NEWPORT—Citizens gathered at Newport City Park on Sunday to meet a Memphis city councilman who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Tennessee governor.
Speaking to an audience of about seven people, 34-year-old Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley, Jr. said he wants to reduce crime, see more people vaccinated, and increase mental health funding to distressed regions of the state—money which he said can be shifted to suit the purpose.
Smiley said during his career as a lawyer and councilman, every piece of legislation he has proposed in Memphis has received support from leaders of both parties.
“I’m a Democrat, but before anything else I’m a lawyer and that means I’m in rooms with a lot of different people who may or may not agree with me,” he said, “but once you’re able to find common ground and focus on the issues that improve the lives of folks, you can move the needle.”
He said despite partisanship, his progressive legislation often had the conservative-leaning chairman’s name on them, because finding common ground and shared goals have allowed them to cooperate, regardless of party affiliation.
“People assume Memphis is a progressive place,” he said. “It is not. The chairperson of our city council was the fundraising chair for Donald Trump.”
Although his status as fundraising chair for Trump could not be verified at the time of publication, Memphis City Council Chairman Frank Colvett, Jr. was elected to the city council in November 2015, became the 2021 Chairman of the Memphis City Council and – according to his campaign website – Colvett served as Treasurer of the Tennessee Republican Party. Colvett is now listed as nonpartisan, or unaffiliated, but retains the support of the Tennessee Republican Party.
Last month Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation outlawing vaccine mandates for schools and government entities. Smiley departs from that approach on his own gubernatorial platform, saying he does not want to “preempt” people, a legal term that he says when applied to Tennessee, suggests vaccine mandates should be handled at the local level and not at the state level.
“I don’t necessarily agree with preempting folks,” he said. “You encourage people. Preemption is when the state comes in and says we’re going to supersede whatever the local municipalities put in place for their constituents. Local control is important. They understand their issues better than anyone who resides in a different county. You come to Shelby County, and I’m going to understand Shelby County better than someone who sits in Nashville. You come to Newport, same thing.”
He said there are, however, cases when the state should step in. He said no amount of additional police, for example, will address the root causes of crime, whereas education and early opportunities are proven to play a role in reduction.
“What the state doesn’t do – when we talk about homelessness, when you talk about folks addicted to drugs, the state has not provided funding for mental health institutions,” he said. “If we provide funding for mental health institutions, we’re going to get a lot of those folks off the street, get a lot of those folks off the drugs, and if we’re able to do that, we’re reducing crime.”
According to data released by the FBI, the crime rate of Newport – although decreasing yearly – is 246% higher than the national average, where residents are faced with a 1 in 13 chance of becoming a victim of crime. Newport is safer than just 2% of American cities. The solution, Smiley said, is to care about people through compassionate policy and legislative action.
“The goal of government is to provide for the general welfare of its people,” he said. “We’re the third most violent state in the country, and we aren’t taking any measures to address it. We’re actually doing the opposite. We’re putting more guns on the street. We’re not providing funding to help folks with drug issues. I’m just saying we’re hands-off. Taking it one step further, we’re moving funding from early childhood education. Well guess what happens when you remove funding from early childhood education? You’re perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline. Why? Because we’re funding private prisons.”
Smiley said Tennessee’s hands-off approach to crime, social programs, and funding to distressed areas is a reflection of missing social attitudes at the state level, a skill set he claims to possess and wants to apply to state legislation.
“It’s about how you talk to people,” he said. “I’m not asking about any political philosophies. Let’s sit down and talk: ‘how’s your wife?’ You know, ‘What’s going on in your community? What’s your pain points? Oh, I understand, I have the same issues here.’ Once you get to know someone as a person, you figure out how to work together collaboratively, and nine times out of 10, we get them to move the needle, and the goal is to move the needle for everybody.”
Marjorie Ramsey, Chair of the Cocke County Democratic Party, said of the voters in attendance, some people had come in from Sevier County to hear Smiley speak. She said The Newport Plain Talk was the only press in attendance for the event.
“I told them they might sell some better newspapers if they quit putting them Republicans on the front page, and editor’s page,” she said. “There’s a lot of Democrats in Cocke County that’s quit taking his newspaper, and I’d tell him that right now.”
A woman from Ramsey’s church, who asked not to be named, said it was the first time she’d seen the candidate, and had never heard of him until she was asked to attend.
Smiley joined a Democratic primary race in September that now includes Dr. Jason Martin, a Nashville ICU physician and critic of the state government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Carnita Atwater, a gentrification opponent and owner of the Kukutana African-American History and Culture Museum of Memphis.
An assistant for Smiley said he would campaign next in Greeneville, Chattanooga and Nashville.
This story appeared in The Newport Plain Talk.