholarship, because we focus on those students that have autism and learning disabilities that don’t get enough support in the public school system.

Leahy: Tell me what is – because it’s a little hard to figure out your main priorities looking at your website – but tell us what would be the two most important things that you would do if you were elected and serving in Congress in January 2023 from the new 5th Congressional District in Tennessee.

Brooks: Thank you for the question. My main thing is constituents of the new 5th Congressional District. Let’s send an educator – I’m an educator – to Congress. We’re always talking about those that have a business.

I’m a businesswoman. I’ve been an educator for 31-plus years. If we want some good foundation on our educational system, and I have a philosophy – I don’t talk Common Core because I’m not going to do Common Core.

We need to make sure that we send an educator. Very few educators are represented in Congress. So education is one; and two, are farmers. I am from Gilmer, Texas – a town of 4,900 people.

We do have a WhataBurger, so that makes us very important. So agriculture and farming are at the top of my list, along with – a lot of people saying we don’t need to talk about it – but mental health. So you say top two – my top three are mental health, farming, and education.

Leahy: Let me ask you, education issue number one, would you favor the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education? Yes or no?

Brooks: The U.S. Department of Education is a mess – and some people in my neighborhood say a hot mess. So we need to take a good look at what’s going on there and do some things to either get rid of it or put something else.

Leahy: That doesn’t sound like a firm “you want to abolish it” …

         Brooks: I want to abolish it.

Leahy: You now establish you would vote to abolish the Department of Education. Farmers: I looked at the map and there are not a lot of farmers in Davidson County. There are some in Williamson County.

There are some in Wilson County, and of course, a number in Marshall, Lewis, and Maury counties. What are you going to do for farmers?

Brooks: Congressman Rose has a bill on the floor and I would like to address that bill. It’s HR 2436, Livestock and Safety Act. I’d like to work alongside Congressman Rose to get that pushed.

Leahy: What does that bill do?

Brooks: So, basically, the safety of animals for animals when you are traveling, stop. Sometimes farmers, those that are traveling, you need a stop, a rest stop for the safety of the animals and the livestock that you are transporting. I’m going to look further into that bill. I was reading it roughly.

Leahy: So you generally are supportive of that. Let me ask you this, about your chances of winning. How much money have you raised so far?

Brooks: Great question. I believe we’ve raised $27,000, and most of them are in stamps. And I’m going to say stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp! We’ve had 52 counties. We have probably the best ground game.

Leahy: $27,000, you’re going to be running against Baxter Lee, who says he’s going to put $3 million in. You got Morgan Ortagus, who probably will have similar or maybe even more coming in. Robby Starbuck has already raised $250,000 or so. You only raised $27,000.

Your chances of raising even, I don’t know, $100,000 probably, that’s about the max you could raise. Do you have even a chance, if that’s all you’re going to be able to raise?

Brooks: Well, you know what? I’m glad you asked that question, because I’m fighting for that little girl out there that thinks that she wants to run for Congress one day, or a young man. And it’s always about money.

So my answer to that question is, while we’re raising money, pull FEC reports and see what donations are being used [for] – $10,000 on airplane tickets. I have pulled people’s FEC reports. Remember, you can ask for your donations back if you think that your donations aren’t being applied properly.

What are you using this money for? I’m on foot. I have worn out probably twelve shoes. Our social media is second to none. Our grassroots is second to none.

And while you’re saying that, I want to say hello to Clay County, Franklin County, White County, Van Buren County, and Cumberland County.

Leahy: Well, hold on. Let’s not go through the big list here, though. What is your path to victory?

Brooks: The path to victory is grassroots.

Leahy: How many volunteers do you have, and are you like, knocking on doors? Tell us the array of your activity at the grassroots level.

Brooks: Four-hundred and nineteen volunteers so far. Actually, we need to add two more volunteers. We picked up two more volunteers in Brentwood.

Leahy: How many doors have you knocked on so far?

Brooks: Yay! I’m glad for that question. So far, 24,107 doors.

Leahy: Really?

Brooks: And we have mailed out, so far, 54,006 letters.

Leahy: How many doors will you knock on between now and the primary in August?

Brooks: I am committed to 50,000 doors that I will personally knock on.

Leahy: You’re going to personally knock on 50,000 doors?

Brooks: Personally.

Leahy: Of Republican primary voters in these six counties?

Brooks: That is correct.

Leahy: You could meet an awful lot of voters out there, couldn’t you?

Brooks: Meet a lot of voters. And I’m going to tell you, the doors that we’ve knocked on so far, they’re already committed.

Leahy: All right.

Brooks: So we’re very happy about our campaign.

Leahy: Will you come in-studio sometime so we can talk a little bit more?

Brooks: Absolutely I will. And my website, Natashaforcongress2022.org, we have $5 Fridays today, and are looking for volunteers.

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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.