I’m Dave Seeman, an independent, endorsed by the Green Party of Tennessee. 

This is my first run for office. Before running I was as a climate activist and lobbied other candidates to make climate action central to their campaigns.

Nashville Banner
Staff Report
October 12, 2026

I’m a lifelong Tennessean. I grew up in Franklin and live in Nashville. I earned my mechanical engineering degree at UT and spent most of my career at the product design firm I co-founded, where we turned people’s ideas into real products. We grew slowly by doing good work and hiring good people until we became an award-winning firm with zero employee turnover, and we kept everyone employed with benefits through COVID even after losing 40% of our business in a month.

What I’m proudest of is the culture we built, where people felt safe, supported, and encouraged to do their best work. I think that’s what leadership really is: competence with people and care for them, and it’s what’s missing in politics today.

I designed my platform, The Volunteer Plan, the same way I designed medical devices: I interviewed Tennesseans, compiled the data, researched the issues, and built a costed, budget-balanced package of policies that most Democrats, Republicans, and Independents already support. Outside of work, I’m a musician, dancer, reader, gamer, and a devoted friend, family member, and neighbor.

Candidate Questionnaire:

How would you address the cost of rental housing and homeownership if elected?

Housing prices are high for many reasons, but the one most in our control is supply. First I’d like to invest as much of the state’s housing money as possible into community land trusts. These sell or rent below-market homes and the trust keep that housing affordable permanently, regardless of market swings. Next I’d build a library of pre-approved building plans, adaptable for each city and county, that get through permitting much faster. Delays don’t just slow housing down, they raise the cost, so cutting approval time means we build more for less. Lastly I’d pass zoning reform so we can build more kinds of dense housing in communities that want it. On the rental side specifically, I’d also support tenant protections like just-cause eviction and legal counsel for low-income tenants facing eviction if the legislature sent me a good bill.

Do you support Tennessee’s current laws around homeless encampments? How would you address homelessness if elected?

I do not support the current laws around homelessness and sleeping outside. Making it a felony to sleep on public land doesn’t reduce homelessness, it just makes it more likely someone gets a record that makes getting a job or housing harder.

Tennessee had over 8,000 people experiencing homelessness in early 2025. About a quarter of those people were chronically homeless with no choice but to cycle through ERs, jails, and shelters costing taxpayers $30,000 to $50,000 a year each, just to be forced back onto the street. Which is now a crime. It’s a broken system.

My plan puts people in apartments with clinical support through Housing First. For people who need a clean environment to recover in, I’d also fund a sober recovery housing track. Across both we’d house about 2,000 people, roughly 1,400 in permanent supportive housing and 600 in certified recovery residences.

Fighting addiction can help fight homelessness, too. So I’d also expand medication treatment for addiction, open more respite beds fund longer recovery housing, and put free naloxone in every fire station and school.

Would you support eliminating the state grocery sales tax?

Yes I support eliminating the grocery tax. Specifically, I’d phase the state’s 4% grocery tax to 0% over three years, saving families over $400 a year, and pay for it by closing corporate tax loopholes. In 2022, 95 of the 370 corporations reporting over $1 billion in income paid zero Tennessee excise tax. Requiring worldwide combined reporting and restoring the franchise tax base the legislature gave away in 2024 raises an estimated $539 million to $1.3 billion a year against the grocery tax’s $886 million. To be cautious, I’d commission an independent evaluation of the tax revenue and if the reform comes in low, I’d protect the portion going to schools first so public schools are unaffected.

Should the state raise the minimum wage? Why? If so, to what?

Yes I think we should raise the minimum wage. Tennessee has no minimum wage of its own so we default to $7.25 which hasn’t changed since 2009. I look at raising wages as ending taxpayer subsidies for poverty wages. When wages are well below a living wage the system is asking for Tennesseeans to experience worse health outcomes and increased crime. Taxpayers, mostly regular folks, are making up the difference for those things through public assistance.

My plan ends subsidies for poverty wages by raising the minimum wage in steps so that businesses have time to adjust, from $12 the first year to $15, $18, and then $21 by year four. To make the transition even smoother, it’s paired with tax credits and technical assistance for small businesses during the transition. From then on minimum wage is indexed to inflation.

