Allison Gorman for TN House District 26
District 26 is diverse. It stretches from North Chattanooga to the Rhea County line.
Hearing that some people voting in Lupton city are being given the wrong ballot. Please pass the word and make sure everyone checks that they got the right one. Hamilton County Democratic Party
06/11/2022
Knocking doors in Chattanooga with Meg Gorman for Congress; giving folks in TN-03 and TNHD-26 a chance to elect public servants over career politicians.
05/11/2022
Like Texas, Tennessee is traumatizing people with a cruel, medically dangerous abortion ban. If you have a uterus or you love someone who does, vote for leaders who will fight for your right to make your own private healthcare decisions. Hamilton County Democratic Party
Today is April 21st, the day I was due to have our baby boy. People have asked me often what I wanted to do on this day, and I’ve never had an answer, a single day has never seemed adequate. In these intervening months, as I’ve navigated grief, the thing I’ve thought about most are the stories my doctor shared of the the women who came before me, often alone, away from their home and their husbands and children, some who’s lives were at risk as they navigated fatal anomalies in their pregnancies. I also think of the woman who will come after me, as more and more have to leave their home states, as I did, to get help. I didn’t expect my story to reach over 2 million people, but I’m grateful to those who shared it because it has allowed me to hear from other women, my sisters in facing the unimaginable. I’m not a person who cares about politics. But I care deeply for women, and I feel a collective disenfranchised grief coursing among us. So today, on the day I wish our son could have been born, I want to ask you to join me in helping the women who will come after me in this medical refugee crises. The Division of Complex Family Planning at Mount Sinai has established a Care Fund to prepare for the influx of patients seeking compassionate care. The fund helped me in my darkest hour get the best care money could buy, when it was illegal for insurance to help. I would be honored if our son’s legacy was to help other women in their darkest hour, and especially honored if you would make a memorial gift in the name of Baby Boy Walker. Will you join me? https://tinyurl.com/4pf3vuk7
Thank you, as ever, for your prayers and support friends.
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November 3rd:
Today, I would be 4 months pregnant. Yesterday, we said goodbye to our baby boy. I am inherently private about my family life on social media, but there were two things that kept burning in my mind as the nurse held my hand and tried to distract me. She asked me what I was going to eat as my first meal when I woke up, I said without hesitation what I had been thinking all day: a New York bagel with lox and cream cheese. I also kept thinking: I can’t believe women and their partners go through this silently.
We turned over every rock with a remarkable team of doctors in my home state of Texas to find a path forward for our son. He had a rare condition that occurs 1 in 275,000. The very best case scenario would have meant the first three years of his life would require daily dialysis for his badly damaged or non-functioning kidneys until he was big enough to receive one of our adult kidneys, as well as a painful catheter inserted daily to help his bladder empty. But even that door closed to us when it became clear that wasn’t the only thing that was wrong. He was surrounded by a halo of fluid between his skeleton and skin that told us he had multiple other fatal conditions that meant he was slowly dying inside of me. Seeing his condition develop on the ultrasounds as the days and weeks progressed was almost too much to bare. The details of what he was facing are too hard and gruesome to write here.
As the doctors mapped out on a white board the overwhelming number of things that he was experiencing, it became clear to us that the most loving and merciful thing we could do for our baby was give him into the arms of Jesus. All of our doctors, including our Catholic doctor, our Sikh doctor, and our Jewish doctor, said that if this was their baby that is what they would do.
Amidst our unimaginable grief in this impossible situation, we were also told that we have no options in Texas. That it was illegal for them to even write our options down on a piece of paper. Or provide us with any kind of referral. But as far as they knew, no one had yet been criminalized for leaving the state to end a pregnancy. NO ONE HAD YET BEEN CRIMINALIZED FOR LEAVING THE STATE TO END A PREGNANCY.
