by allison | Feb 13, 2017 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
Op-Ed, originally published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press February 13, 2017 A long time ago, a scrappy kid from St. Louis, inspired by watching his big brother fight for a noble cause, badgered his parents into letting him join the Marines at age 17. They were...
by allison | May 26, 2022 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
I’m a progressive candidate running to represent District 26 in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Here’s what else you should know: I’m a native Tennessean. Raised in Memphis, schooled in Knoxville (GBO!), married a guy from Nashville, lived in Chattanooga since...
by allison | Jun 13, 2022 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
I don’t remember my dad, but he was my hero. Dad was a med-evac pilot in Vietnam. He was shot down trying to rescue eleven wounded soldiers in the heat of battle. My first memory is attending a ceremony honoring him as the most decorated Marine in the Vietnam War. I...
by allison | Jun 15, 2022 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
When my dad was killed in action, my gentle mom became a casualty of war too. Left to raise two little girls on her own, there were days she struggled just to get out of bed. Yet in a neighborhood full of silent witnesses, it was Mom who walked across the street alone...
by allison | Jun 17, 2022 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
My dad was a devout Catholic, raised in a big Irish family in St. Louis. My mom was a deeply spiritual Protestant, raised in a southern family with ministers on both sides. After Dad was killed in Vietnam, Mom honored him by raising my sister and me Catholic; she took...
by allison | Jun 19, 2022 | From the 2024 Campaign Trail, Why I Ran (Twice)
When I was seven, I inherited a hundred dollars from one of the whiskery great-great aunts my Memphis family had in abundance. (That’s all we had in abundance, and that ended up being my only inheritance.) I used the money to buy a typewriter, and I used the...
