Why young people should get behind Phil Bredesen | Opinion

• In his 16 years of leadership, Phil Bredesen has worked across the aisle to bring prosperity.
• His opponent Marsha Blackburn represents the 'swamp' of Washington.
• Christopher Hale, 29, of Murfreesboro ran for the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in the 4th District.

As we reach the climatic end of the 2018 midterm elections, many young Tennesseans have the opportunity to participate in something we haven’t had in our adult lives: a competitive statewide election.

For the first time in a dozen years, Tennesseans have a real choice in who represents us in the United States Senate. And for young Tennesseans, the stakes couldn’t be higher and the contrast couldn’t be starker.

Washington is caught up in the thick things. While many of our elected leaders are stuck in excessive partisanship, corporate spin, carefully crafted lies, and artificial debates about yesterday's issues, the people of Tennessee are looking for serious people to come up with innovative ideas to solve their real problems.

Yesterday's tactics might make good television, but in the midst of Tennessee's opioid epidemic, rural jobs deficit, and health care and education crises, these do as little to solve today's problems as straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.

The poet Maya Angelou argued that “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

The first time many Tennessee younger voters saw their choice laid out before them was the Sept. 25 debate in Lebanon. In a 60-minute debate, Marsha Blackburn mentioned Chuck Schumer 12 times and only once talked about the opioid epidemic that she helped perpetuate through her 2016 legislation that made it harder for the federal government to punish big pharmaceutical who illegally push large quantity of prescription drugs into our communities.

A clear difference between Blackburn and Bredesen

Marsha Blackburn talked about Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton so much, because she didn’t want to talk about her 16 years of failed leadership in Washington and her lack of a record to run on.

In his 16 years of local leadership, Phil Bredesen has worked across the aisle to bring the Titans and Predators to Tennessee, create over 300,000 new jobs, incentivize over 50 corporations to create headquarters in our state, balance the budget eight times, save TennCare, and increase teacher pay.

In her 16 years in Washington, Congressman Blackburn has taken leadership on zero bills of significance to the people of Tennessee. Instead, she’s taken over $800,000 in donations from big pharmaceutical companies in exchange for going soft on anti-drug proliferation efforts and appeared on cable television over 800 times.

During the debate, Congressman Blackburn said it’s time to drain the swamp. I’m with her. It’s long past time for a new way forward, so I’m voting for Phil Bredesen.

Marsha Blackburn is the swamp. She’s been in Washington for 16 years. Her campaign for the United States Senate has proven it. If you want to drain the swamp, it’s time to send new leadership to Washington. Phil Bredesen has a record of getting things done. He’s applying for the job.

Washington is broken. Marsha and her friends helped break it. Along with young Tennesseans across the state, I’m voting to hire Phil to fix it.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Governor Bredesen will travel across the region to hear your stories and to share my plan for a more prosperous, healthier, and better-educated Tennessee.

If you feel the urgency I do, if you feel the energy I do, if you feel that love of country and home that I do, I ask you to join me in voting for Phil so that he can work with us to make of this special state something all the more special still.

Christopher Hale, 29, of Murfreesboro ran for the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in the Fourth District. He finished second in the Aug. 2 primary. He was the youngest man to run for Congress in the United States during the 2018 election cycle.