Meet Blair Walsingham

When deciding who to give our 1st Congressional District seat to this year, you have a distinct choice: a self-identified “fierce ally of President Trump” or a pragmatic military veteran who wants to eliminate poverty in East Tennessee. We’d like you to meet Blair Walsingham, our Democratic House candidate. Blair was the first speaker at our September Meet and Greet, and it quickly became an in-depth, honest discussion of what she intends to do for our community in Washington.

Walsingham is a study of continuous effort. She enlisted at seventeen, and worked two jobs to put herself through school as a single mother. She is now married with four children on a homestead in Hawkins County. For most people that would be enough, but Walsingham’s family has served this country in the armed forces for generations and she plans to do the same – just in a different way.

Blair set an operational goal of helping people in our area reach financial sustainability. This would be achieved by giving people control of a flat portion of our pooled resources. It’s premised on the idea that the individual is better suited than the government to choose which economic opportunities get the best return for their investment. It’s a novel idea, but it shouldn’t be. When you think how often large corporations direct our tax dollars through lobbying, this is simply a strategic move to level the playing field.

If American voters collectively demand this change in how we allocate what we pay, the end result would be a fair shot at personal economic freedom and the elimination of poverty. Through interaction with voters, it became clear why Blair scored the endorsement of the former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

She gets the concept of a Universal Basic Income and after reading seven books on the subject, she’s ready to devise specific legislation to get it. The only catch is it would take the power of the people to make it happen. The plan would have to be adopted by the nation. Ball’s in our court.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) plans vary. After extensive study, Blair designed a flat model called a Freedom Dividend that she will pursue if elected. Walsingham’s plan would distribute $1,000 dollars in tax revenues back to every adult citizen per month. This would have the effect of giving everyone in the 1^St Congressional District a 73% pay raise, infusing an additional $6.9 billion into our District annually. It would be like injecting nitrous oxide into our economic engine. Even if some only participated as consumers, all our boats would rise together. This would eliminate the devastating effects of children locked into poverty through no fault of their own. The ambitious would finally be able to give their children a better future than they had – an expectation we’ve lost along the way.

If you haven’t already formed an opinion on the subject, you should know that the encroaching force of automation and the meteoric rise of the new billionaire class has convinced a long list of notable figures that it will save our economy from eventual collapse. Milton Friedman and Peter Diamond are both prominent economists and Nobel laureates who support the idea. They are joined by Barack Obama, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and Keith Ellison: the present Attorney General of Minnesota, past Congressman and former DNC Deputy Chair. Did I mention a slew of tech giants support UBI, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk? In fact, Reich, the former Labor Secretary, says some form of Universal Basic Income is inevitable.

Walsingham has built an entire platform on the base of UBI to support our working families. She would immediately prioritize rural access to high-speed Internet. It’s time to stop messing around. Our kids have to have it for school, and there are good-paying jobs online that some in our area desperately need.

Blair also supports universal access to Healthcare, paid family and sick leave, and getting prescription drug prices under control. Wrestling power away from wealthy drug companies and their lobbyists is a feature, not a defect, of UBI. It’s designed to filter high-paid lobbyists out of our system. Another crucial plank for East Tennessee, is Blair’s support of legislation to benefit our independent farms. We should be protecting and extending their potential markets, not killing them through nonsensical trade wars.

Walsingham competently discussed every issue that came up that night, and it seemed almost everything did. She has given a lot of thought to what our collection of local towns and rural communities need to really thrive, but she has offered more than words during her campaign. This summer, Walsingham raised funds to fight Covid-19, and directly supported struggling families in our area. She has built an army of unpaid volunteers who’ve seen her walk the walk. They want someone who knows what it’s like to build a life from the ground up to represent us this time - not just another “Big-Pharma millionaire.”

In all fairness to Diana Harshbarger, Walsingham’s Republican opponent, she may be a millionaire, but according to WJHL she’s not exactly “Big-Pharma.” Diana and her husband profited from a closely-held company that mislabeled Chinese drugs as American made - a crime to which her husband was indicted and plead guilty. During her campaign, Diana unfortunately lied to WJHL about having “no role or involvement in the company whatsoever.” WJHL followed up with a public records request that proved she was actually the Secretary of AIMS, and one of just two officers/directors – her husband being the other. According to WJHL, Diana even became President of the company after Robert Harshbarger began his prison sentence.