I think I left my body after that. And I have a number of friends and family to thank for taking over and carrying us in our darkest hours. Family that got on planes and in cars to watch June so we could have the space we needed to grieve and get care, family that drove 10 hours to pick up our dog, friends that brought us flowers and food, friends that booked flights and drivers and had doctors in New York call me and text me so I would know they were there to catch me and we weren’t alone, doctors who helped us financially to get the care we needed because it was illegal for my Texas insurance to cover a dime, and the friend who had a box from Zabar's waiting at my mom’s doorstep when I got home from the hospital last night. The contents? New York Bagels, cream cheese, and lox. Somehow from far away she just knew. A reminder that God is good, the universe is for me.
My body has been through so much in the last four years in pursuit of life, I am for living. I am also against suffering. There are countless women and their partners in the U.S. and around the world who are falling into these unimaginable cracks and don’t have people who will move mountains to ease their pain. This is not a political issue, this is a humanitarian issue. We have to do better for our sisters, our daughters, our wives, our friends, and their partners who grieve alongside them.
I hope that by writing my own story, other women are encouraged to write their own, so that we don’t let others write our stories for us. In the meantime, I’m sending love to everyone who is trying their best to heal from things they don’t discuss.
03/11/2022
I've been so busy knocking doors, asking people to vote, that I haven't had time to vote—until today. This is the last day to vote early in TN. Please vote D for kids, for women, for teachers, for working people, for vulnerable communities, and for our democracy.
03/11/2022
Join us for the final GOTV canvassing launch for Allison Gorman, TN State House on Saturday, Nov. 5th from 11am – 3pm at HCDP Headquarters located at 1089 Bailey Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37404. Pick up your campaign materials for the LIT drop and get some free campaign swag.
A few weeks ago, a teacher married to another teacher told me, "Gov. Bill Lee is waging a war on teachers and public education in Tennessee.” Please vote for Dr. Jason Martin and Ds down ballot. This is about our kids and Tennessee's future. It’s a fight we can’t afford to lose.
We may be the Volunteer State, but let’s not volunteer to make less money, get worse benefits, and get less job protection than people in other states. That’s what our Republican state lawmakers are asking us to do with the ballot measure known as Amendment 1. It would enshrine in Tennessee’s constitution our status as a Right to Work state.
The phrase “right to work” sounds nice, but in practice it’s part of a strategy to keep workers from organizing and to lure corporations here with the promise of cheap labor and big tax breaks.
Don’t believe me? Follow the money.
Ballot Amendment 1 was introduced by former (now indicted) TN Senator Brian Kelsey. He’s an attorney for the Liberty Justice Center, legal arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank that has opposed progressive tax rates, expanded mail-in voting, tobacco-control policies, and unionization. (FYI, Kelsey just announced he’ll plead guilty to five counts of breaking federal campaign finance law.)
The “Yes on 1” campaign is backed by ultra-wealthy Bill Haslam and Bill Lee; the TN director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses; the CEO of the TN Chamber of Commerce; and the CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, which killed the 2015 effort to expand Medicaid in TN.
If you think they’re on the side of working people, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Vote No on Amendment 1.
30/10/2022
Proud and grateful to receive the endorsement of Chattanooga Times editorial page editor Pam Sohn.
Republicans in the State House vote in lockstep against the interests of Tennesseans.
👉🏼By supporting Gov. Bill Lee’s attack on our public schools, they’re hurting children and teachers.
👉🏼By supporting the new abortion ban, they’re endangering women.
👉🏼By refusing to expand Medicaid, they’re leaving 400,000 people without health insurance.
👉🏼By supporting the “right to work” (Amendment 1), they’re preventing workers from making a living wage.
👉🏼By waging politically motivated culture wars, they’re traumatizing vulnerable communities.
👉🏼By refusing to enact commonsense gun laws, they’re making every one of us less safe.
I’m running for State House because I care about the people on the other end of state policies.
Last day to early vote is Thursday. Election Day is November 8. If we turn out, we win.
30/10/2022
Sunday walkies with two of my best reps. (Actually three, but the third one has opposable thumbs and a phone.) Hamilton County Democratic Party
Our final Flip 26: A Prescription for Public Safety
The fact that Tennessee has high rates of both incarceration and violent crime says a lot about the ineffectiveness of our state’s approach to public safety, which focuses almost entirely on punishment rather than prevention.
