Lauren Pinkston (Independent)

- Lives in Columbia. Began as a fourth-grade teacher, earned a doctorate from Clemson, and taught at Lipscomb University from 2020 to 2023. Started businesses that employ human trafficking survivors. First run for office.
- A moderate alternative for voters who are not satisfied with either party. Endorsed by the Forward Party.
- Says Tennessee can repeal the 4 percent grocery tax. Criticizes business tax breaks and incentives for out-of-state technology companies.
- Fully repeal the private-school voucher program. Prioritize safe, well-funded schools and limit testing that gets in the way of teaching.
- Says she believes all life is sacred but criticizes the state's total abortion ban as risking women's lives; wants better support for mothers and families.
- Would not have sent the National Guard to Memphis; says she would have asked local law enforcement where help was needed.
- Has drawn what the Tennessee Lookout calls substantial fundraising.

Anti-Trafficking Research and Activism

PhD International Family and Community Studies

Entrepreneur

Lower Costs
- End Grocery Tax
- Add 50,000 daycare and preschool slots by 2030
- Bring down your utility bill
- Modernize the grid, expand nuclear and renewable capacity, protect TVA from privatization, and clear the red tape blocking affordable energy projects.
- Help working families buy their first home
- Partner with Tennessee banks to expand loan access and lower down payments, so the American Dream is something working Tennesseans can actually afford.
- Halt data center construction until Tennessee sets the rules
- Make growth pay for itself
- Cut prescription costs
- Take on Pharmacy Benefit Managers and expand direct-pricing pharmacies.
- Create paths away from welfare
- No Tennessean should immediately lose assistance (or their kids' coverage) just for earning a raise.
- Protect the right to organize
- When workers can bargain collectively, paychecks go further and families get ahead. - - Lauren will defend every Tennessean's freedom to organize and tie state economic incentives to companies that respect their workers.

Education
- Fund Public Schools
- End the School Voucher Experiment
- Better Pay for Teachers
- Cut Excessive Benchmark Testing
- Center Teachers in Policy
- Let schools be different
- Not every child learns in the same way. Tennessee should diversify public school options to include more Montessori, Nature, and STEAM schools, so students in every county find a public school built for how they learn.
- Protect students with disabilities
- Give kids their childhood back
- Tennessee should have phone-free schools bell to bell, and more free play and real-world responsibility during the school day.
- Build Real Career Path
- Invest in high school trade education, expand TCAT scholarships — especially for the electricians and grid technicians Tennessee's energy future depends on — and offer professional licence pathways for high school students.

Hold Government Accountable
- Publish a weekly Citizens Report
- Verified voter input on active policy issues will be made publicly available through the Governor’s Office with a weekly report sent to all Tennessee lawmakers.
- Brief the press regularly
- Keep primaries open
- End gerrymandering
- Restore nonpartisan county elections
- Keep the courts independent and free of political pressure
- Support term limits for legislators
- Defend Tennessee from federal overreach
- The state voter records should never have been handed over, and American citizens should not be racially profiled.
- Get big money out of politics
- Undermine Citizens United

Christian for separation of church and state