I’d also repeal the 2013 law that bars cities from setting their own wage floors, so Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga can set their own rates. I set a livable-wage policy in my own company in 2019 which meant nearly doubling one employee’s pay, and the business did better for it.

Does Tennessee tax businesses fairly, too much or not enough? What, if any, changes would you propose?

Tennessee has the third most regressive tax code in the country, so working families pay a bigger share of their income than the wealthy. Small businesses also pay their share, but the largest corporations don’t. Between 2019 and 2022, almost two-thirds of all corporations filing in Tennessee paid nothing in excise tax. Nothing. And in 2022 a quarter of our billion-dollar corporations also paid nothing. Then in 2024 the legislature repealed part of the franchise tax and paid out $1.43 billion in retroactive refunds to businesses including to Governor Lee’s private company. About half of that money left the state entirely. Their excuse was that they did this to avoid a lawsuit that they imagined was possible, a lawsuit that was never filed, never ruled on in court, and highly criticized as improbable. I’d require worldwide combined reporting so multinationals can’t route Tennessee profits to offshore affiliates, and restore the franchise tax base, designed to hold up in court.

Is the state spending too much, not enough or the right amount to attract businesses to Tennessee? How would you change that strategy, if at all?

Too much with too little accountability. In 2008 the state promised Hemlock Semiconductor a $95 million grant with no clawback provisions. The plant closed in 2014 without producing a commercial batch, and no state office ever published an evaluation because none was required. Our law covers only tax credits, so cash grants like FastTrack fall outside any review requirement. The only handouts to corporations that work for the people are ones that promise job placement, typically in cooperation with education or training. Everything else is usually a loss.

I’d require annual public evaluation of every state program over $25 million, including FastTrack, with clawbacks written into every deal and regular review to fix or cut for programs that underperform. Then I’d shift the strategy from buying company’s favor to building the things companies actually recruit on: great schools, hospitals, housing, and a legislature that doesn’t scare away diverse talent. I’ve talked to numerous business owners in tech and manufacturing here who tell me their biggest challenge is recruiting people to Tennessee because of our legislature’s hostility. We can’t solve that with grants, it requires better leadership.

How would you address declining revenues from the Lottery?

We need to stop relying on it and build a better alternative. Lotteries are regressive revenue sources that are funded through the existence of poverty. We’ve already showed how over a decade ago that we could move lottery reserves, $361 million, into the Tennessee Promise endowment as principal to earn interest. That fund has grown past $750 million while paying scholarships every year. It’s a better strategy.

My policy to build the Future Families Fund applies the same logic at a greater scale by creating a permanent fund seeded with $1.25B of our surplus and fed by cannabis and wealth-transfer taxes to fund new child development programs through public schools. These would be programs with stable funding that help eliminate povert instead of ones that depend on it to sell tickets.

How would you address the state’s backlog in road maintenance?

Working through a $38 billion backlog of repairs is no small feat. Building more roads while our current ones are in disrepair is not the answer, especially where more lanes do not solve congestion. I also do not support building choice lanes.

Near term, we need to focus on repairs and maintenance over new or large paving projects, and on making sure we spend all of the federal money available to us, which often goes unused. Long term, I would invest in better public transit to reduce the wear and tear and congestion on roads in the first place. My plan calls for a grant pool to help rural counties run twice-daily buses between nearby.

Is the state investing too much, not enough or the right amount in nuclear energy? How, if at all, would you change the state’s energy strategy?

My first priority related to nuclear power in Tennessee is ending Tennessee’s role as the country’s radioactive waste destination, with county consent before any processed waste reaches a local landfill.

Next, the state doesn’t license reactors and has no vote on TVA’s plans, so we need to control the terms that we can. For example regarding the $50 million Tennessee committed to the Clinch River small modular reactor, that investment should carry conditions like quarterly public cost reporting, overrun caps with clawbacks, ratepayer protection so overruns stay off power bills, and a public accounting of waste and decommissioning.