Our criminal justice system is expensive, it destroys lives—and it’s not working. As Bishop Desmond Tutu famously said, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Troy Rogers, public safety coordinator for the City of Chattanooga, has spent decades doing both. He graciously agreed to join me on my final podcast, which we shot at the end of a long day. Ignore my eye bags and bad intro and listen to Troy. His heart and positivity are just what the doctor ordered.
26/10/2022
Had a great time last night at Wanderlinger Brewing Company, meeting with reps from the Tennessee Democratic Party, the Hamilton County Democratic Party, and so many other folks committed to electing pro-people, pro-democracy candidates. Hamilton County is on the verge of turning blue. Let's keep the momentum going!
Meg Gorman for Congress and I will be speaking at Wanderlinger Brewing Company from 6 to 8 tonight to support the Tennessee Democratic Party and the Hamilton County Democratic Party. Come join us! RSVP via the link below.
25/10/2022
Proud to receive the support of Iron Workers Local 704 and tour their apprentice-training facility in Chattanooga. Tennesseans are hard-working people who are underpaid and grossly undervalued by their own state government. Good union jobs are how we will bring a strong middle class back to Tennessee. (Remember to vote no on Ballot Amendment 1. The "right to work" movement is fueled by the ultra-wealthy, not by working people!)
23/10/2022
TN House District 26 has the only competitive State House race in Hamilton County. Folks in D26 have a choice of who represents them in Nashville—and it’s a stark choice. Here’s a good example. I will never politicize public health.
What’s the quickest way to replace my Vote No on Amendment One bumper sticker? Mine “disappeared” from my car.
In right-wing politics, either you’re pro-life or you’re a baby killer. That’s a dangerous narrative, and in Tennessee it’s led to a dangerous abortion ban. The only way to defeat that narrative is through personal stories like my mom’s.
Mom had six pregnancies but only two live births, my older sister and me. The four babies she lost—all in the second trimester—would have been my older brothers.
Mom had to have at least one abortion to save her life. She didn’t think of it that way, but it was the same procedure. That was the standard of care for treating an incomplete miscarriage. It still is. Now doctors can’t provide a lifesaving abortion without fear of criminal prosecution.
My daughter Meg and I made an ad about Mom’s story. Please share it on your social media. We’d like to get it on TV, where it can reach a wider audience. If you can help, use the donation link in the comments below.
Early voting is happening now. Vote for candidates who will stand up against government interference in our private medical decisions. Lives depend on it.
21/10/2022
Thanks a million to my wonderful friends and neighbors Mike and Cindy Cound and Bob Moore, who with the help of my tireless volunteer organizer Kathy Lennon and my campaign team hosted a great outdoor event for Meg and me last night. Thanks to everyone who turned out. We had a great time. It's clear that folks are ready for responsive, people-focused representation in Nashville and DC!
20/10/2022
Want to flip District 26 blue? Join our door-knocking army!
This State House race is all about voter turnout. We’re knocking 17K doors by November 8. We need your help!
We’re having canvassing training at HCDP Headquarters this Saturday from noon to 3 pm. Can’t wait to see you there!
State houses around the country—including Tennessee’s—have been churning out anti-LGBTQ+ legislation so divorced from reality and real-world problems that it would be ridiculous if it didn’t target vulnerable children.
I’ve been wondering how the kids who are the focus of this legislation are impacted by it. Has it changed their school or home lives? Has it changed the way they feel about themselves?
Jeremy Coylewright, a counselor who specializes in LGBTQ+ clients, has some great insight into how q***r kids are processing the toxic conversations happening around and about them, and how we can protect and support them in society and at school.
Please tune in!
19/10/2022
19/10/2022
Glad to speak to Friends of Hixson this morning, on the first day of early voting. Our family lived in Hixson for 15 years and made great memories there.
I talked about the desperate need in working-class neighborhoods, in Hixson and throughout D26 and TN, for better hourly wages, better access to health care, and more state support for our teachers and public schools.
There was also some discussion of the ballot amendments we'll be voting for, particularly Amendment 1, which makes TN a "right to work" state per our constitution. RTW forces unions in a TN workplace to provide benefits and protection to anyone in that workplace, even if they don't pay union dues. RTW dilutes the power of unions and therefore dilutes the power of workers to organize for better wages and working conditions.
