Former public defender Keeda Haynes, who was also formerly incarcerated, is running for Congress in Tennessee, challenging a nearly two-decade Democratic incumbent and hoping to become the first Black woman the state sends to Congress.
In the Aug. 6 primary election, Haynes is a long shot against Rep. Jim Cooper, who’s held the seat in the state’s 5th district, which includes Nashville, for 17 years.
But Haynes, 42, thinks her district is ready for change. At about the same time Cooper began representing the 5th district in early 2003, Haynes started her time behind bars. She spent three years and 10 months in prison for a marijuana-related felony she says she’s innocent of.
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After her release, Haynes completed her law degree and practiced as a public defender in Nashville for over six years. Haynes thinks her time in prison — and her experience defending others caught up in the country’s racist criminal justice system — are precisely what would make her a great congresswoman.
“I am running because looking around I can see that people that look like me, that have the same issues I have, we were not being represented in this district,” Haynes told HuffPost.
The last time Tennessee sent a Black person to Congress was in the 1990s. Haynes’ district, which is nearly 25% Black, has never had a Black representative in Congress. Haynes called the lack of representation “really disappointing” and “very telling.”
“It’s important to have someone in Congress that can view the policy from the lens of being formerly incarcerated, as a woman, an African American, saddled with student loan debt, from a working class family,” Haynes said.
Haynes’ status — an underdog up against a longtime politician — recalls the dynamic in Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset in New York, and Haynes is similarly running on a progressive platform. She supports Medicare for All and criminal justice reform, including eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing, and has joined recent nationwide calls to defund the police.
Source: She Spent Nearly Four Years In Prison. Now She’s Running For Congress.
