Chaz Molder, the Mayor of Columbia with a passion for defending public schools, has raised significant cash for his bid to unseat 5th District Congressman Andy Ogles.
Molder has raised $785,000 to date and now has more campaign funds available than Ogles.
Molder has a strong record of supporting public education – and challenging interests seeking to privatize schools.
Columbia Mayor has record of defending public schools
A proven defender of public schools is considering a run for Congress in Tennessee’s 5th District, which includes a portion of Nashville. The district is currently represented by Andy Ogles.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder confirmed this week he is “strongly considering” entering the 5th Congressional District race as a Democrat, potentially setting up a 2026 race with Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles.
If he enters the contest, Molder would join Metro Council member Mike Cortese, who has announced his candidacy and filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, adjunct professor Joyce Neal and healthcare executive Jim Torino in a Democratic primary. Political activist Maryam Abolfazli, who lost to Ogles in 2024, has made overtures about running again.
Memphis City Council Member Jerri Green – a previous candidate for the TN House of Representatives – announced she plans to run for Governor in 2026. Current Gov. Bill Lee is term-limited.
Green, a Democrat, said she plans to bring an “army of moms” to the campaign.
State Rep. Aftyn Behn a candidate for Tennessee’s 7th House District
A Tennessee State Representative with a reputation for hardcore community organizing and a passion for defending public education is now a candidate for Congress.
Behn focused her announcement on her work as an organizer – work that paid off when she defeated a popular Metro Council member in the primary for House District 51.
I’ve seen it as a social worker, sitting with families of kids with disabilities who can’t get the care they need — parents forced to take dead-end jobs just to scrape by, instead of being able to stay home and care for their own children. As a legislator, I’ve heard it firsthand, picking up the phone for my constituents who’ve been waiting years for their SSDI to come through, or who were kicked off TennCare with nowhere else to turn.
Our country is broken. Our systems are broken. And the billionaires and corrupt politicians who broke them are getting richer than ever, while pointing the finger at immigrants and trans kids to distract us from who’s really to blame.
While Behn has organized around the state on healthcare issues, she’s also been a strong advocate for Nashville and Tennessee public schools.
Teachers offer strong resistance to Trump education agenda
Response to Donald Trump’s nomination of Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education has been swift. And mixed. Why there isn’t more fierce resistance is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps education groups are afraid of her powerful wrestling moves (she was once CEO of WWE). Or, maybe some groups want to still be in line to receive DOE grants.
“Parents and educators will stand together to support students and reject the harmful, outlandish, and insulting policies being pushed by the Trump administration. They will make their voices heard, just as they did by resoundingly defeating vouchers in states like Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska.
Beshear recently penned a New York Times OpEd proposing a way forward for national Democrats and then appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and made the case that he could be the face and voice of that path.
Central to Beshear’s appeal in Kentucky is his vigorous defense of public education. He’s proposed boosting teacher pay significantly. He’s also been a vocal opponent of school vouchers – and Kentucky voters re-elected him by 5 points in 2023 and then rejected school vouchers by a 65-35 margin in 2024. They also voted for Trump by a 2-1 margin.
Beshear wins in a Trump +30 state because he defends local public schools. As he notes, he’s also a strong supporter of reproductive freedom and a defender of LGBT+ rights. By focusing on a “we’re all in this together” attitude, Beshear showing how Democrats can both advance a progressive agenda and win elections.
Support for public schools is a key element of that playbook.
Education has been a hot topic in Nebraska for months because of school choice legislation, now there is a microscope on it nationally, with the Trump/Vance campaign calling for the closure of the Department of Education. Teachers and education leaders in Omaha spoke out against proposed federal education cuts and elimination of the Department of Education.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton has floated the idea of Tennessee rejecting federal education spending because he’s not a fan of the strings attached to the nearly $2 billion the state receives each year to help fund public schools.
When asked to clarify, Sexton revealed that he wasn’t suggesting “doing without,” but rather that the state would simply pick up the tab.
Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com on Pexels.com
Vance just spoke at a Christian nationalist rally in Monroeville (a Pittsburgh suburb), and some of it was about education.
Greene notes the following remarks from Vance’s appearance:
Some of the stuff that they’re teaching in American schools in 2024, that that’s not just liberalism that is crazy and we’ve got to get it out of our schools or it’s going to poison the minds of our young people.
And, well, it’s just bizarre.
But not if you take it in the context of JD Vance and Donald Trump advancing a Christian Nationalist agenda.
Not because either of them actually care about advancing a Christian takeover of American institutions – but because acting like they are all-in helps them win the votes of the evangelicals that do.
Trump is “all in” on school privatization, Harris stands with public schools
As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris prepare to debate tonight, the education agenda of each candidate deserves a look.
NPR digs in to some key issues, and the differences are stark.
School privatization, for example:
First, he’s [Trump] calling for universal school choice. This would, in theory, take public dollars normally spent on a child’s public education and give them directly to parents to spend at whatever school they want, whether it’s public, private or homeschooling at the kitchen table.
By contrast:
Harris has been an outspoken supporter of public education and has been courting educators’ support.
Democrats, on the other hand, made clear in their 2024 platform that they’re against any effort that could weaken the nation’s public schools. “We oppose the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education. Public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.”
Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House offers an opportunity to examine the President’s impact on education policy.
While the federal government and President don’t directly dictate education policy (this is primarily a state and local function), an Administration can certainly set a tone and some parameters.
And, certainly, broad policies like No Child Left Behind had impacts felt at the school level.
Joe Biden has been a friend to public education, and Kamala Harris would likely not deviate from that.
A look at her record reveals someone who has been a supporter of public education and public school educators.
Harris’ very first speech on the US Senate floor was in opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Trump’s Secretary of Education, shredding her for an utter lack of qualifications and experience.
She’s also called for a significant pay hike for teachers. This echoes the call by Sen. Bernie Sanders to make the minimum starting pay for all teachers $60,000.
While the federal government does not set state and local pay scales for teachers, federal funding could be distributed in such a way as to effectively give teachers a raise.
Moreover, when the message coming from the White House is “boost teacher pay and invest in schools,” state policymakers are more likely to move in that direction – especially in states where the leadership is of the same party as the President.
In her first week as a candidate, Harris addressed the American Federation of Teachers and argued in favor of increased teacher pay and measures to reduce the risk of gun violence at schools.
Should she become President, her record suggests she would stand with public schools and support teachers.
