Hello Friends,
I hope you have all had a good summer. Mine was the busiest summer I’ve ever had, but also the most rewarding. In the time since I last updated this blog I graduated college, worked a successful Congressional campaign, moved back to Sumner County, and began working for our Congressman as her district Staff Assistant.
Here’s a snapshot of my summer:
14,000 miles driven
10,000+ phone calls made
13 County GOP meetings
11 “Reagan Day Dinners”
9 “Meet & Greets”
4 Tea Party meetings
4 Right to Life meetings
3 Senior Citizens Center Visits
2 Farm Bureau functions
2 Fundraisers
1 Casket Factory Tour
1 Jail Visit
Ungodly amounts of barbecue consumed
& 1 Great Victory Party on August 2nd!
… And that’s not even a full picture of everything that took place during the course of the campaign, just what I attended. I started to sit down and attempt to write out a blog about all that we saw and experienced this summer, but I just couldn’t do it justice and explain everything the way I wanted to. So here’s the next best thing, my summer in pictures:

I graduated Tennessee Tech with my Political Science degree in May. And the whole family circus was there for the occasion. They sat through that boring 3 hour commencement ceremony just to see me get my diploma. And they all stayed awake! I had said since middle school that this was what I wanted to study in college, and I’m thankful that I was able to do that and that I am now able to work in a career that uses what I’ve learned.

Our Congressional district encompasses all or parts of 19 different counties. We saw some beautiful “Small Town USA” places during our many campaign stops. This is the Sutton General Store in Granville, Tennessee, taken at the annual “Heritage Days” event, where our campaign participated in the parade.

One of my favorite stops that we made over the course of the summer was a tour of the local playhouse in Crossville. It is one of the top rural theaters in the country. This is in the set building area backstage. At the time of our visit, they were running a show which featured one of the stars of “The Shawshank Redemption.” The Director of the playhouse was a gracious host to us and told the Congressman that, although he didn’t agree with her on everything, he believed that she had the “compassion, the decency and the common sense to represent us all.” I thought that summed it up pretty well.

At the 4th of July parade in Hartsville, Tennessee. That was a busy day for us. We were in a parade in Greenbrier earlier that same morning, and ended the day with an event in Gallatin … Have I mentioned that we do a lot of parades?

Some of the best people I know: our 2012 campaign staff! This was at a Nashville Sounds Game in July. Earlier that day, our candidate and her husband had invited us to their home for a cookout and took us out to the lake on their boat. This was one of my favorite days of the entire campaign season.
From L-R: Kali (Field Rep-Gallatin), Garrett (Field Rep-Lebanon), Chris (Press Assistant), Me (Field Rep- Crossville) and Annie (Campaign Manager). Not pictured is our Press Secretary extraordinaire, Jen. Good people all around.

Our candidate at an early vote rally in Crossville with former state senator Dewayne Bunch and state representative Cameron Sexton. Three great Tennesseans in this picture. People are sometimes hesitant to make endorsements in contested primary races and I appreciated the political courage that Sen. Bunch and Rep. Sexton showed in voicing their support for our candidate.

Just a few weeks before the election, our candidate came under attack. Two super PACs, both of which were funded entirely by one disgruntled voter outside our congressional district, spent over $250,000 on false, negative ads attacking her. It was encouraging to see the media slowly pick up on these lies and call them what they were.

It was a long march to the finish but on election night, our candidate won by a landslide, taking all 19 counties in the district and garnering nearly 70% of the total votes. So proud of her, all that she stands for, and the race that we ran.

Team DB at our celebratory lunch on the last day of work together. We had won our race, emptied out our offices, packed up the storage unit, and even left a note for the 2014 campaign staff. So thankful to know these guys and call them my friends.

The new digs! I’m excited to have joined our candidate’s legislative staff following her win on August 2nd. Our Gallatin district office is located here, in the Sumner County Admin. Building. It’s my first full-time, “permanent” job since graduating but no worries- our office visitors are always there to keep me humble by often referring to me as “the intern.” I don’t correct them ![]()
















