Since Donald Trump came down the escalator, we’ve been talking about authenticity and outsiders, about elite failures and institutional trust. It feels to me like that conversation has almost become a caricature of itself.

Maybe (??) we’re reaching the point of “insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

My conversation partner today is Lauren Pinkston, independent candidate for governor in Tennessee. I was curious to talk with her about what it means to be an outsider who looks like an insider. She’s running without a party behind her. She has a PhD and has lived in multiple countries. Can someone like Lauren, who is polished, prepared, and professional have the authentic outsider cred that launches the career of someone like Graham Platner?

We hit on some themes that I’ll be thinking about for a while. Can’t wait to hear what this conversation sparks for you.

Topics Discussed

Transparency and elected officials’ health, from Mitch McConnell to Tom Kean Jr.
Graham Platner’s exit from the Maine Senate race and what it says about party incentives
Elitism, authenticity, and what “honor” means in public service
Money in politics and running a campaign without party infrastructure
A proposed moratorium on data centers in Tennessee
Rebuilding public education: vouchers, Montessori models, screen time, and special education
Parenting lessons Lauren brings to how she’d govern

Want more Pantsuit Politics? Subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode and get access to our premium shows and community.

Subscribe now

Episode Resources

https://pinkstonfortn.com/en/about

https://www.instagram.com/pinkstonfortn/?hl=en

Tickets for the Pantsuit Politics live show in Minneapolis, Aug 29 (Eventbrite)

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Beth: This is Beth Silvers. You’re listening to Pantsuit Politics. Sarah is on her summer break. I am here with a very special guest, Lauren Pinkston, who is running for governor of Tennessee as an independent candidate. Several Tennessee listeners have told us about Lauren, and I got more interested the more I learned. Lauren is pretty fearless and has organized an impressive campaign from the ground up by herself. I’ve been honest about how much I struggle with the two-party system since we started recording Pantsuit Politics, so I want to hear about and from people who are trying a different way. Lauren and I talk about what elected leaders owe their constituents and her thoughts on education. A couple of things you should know about this conversation. Lauren spoke to me from a storage room in a public library where she’d been out meeting voters. If you follow Lauren on Instagram, you’ll see that she’s on the road in Tennessee talking to voters all the time. So it’s not surprising that she squeezed this conversation into a packed schedule. The library needed her to relocate to another small room in the middle of our conversation, and I wanted to tell you about this both so you understand why the sound quality varies and because she handled it really graciously.

[00:01:14] I’ve talked with a lot of people running for office. They’re usually in very controlled environments. I thought it was refreshing to see a candidate out in the wild. It feels like she’s walking her talk in a variety of ways. You should also know that we talked on Wednesday afternoon. As you’re listening on Friday or later, you probably know a lot more about Mitch McConnell, Graham Platner, and other news than Lauren and I knew as we talked. You’ll hear us talk less about the specifics of these headlines and more about them as a microcosm of a system that is struggling. One more quick announcement now is the moment to get your tickets to our Minneapolis live show afterparty. The afterparty is where Sarah and I really get to spend time with people, taking photos, chatting, giving hugs. It’s the best. It’s also where a lot of listeners meet people they end up staying in touch with long after everyone’s headed home. So grab your tickets by following the link in the show notes. And now, here is my conversation with Lauren Pinkston, independent candidate for governor of Tennessee Lauren, welcome to Pantsuit Politics. I’m so excited that you’re here.

[00:02:24] Lauren Pinkston: I have been waiting for this conversation. Thank you for having me.

[00:02:28] Beth: So I want to talk with you about leadership issues that are in the headlines right now because I think they correspond to your decision to seek office as an independent. Let’s start with transparency about health. We’re recording at 1:00 Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 8th. This episode will publish Friday morning, the 10th. The situation could have changed by then, but as we’re talking, we know that 84-year-old Senator McConnell of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where I live, is hospitalized, has been since maybe June 14th. We don’t really know why, and the internet is abuzz with speculation about what’s going on with him. The big development today is that our governor, Andy Beshear, sent a letter to him asking about the status of his health, and I wondered what you thought about that and how you’ve been processing this absence overall.

[00:03:26] Lauren Pinkston: I’m someone who believes in term limits. I believe, of course, there is a learning curve when you come into office, and there’s a lot that does need to become... within your realm of understanding, right? When you’re running for public office, and then you start to serve. However, there is so much watered-down courage when someone has been in office for so long. And if you are not fit to serve, the first thing that you can do as an honoring of our republic is to say that out loud, especially if it’s clear that it has been a prolonged issue. When, our current president was elected in 2016, I spoke out against him and have been speaking to Christians about the dangers of his leadership since then. But in 2024, I said the exact same thing about President Biden, and I said that he was the most selfish man in the country at the time because it was clear that his health capacity had weakened, and his mental capacity had weakened. And to put his party in a difficult position, I thought was very selfish as well. So on both sides of the issue, on both sides of the political spectrum, we have this issue. But I think it’s important that we are transparent about our fit to govern, and especially when very serious conversations are being had, and very important conversations are being had with people’s tax dollars. It is unjust and it is not right to not use your leadership capacity to the fullest extent.

[00:04:48] Beth: I’m not sure that Mitch McConnell thinks of himself as owing anyone that level of honesty about his capacity as one of his constituents. I have my feelings about him as a national figure and the way that he has played games with the Supreme Court, his failure to convict the president after January 6th. Both of those things I think are forever damaging to his legacy and to our country. But as a constituent of his, I’ve contacted his office many times. I find his responses really insulting and dismissive, and I think that they just show that he just doesn’t think he has to tell us anything.

[00:05:31] Lauren Pinkston: Yeah. You are experiencing something that people across the country are experiencing, and it is this fear of your constituents. I’m watching so many elected officials avoid questions from the people that they are serving or are supposed to serve of offices in Washington and at the state level, ignoring emails, ignoring phone calls, or as you said, writing blanket responses ba...

Pantsuit Politics

Message History

Delivery option(s)