This is where I write about the race, the district, the 17 counties I’m running in, the fights I’m running on, and the work as it happens. Field notes from the trail. The math of an outsider campaign in real time. What I get right, what I get wrong, who I meet, what I learn. No PR voice, no consultant tone. Just me, telling you the truth about how this actually goes.
My older national and cultural writing lives at rachelandthecity.com. Both feeds go out through the Substack if you want them in your inbox.
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Disaster mitigation is boring. It’s also why Dyersburg’s water plant survived – and my question for xAI.
Let’s talk about disaster mitigation, because that is an important part of a representative’s job. Disaster mitigation means doing the work before the disaster. You study what can go wrong, you plan for it, and you spend a little now so it costs a lot less later. One major national study found federal mitigation grants…
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Cut the gas tax? Great. Now there’s less money for your roads.
Get rid of the gas tax. Sounds great, right? Guess what it pays for? Roads. Every Republican running for office loves to say “cut taxes.” Almost none of them tell you what those taxes are doing. So let me tell you what the gas tax does, and why it matters for every road in this…
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Economic development keeps chasing tourists. The research says we’re doing it wrong.
Let’s talk about economic development, because every city in America plays the same game. The showpiece projects get the headlines and the political muscle – stadiums, arenas, convention centers, entertainment districts. The pitch is always the same: visitors will come, spending will follow, and the benefits will trickle down to everybody. Meanwhile, the neighborhoods two…
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Everybody says they love small businesses. Here are three things Congress could actually do.
Let’s talk about small businesses, because everybody running for office says they love Main Street, and almost nobody names one thing Congress could actually do for it. I’ll name three. The first one is swipe fees. Every time a customer taps a card, the card company and the bank take a cut of the sale…
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The biggest housing bill in 30 years is about to pass. It leaves out the homes that many TN-5 residents live in.
Congress’s bipartisan housing bill restricts Wall Street from buying single-family homes – but exempts manufactured homes and skips the two fixes that matter. Here’s the honest read.
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Crime prevention doesn’t need new laws. It needs the money Congress already promised.
Let’s talk about crime prevention, because it’s the question I get asked most in Memphis, and the honest answer starts with what a freshman member of Congress can and can’t do. Here’s the thing – a first-term representative doesn’t walk in and pass landmark legislation. Seniority runs the committees, leadership runs the floor, and a…
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The new veterans bill is full of good ideas. Disabled veterans are paying for all of them.
Let’s talk about veterans, because there’s a 554-page veterans bill moving through Congress right now, and most of what’s in it is good. The way it’s paid for is not – and they’re hoping you don’t read that far. It’s called the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act – H.R. 9237. It bundles more than…
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xAI’s turbines are poisoning Boxtown’s air – and the Trump DOJ just moved to kill the lawsuit
Imagine being a slave – and not being told you were free until two years after the fact. That’s Juneteenth. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 – declaring the enslaved people in the rebel states free. But paper doesn’t free anybody on its own. It took Union soldiers showing up – and…
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When they yell about “Medicare fraud,” count the money
Republicans rant about Medicare fraud. But the real money isn’t street-level crooks – it’s private Medicare Advantage plans overbilling taxpayers by more than a trillion over a decade. Here’s the trick, and who’s cashing in.
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Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire. You helped pay for it.
I thought everyone knew this – but I guess it bears repeating since I’ve seen so many posts defending Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire. CNN looked at how Musk got there, and the truth is Tesla and SpaceX don’t exist in the form they do today without government help. Our tax dollars ended up saving…