John Stevens Announces Senate Re-Election Bid

I’m asking for your vote in the August 6 Republican primary. I’ve shrunk the size and scope of state government, protected the Constitution, and reduced burdensome regulations on business and agriculture.
Our savings account is at its all time high. Our taxes are the lowest per person in the country and we have nearly no state debt. We’re rated first in fiscal stability. We have the highest bond rating a state can hive.
Since 2015, Tennessee has had more than 100,000 new job commitments and $21.5 billion in capital investment, and 43% of new job commitments are in rural Tennessee. Since 2013, there have been 53 ECD projects in this district with 7,000 new job commitments and $1.2 billion in capital investment. My district has received $37 million in Rural and Community Development grants for 223 projects.
We know how important agriculture is to our economy. I’ve sponsored and passed several bills that have lowered the costs of production and protected farms from increased taxation. I passed a bill to create a seasonal CDL license, saving some producers over $5,000 per license. We’ve removed the sales tax from water used in agricultural production, ensured agriculture production is not taxable as commercial property, and eliminated the sales tax on agricultural trailers.
For my work on behalf of small businesses, I’ve been endorsed by the NFIB — the nation’s leading voice for small business.
Since being elected, I have passed more pro-second amendment bills than any other legislator. I have earned the highest rating given by the NRA, an A+. I passed the legislation that allows guns in parks and in government buildings. If the government isn’t going to protect you, you should be able to protect yourself, period. I am endorsed by the NRA.
This year, the General Assembly passed the most pro-life piece of legislation in the country. It makes abortion illegal where there is a detected fetal heartbeat. The bill was drafted working with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has won more pro-life cases and cases that protect religious liberty than any other legal non-profit in the past 5 or 6 years.
If re-elected, it is my intent to focus on three issues that I hear the most about from the people of northwest Tennessee — crime, drugs, and broadband access.
We have some of the highest violent crime rates in the country, while also having some of the highest incarceration rates. That should not be the case. We can decrease violent crime rates, making our communities safer, while also decreasing incarceration rates. Most other states have done it — Tennessee can too.
I think the virus has highlighted how important having access to reliable broadband is. I’ve come to view broadband as infrastructure and for rural Tennesseans to compete, we need the state’s help in building out that infrastructure. My proposal is, if state revenues can support it, to create a $200 million grant fund to increase broadband expansion in rural Tennessee. I’m a free market capitalist, but the state can and should play a limited role in helping fund the infrastructure based upon the vast public purpose served, just like roads.
To close, if you vote in the Republican primary, I ask for your vote Thursday, August 6. Let’s keep Tennessee fiscally-strong, low-tax, pro-business, and standing firm against the radical left’s agenda to destroy our Constitutional republic.
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