Remember: Vote NO on Amendment 1.
Early voting begins tomorrow. Thanks to the many, many people who've supported me. This is the first of several ads made possible through your help. This is a winnable race--we can't stop now. Please visit my website (I've posted a link in the comments) to donate today.
18/10/2022
From the Wall Street Journal: A Chattanooga OB/GYN had to send a dying woman on a six-hour ambulance ride to get a life-saving abortion in NC.
I'm not going to stop talking about this because the nightmares for women and girls in Tennessee won't stop happening under our state's radical, inept leadership.
Either Gov. Bill Lee and the state lawmakers in the Tennessee Republican Party didn't know what was in the abortion ban they supported, or they did and they supported it anyway. Either way, they are unfit for office. Vote them out.
Hamilton County Democratic Party
Tennessee Democratic Party
Doctors Struggle With Navigating Abortion Bans in Medical Emergencies Healthcare providers are concerned they could face charges for providing emergency abortions in some states, leaving them to defend their actions in court.
Roevember Starts This Week
I’ve spoken to three women’s marches in Chattanooga this year, and my message at every one of them is the same: VOTE. The only way we’re going to change the extreme laws coming out of Nashville is to change who’s sitting in the governor’s office and who’s sitting in the state legislature.
Hamilton County has six early-voting locations. They're in the link below.
15/10/2022
District 26 is the only State House district in Hamilton County with two candidates on the ballot. Unlike many county residents, folks in D26 have a choice who represents them in Nashville--and it's a stark choice. My opponent and I disagree on most policy issues.
But today I think I can speak for both of us when I say GBO!
15/10/2022
What a beautiful place to meet with neighbors in State House District 26 and talk about all the ways Tennessee’s government could work better and smarter.
And there are so many ways: robust investment in our public schools and support services; expanded access to health care, including mental health care and addiction treatment; and social programs shown to reduce crime. Tennessee can’t incarcerate its way out of its crime problem.
Thank you, Melissa Meade, for hosting 💙💙💙
13/10/2022
Vote No on Amendment 1
Now on Flip 26: Rachel Campbell on Daring to be a Democrat
Rachel Campbell has received threatening phone calls. She’s been accused of vile things. She’s been reported to the FBI. (Um, giving away hotdogs outside a polling place is not “voter fraud.”) In other words, she’s the current face of the Democratic Party in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Rachel became HCDP chair in fall of 2021, as nationally orchestrated right-wing culture wars were being waged at the local level across the country. Since then, all sorts of people—including school board members, teachers and librarians, medical professionals, and q***r kids—have become political targets of not-so-grassroots groups like Moms 4 Liberty.
It’s ugly stuff, but there’s never been a more important time for Democrats to stand strong and push back. That’s what Rachel is doing with courage and grace. Let’s all follow her example. Hamilton County Democratic Party
12/10/2022
Thanks to my dear friend Laura Noyes for hosting a porch party last night in Hixson. I enjoyed the stunning sunset views and great conversations with neighbors.
From fully funding our public schools to expanding access to health care, our state government could be doing so much more to improve the lives of Tennesseans. We deserve better representation in Nashville.
Next porch party is this Friday, 6-7:30pm, off Lake Resort Drive. Details on my website. If you live in the neighborhood, make plans to come!
11/10/2022
We must protect our reproductive rights.
Now is the time for all women to come together—for all of us to come together—to elect leaders who will respect our bodily autonomy and medical privacy.
If you live in the Brynwood/Ashland Terrace/Ely Road area of Hixson, my friend Laura Noyes is hosting a porch talk in the neighborhood today, October 11, from 7 to 8 p.m.
Please join us. I want to hear how I can represent your voice in the TN State House.
10/10/2022
It was an honor to speak at the Kefauver Dinner Saturday and meet with some of the best and brightest the Democratic party has to offer, from Hamilton County's Ben Connor and David Sharpe to GA Congresswoman Nikema Williams and TN Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus and his wife, Marlene. Democratic energy is strong in 2022!