This revelation is disqualifying. The Republican candidate for our seat in Congress is lying about basic, troubling facts in her background. That works for Trump, but his immunity to the truth doesn’t trickle down to Tennessee. Sadly, these are not the only misrepresentations Diana Harshbarger is doubling down on in her campaign. She continues to misstate Walsingham’s position on the roiling issue of Justice Reform. Blair’s positions are clear and have not changed; she’s made several, direct public statements to correct Harshbarger. Continuing to push this false narrative is a dangerous lie, not a mistake. Over the past few months, Diana has seen where that can lead. So, we have to take a stand where in the past we preferred not to dignify lies with a response. We cannot elect another Trumpie with two strikes. One thing Tennesseans should agree on: it’s time to stop the nonsense. It’s gotten way out of hand to tinfoil hats. We need to demand that the people we choose to represent us tell the truth.

I’d like to highlight Blair’s rather noncontroversial approach to Justice Reform. Harshbarger won’t give voters a debate, but you deserve the facts. Walsingham wants to stop criminalizing poverty. A simple example she gave us in September perfectly illustrates the problem. When you can’t afford car insurance, but still have to get to work, what happens? You go to work. Or pretty soon, you won’t have a place to live or food for your kids. Eventually, you get stopped and ticketed for driving without insurance. Now, you’re hit with a series of fines and more expensive SR-22 insurance - all of which you still can’t afford. You increase your hours at work, to try and raise the extra money you need, but you aren’t going to make it. If the only option you have is to drive yourself, it’s only a matter of time before you get picked up by the police and taken to jail. When you can’t afford bail either, you stay there. The design of our current system ensures failure. Not exactly the ‘American way’, is it? Blair will do the hard work to change it.

And just so we’re clear, a little aside from the HCDP: Blair’s move to reform a system that criminalizes and perpetuates poverty does not disparage the police. That is an intellectually dishonest argument that Harshbarger is parroting from her party. Republicans think they can browbeat us with empty slogans like, “Law and Order!” It sounds righteous, and they think shouting it in our direction creates the illusion of a distinction - like Democrats somehow want crime and chaos. It’s absurd, and it’s time to stop sheepishly backing down so Republicans never have to get off their high horse and help us right this obvious wrong. We are in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. Good people are suffering. That shouldn’t be the cause of a criminal record. So, in the approximate words of our resident Saint, Dolly Parton: Good Lord Republicans, take yourself off the Cross, someone else might need the wood! Decriminalizing the justice system is simply the right thing to do. You can either join us, or we’ll work hard to replace you.

Blair made a good point though, when she came to speak. There are plenty of Republicans out there who want change too. Walsingham hasn’t given up on them, and we shouldn’t either. After all, they’re our friends and neighbors – sometimes even family. The one overriding impression Blair left us with, is that she’s a bridge builder. She wants to get us up to speed with the rest of the country a little faster than we’re used to, but she has no intention of leaving anyone behind. There wasn’t a Republican in sight the day she came to Headquarters, but she took every opportunity to talk about what we can achieve if we work together. It’s more than we realize. We’ve been divided and conquered as long as we’ve been alive. Our battle lines are all that hold us back from the kind of financial security and prosperous local economy Blair’s talking about. It’s just a fact: when Trump is replaced, we are going to have to work together. There’s simply too much work to do otherwise. After listening to Walsingham’s pragmatic approach to building consensus, I think she’s the one for the job – and I know she gets my vote.

Visit Blair's Website here

Blair is committed to putting people before politics. Endorsed by key community and national organizations, Blair is running on the platform of health, freedom, and financial security.

Walsingham has long advocated for a Freedom Dividend for all American Citizens. She’s putting the concept to proof, organizing a small scale test of the Freedom Dividend, dubbed the TN Freedom Grant.

Blair is focused on pursuing policies that will reduce bureaucracy & ensure greater access to opportunity for all. Listen to her Podcasts.

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