During the stretch run of the 2012 campaign season, former doctor and GOP congressman Scott DesJarlais, who up to that point had been in the beginning stages of what looked to be a ho-hum and undistinguished career as a GOP backbencher, suddenly found himself in front of a national audience. And it was for perhaps the worst reason imaginable, at least for a conservative Republican in the heart of Tennessee: A series of sex scandals, in which the married and anti-choice DesJarlais not only had relations with a patient, but was caught pressuring her to have an abortion.
In a remarkable testament to the overwhelming power of incumbency in American congressional politics, DesJarlais has yet to lose his job, despite the revelation. In 2012, the news was too fresh to make much of a dent on an easy reelection win; and in 2014, DesJarlais managed to fend off a primary challenge by a crazy-thin margin of just 38 votes. To most prognosticators, that means DesJarlais is essentially in the clear, running as he is in a conservative district. But first-time candidate and Democratic challenger Lenda Sherrell has other plans, hoping the third time's the charm when it comes to ending the political career of Scott DesJarlais.
Salon recently spoke with Sherrell to discuss her opponent, her fear that the American dream is becoming a tragedy, and her motivations for entering the race. Our conversation is below, and has been edited for clarity and length.
You're running in a district that pundits consider a near-lock for Republicans. Knowing how hard it is to run for Congress, even in a friendly environment, what made you want to do this despite the long odds?
This is my first time running for office, and I’ve lived in this district all of my life. I’m a numbers person. I’m a retired CPA, chief financial officer, so when I say that numbers tell a story, that is part of the reason why I’m getting into this race. Every year, Congress has problems balancing its budget, and last year the federal government even shut down the government. Our representative, Scott DesJarlais, was one of the ones who voted to do that. This would be unacceptable in any business.
Washington needs people with real budget experience. We certainly need to eliminate government waste and save taxpayer dollars, but we also need to find ways of doing business to make government work more efficiently, and we do that by investing toward a common future, like our children, our children’s education, our businesses, our farms, our communities; because each dollar invested returns multiple times into our local economy. I feel like our district needs someone representing them who has real-world experience working with different interests, managing a responsible budget, and investing wisely.
I’m also the daughter of parents who were solidly middle-class. My dad was a rural letter-carrier, my mom was a schoolteacher, and on their salaries they were able to save enough money to buy a house and pay for a college education for me and my brother, and they retired securely. And over the years, I would say over the last 30 years, I’ve watched that ability to realize what many would call the American dream begin to slip away. I look at that American dream now for my children and my grandchildren as becoming something of an American tragedy. We used to believe that our children and our grandchildren would do just a little bit better than we did, and many of our families here in middle Tennessee don’t believe that that American dream is really within their reach anymore.
Were you thinking of running before last year's shutdown, or was that the catalyst?
It certainly had an impact. I can’t say that it was the one thing that made me decide to do that. I think that it was a combination of things, but it certainly hit me that there was a problem with the way our representative was voting on that issue — and just the idea that you would just shut down a government, shut down jobs, shut down programs that help people in our district, that would be irresponsible in my world. You work to find solutions that keep your business going while you find a solution; you don’t just shut it down.
How much are you running because of Rep. DesJarlais' well-known personal indiscretions and how much are you running because of opposition to the Republican Party's current policies?
Well, he and I are certainly different. He has voted on many measures that illustrate how different we are. I would say that's 50 percent of the reason that I’m running; the other 50 percent is very much connected to the issues that I have worked on with the people in our district. What I’m trying to do is to change things for middle Tennessee. And Scott DesJarlais does not represent all of us. There are thousands in our district who feel unheard and unrepresented. I’m running to include all of us, our concerns, and I want to address the problems in our district.
One example that [shows] his priorities, and that really jumped out at me, is his [support] of a bill that would have prohibited members of Congress from receiving retroactive pay when Congress fails to pass a budget on time. And then he turned around, eight months later, and voted against giving a basic 1.6 percent pay raise to soldiers who are risking their lives every day in Afghanistan. I mean, that’s just one issue. Our district deserves somebody who’s honest, principled and has integrity.
What I’ve found out as I’ve been in this campaign is that there are again thousands of people out there who are a quiet majority, people who worry more about paychecks than they do partisanship, and who are fed up and frustrated with the way our representative seems to look out always for himself. I just believe that we need representatives who will vote, for instance, to give an extra hundred dollars a month to that soldier who subjects himself to hostile fire and protects our country, and not just look out for his own welfare.
You haven't spent much time directly addressing the troubles in the congressman's private life. Is that because you don't think voters should judge him by his personal character? Or do you feel that bringing it up simply isn't necessary, since voters know the story already?
Here in Tennessee, every time there is anything written about him in the media, they seem to focus on his personal record. And so that’s certainly something that voters are aware of. It’s not something that I have chosen to continue to talk about; what I have chosen to talk about his who I am and what I’m about and what I want to do for this district, and how I want to represent the people who live here.
Like I said earlier, my guiding principle has been to work for and with families and communities who see the American dream slipping away. And families like the family I grew up in are still the majority of people in this district. What’s happening to them is, they’re working more than ever and have less to show for it. They’re spending more time at work and they end up with less at the end of the month. Basics like food and transportation, gas money, rent or mortgage, are eating up a larger and larger chunk of the money that they make from their labor. And that American dream ... is turning into a tragedy for our children and grandchildren. The same opportunities that my family had, and that my husband and I had, are becoming available to fewer and fewer people.
That is my value system, that’s what I am basing my campaign on — and in addition to that, I’m a professional, I’m a CPA, I’m a CFO, I represent honesty and integrity and principled decision-making. I think that is a contrast with Scott DesJarlais that people in this district need to understand. It has as much to do with what I’m about and who I am as who he is and the way he has voted.
You've noted a couple times now that people are struggling, unhappy with the direction of the country, losing faith in the American dream. What do you say when voters tell you this is all true, but ask why they should support a Democrat like yourself when it's a Democratic president who's been in the White House for more than five years?
Certainly when the president was inaugurated in 2009, he inherited a lot of problems, and we have come a long way since then. Do I agree with the way he has handled everything? I would say nobody agrees 100 percent with the way anybody has handled anything.
My responsibility in this race is to be an independent voice for the people in middle Tennessee, and to cast a vote based on what’s in the best interest of the people that I represent. I will say that I’m disappointed in the way the president and Congress have worked together to get things done. The partisanship and the gridlock is not something that I think any of us are happy about.
Many times, I think, what has happened with the president and with the Congress is that they start out saying, “We know what the problem is, we know what the solution is, and my way is the only way.” And that never gets anything accomplished.
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