Next on Flip 26: Ballot Amendments and Baseline Democracy
Here’s where I put a positive spin on the threadbare status of American democracy: Tennesseans seem to care about ballot amendments than they used to. Even before Kansans called the nation’s attention to the importance of ballot amendments by dramatically rejecting one that would have ended their constitutional abortion rights, we were seeing strong public pushback against Amendment One, which compromises workers’ rights here in Tennessee.
I’ve written about Amendment One, but there are several other amendments we’ll be voting on too. So I asked former political reporter Judy Walton to explain them on my podcast. She obliged, then went one better by digging into a larger issue—how Tennessee is, by design, less democratic than many other states. We don’t have citizen-initiated ballot amendments, for one thing, and we also give outsized power to our governor. 😬
Democracy is hard-won nowadays. And as you’ll learn on this podcast, it’s harder won in Tennessee. But if we want to make progress here, we need to understand the playing field. Please tune in.
07/10/2022
Thank you to my beautiful friend Brenda Nunn for hosting a neighborhood meet and greet last night! After hours of canvassing long streets in Manchester Park and Lupton City, it was a pleasure to sit and chat about how to make our state government work better for all Tennesseans. Hamilton County Democratic Party
06/10/2022
I’m proud to be featured by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee - DLCC in our race for the TN House of Representatives in HD26! This is a great opportunity to gain a new blue seat in the Tennessee General Assembly. Together, we can win this thing!
https://dlcc.org/candidates/allison-gorman/
05/10/2022
Huge thanks to the Fairfax Heights, Bagwell & Lupton City Neighborhood Association for inviting me to be part of their Night Out, and to my gracious friend Lea Anne Wiles for hosting a front-porch meet and greet with neighbors in Riverview.
Two great outdoor events at the same time. Good thing they were a five-minute drive apart! I can't imagine a better way to spend these beautiful October evenings.
02/10/2022
Every day's a good day to stand with Chattanooga's LGBTQ+ community and stand up to bullies with Meg Gorman for Congress and the Hamilton County Democratic Party
29/09/2022
It should go without saying--except lately it doesn't in Tennessee--that we should keep tax dollars intended for public schools out of the hands of racist grifters. This was a good day for parents, protestors, professional educators, and persistent journalists.
Hillsdale-linked charter group withdraws applications in Tennessee A charter group linked to Michigan’s Hillsdale College on Thursday abruptly pulled its three applications to open schools in Tennessee following public outrage over controversial statements made by the college’s president earlier in the year.
29/09/2022
Sunday’s shaping up to be a beautiful day for the Chattanooga Pride March. I’ll be marching—hope to see you there!
These past few days have made it clear that all good people need to support communities targeted with hate and bigotry. The attacks against the LGBTQ+ community are happening simultaneously across the state, reflecting a societal disease that we can’t afford to ignore.
Love and kindness are powerful medicine.
chattanoogapride | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree Linktree. Make your link do more.
In late spring, when I was asked to consider running for TN State House—somehow it had never crossed my mind—my first concern was about my daughter Meg, who’s running for Congress. I wondered how she’d feel about having our names on the same ballot. (Not that having relatives running for public office together is a novelty in Hamilton County; in fact it’s very much a thing, which was the reason for my concern.) So I asked Meg what she thought.
“Go for it,” she said.
“It's not like we’re a dynasty,” I remarked.
“Duck Dynasty,” she said.
Watching Meg keep her sense of humor and her sanity while working a fulltime job and running for Congress twice in a sprawling, gerrymandered district has been inspirational to me. It’s also shown me why our federal and state governments are dominated by retirees and older white men. Running for office is always difficult, but it’s extraordinarily difficult if you can’t quit your job to do it.
When I talk to Meg—or any other young progressive who’s accepted the herculean challenge of running for office in a political system not designed for them—I think about how much we’ve been missing by their absence from government: namely, down-to-earth representation focused on the best interests of everyday people.
So for tonight’s Flip 26 podcast, I talked to Meg. If you’ve never met her (or even if you have), I think you’ll enjoy it—and I suspect you’ll agree that it’s time for fresh faces and voices in government.
Videos (show all)
