The pledge
I’m running in Tennessee. The system is broken everywhere.
This is the pledge I’ve signed as a candidate. I’m asking every federal candidate in the country to sign it, and every voter in the country to commit not to vote for any candidate who refuses. One document. Six commitments. You don’t pick and choose.
Why one pledge, why national
The system isn’t six separate problems, and it isn’t a Tennessee-only problem.
Term limits, stock trading, lobbying, gerrymandering, campaign finance, and the missing political bench underneath every Democratic seat in this country - these aren’t six separate fights. They’re one fight. The people in office benefit from the system being broken, so the system stays broken. Six separate pledges let a candidate sign the easy ones and skip the hard ones. One pledge doesn’t.
I’m running in Tennessee’s 5th, but the rigged-system problem doesn’t stop at a state line. The same dysfunction is producing the same outcomes from Maine to Arizona. A pledge that only Tennessee candidates can be asked to sign doesn’t move the country. A pledge any federal candidate in any state can be asked to sign does.
So this document has two sign-on tracks. Candidates sign as candidates. Voters sign as voters. I’ll publish the names of every candidate who signs. Voters just get counted - no names, no personal info, just the total.
Two tracks
One document. Two ways to put your name on it.
Candidates sign on as candidates for federal office - U.S. House or U.S. Senate, any state, any party. By signing, they commit to all six planks below. I’m the first candidate signature. I expect more.
Voters sign on as voters in any state. By signing, you commit not to vote for any federal candidate who has not signed this pledge in full. You can sign whether or not you live in TN-5, whether or not you can vote for me, whether or not the candidate refusing to sign is in your district right now. The point is the standard, not the geography.
I’ll publish the names of every candidate who signs - and every candidate who refuses. Voter names stay private. What gets published is the total count, broken out by state and congressional district so any federal candidate in any race can be shown how many of their own constituents have committed to this standard. No personal info on you. Ever.
Plank 01 · Term limits
Twelve years in the House. Per office, per clock.
To serve no more than six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives - twelve years. If I run for the U.S. Senate later, that clock starts fresh: twelve more years, two terms. Per office, per clock. If I never move up, I retire from federal elected office after six House terms.
To cosponsor every federal term limits bill that comes through my chamber, sign every discharge petition, and vote for every floor resolution.
To push my state party to adopt term-limit endorsement rules - declining to endorse any federal candidate who has served more than twelve years in the same seat, subject to party bylaws.
Plank 02 · Stock trading
No individual stock trading while I serve. Resign if I break it.
No individual stock trading while I serve in Congress. Not me, not a spouse, not anyone in my household. Before I take the oath, any individual equity holdings are sold or moved to a qualified blind trust. Household assets stay in index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or treasuries.
If I break this pledge, I resign the seat. Not a press conference. Not a fine. The seat.
To publish every household transaction above $1,000 within 48 hours - not the 45 days federal law allows. To publish an annual third-party accountant verification of compliance.
To cosponsor the Restore Trust in Congress Act, sign the Luna discharge petition, and support the HONEST Act in the Senate.
Plank 03 · Lobbying
A lifetime ban on cashing in. Public meeting logs. Real bill-authorship disclosure.
A lifetime ban on becoming a registered lobbyist after I leave Congress. Not five years. Not ten. Permanent.
No lobbyist-bundled contributions, ever. Registered lobbyists can give their personal max-out contribution. That is it. No bundling. No lobbyist-hosted fundraising events.
A real-time public log of every lobbyist meeting and substantive communication my office has. Published weekly. Who, when, topic, what was asked, what was committed.
Public bill authorship disclosure on every bill I introduce. If a constituent suggested it, that constituent gets named. If a lobbyist sent me language, that gets named. No hidden authors.
Plank 04 · Gerrymandering
The principle has to apply to my own party or it isn’t a principle.
If my party ever controls redistricting in my state during my time in office, I will publicly oppose any partisan gerrymander my own party tries to draw.
To champion independent redistricting commissions at every level of government where authority exists - state, county, city - whether or not my own party currently benefits from the status quo.
To recruit and support state legislative candidates in both parties who commit to ending partisan gerrymandering.
To cosponsor and vote for federal redistricting reform and Voting Rights Act restoration every time they come through.
Plank 05 · Money in politics
Refuse the money the system runs on. Run the campaign in the light.
No corporate PAC money. No Super PAC support, sought or accepted. If a Super PAC forms anyway, I publicly disavow it.
No dark-money support. If a 501(c)(4) spends on my race without disclosing donors, I call them out publicly and refuse coordination.
A real-time public campaign finance ledger on my campaign website. Every dollar in, every dollar out. Updated continuously. Not quarterly.
Small-donor first. My campaign’s measure of success is an average contribution under $100.
Plank 06 · Build the bench
The seat doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the work.
Weekly public office hours. In person and on video. Open to anyone in my district. Not press conferences. Actual office hours where constituents can show up and talk.
A free, public DIY politics curriculum: how to file, how to fundraise without selling your soul, how to talk to voters, how to run a campaign on a budget. Available to anyone in my district who wants to run for anything.
Quarterly transparency reports - what my office has done, who we helped, what bills we moved on, where the money went. Reports, not press releases.
When I term-limit out, I will have mentored my replacement. Multiple replacements. The hand-off is built into the job from day one.
The ask
Every federal candidate in the country gets asked, on the record.
This pledge is not a press release. It is a sign-on document for any candidate for federal office in any state who wants to commit to these standards. The names of candidates who sign go up on this site. The names of candidates who refuse go up on this site too. Refusal is itself the answer, and voters can use it.
Every state party has its own version of the same lever - making the pledge a condition of endorsement. That doesn’t require state or federal legislation. It requires party rules, which the parties already get to write.
The pushback I’m ready for
“Bundling these together makes the pledge too hard to sign.”
That is the point. The reason the system stays broken is that candidates have been allowed to sign the easy parts of reform and skip the hard parts. Term limits without a ban on stock trading is theater. A ban on stock trading without a lobbying ban is theater. A lobbying ban without refusing corporate PAC money is theater. Each clause is necessary because the others on their own are insufficient.
The pledge is the easy choice if a candidate actually believes the system needs fixing. It is the hard choice if a candidate is hoping voters won’t notice which parts they kept open for themselves. Asking other federal candidates to sign the full document is asking them to show, in public, which kind of candidate they are.
The other pushback
“Why is a Tennessee candidate running a national pledge?”
Because the problem is national. The rigged-system problem doesn’t change at the Tennessee border. The same dysfunction produces the same outcomes in every state. A pledge designed to fix it has to operate at the scale the problem operates at, not at the scale of one congressional district.
I’m running this from Tennessee because I’m running for Congress from Tennessee. The pledge isn’t about Tennessee. It’s about what every federal candidate in the country should be willing to commit to, and what every voter in the country should be willing to demand. If a candidate in California or Maine or Arizona signs it, that’s a win. If a voter in any state signs it and uses it to hold their own representative accountable, that’s the win that compounds.
The seat I’m running for is one seat. The pledge is bigger than the seat.
Sign the pledge.
Voters in any state: commit not to vote for federal candidates who haven’t signed the full document. Your name stays private - only the count gets published. Candidates for federal office in any state: sign on as a candidate. Candidate names get published.