While nuclear has a place in our mix for baseload, I’m much more excited about building rewneables in Tennessee. I’d create a Tennessee Green Bank to capitalize $100 million in loans for residential and community solarization and weatherization, and create the Tennessee Renewable Power Authority to build solar and storage behind the meter where TVA regulation can’t reach to help homes, farmers, and counties generate their own power and revenue.

What role should the state play in immigration enforcement?

Federal immigration enforcement belongs to federal authorities who are trained, funded, and accountable for it. I’d end ICE cooperation beyond what federal law requires and make sure no state agency collects immigration status or shares it with ICE without a court order.

Personally, I find the way ICE is treating human beings right now to be offensive and wholly against the southern hospitality I grew up with. I was taught to treat others as we’d want to be treated, because we could one day be the stranger. For people who worry about immigration, I’ll hold everyone to account equally before the law. But it’s in the data, immigrants commit less crime and contribute more to our economy than they take. Tennessee’s immigrant households pay $5.7 billion in taxes a year. Turning them into scapegoats doesn’t fix a single policy failure, it just lets the failure go unsolved. I’d end both the scapegoating and the policy failures and focus on restoring a sense of order and of hospitality.

Do you support the Tennessee Highway Patrol joining the federal 287(g) program to aid in immigration enforcement? Would you like to see THP more involved, less involved or maintain their level of involvement with immigration enforcement?

No, and I think we have much better uses for our money than using the Tennessee Highway Patrol to enforce federal law while Tennessee farmers are losing land and Tennessee veterans can’t get all their benefits. I’d seek to repeal the laws that put sheriff’s departments in a 287(g) agreement and pull state agencies out of that work.

There’s nonpartisan rationale here, too. There’s evidence that these agreements don’t measurably reduce crime and actually increase assaults on officers. We need communities to trust our police, so our police need to focus on serving their communities needs not subsidizing big government work.

What is your vision for the role of the National Guard? Do you support their deployment on issues like immigration enforcement and crowd control, as we have seen under the current presidential administration? Why or why not?

The Guard exists for disasters, emergencies, and defense. We rely on being able to trust them during floods, tornadoes, and ice storms, so I would not damage that trust by keeping them deployed for immigration enforcement or routine crowd control. On day one I’d revoke the Title 32 order and withdraw the Guard from Memphis. It’s costing us money, it’s not the Guard’s job, and it isn’t effective at its stated goal of reducing crime. That money would be better spent building Memphis up.

Should Tennessee maintain its contracts with CoreCivic? What, if any, reform is needed among the state’s private prisons?

That’s an emphatic no. In a nation where slavery is still legal as a punishment for crime, in a system that profits when more people are locked up longer for crime, there is an incentive that runs directly against public safety. Tennessee law allows one directly contracted private prison, yet CoreCivic runs four that the state pays for through a county loophole. Meanwhile the state found high turnover and vacancies and over 300 deaths since 2016.

I’d phase the contracts out and move to state operation of South Central when its contract expires in 2028 and Hardeman County in 2029, then negotiate for the other two. I’d enforce the staffing penalties already in the contracts, close the pass-through loophole, and replace host counties’ revenue in full over five years. And I’d like to see a constitutional amendment put before voters so the next governor can’t sign the contracts again.

Would you continue state executions if elected?

No. I think the death penalty is inhumane, and to make matters worse, it doesn’t solve the problem. It doesn’t deter, and it doesn’t bring anyone back; it just leads to more life lost. I’d use the governor’s clemency power to halt executions during my term and ask the legislature to end the practice for good.

Do you support the use of license plate readers, Flock cameras and other automated surveillance? What, if any, guardrails should be in place?

No, I’m against government surveillance except with a justified court order, and I’d push the government at every level to end contracts with companies like Flock. There are better ways to keep people and roads safe.

I also don’t support sharing with federal immigration agencies or out-of-state agencies unless there’s a court order. If we want to automate surveillance, let’s point it at the state budget. My plan calls for auditing every program over $25 million and publishing the results publicly.

What gun control measures, if any, should Tennessee pass to improve public safety?

I’m for our right to bear arms and will pass the laws that responsible gun owners already can understand, like safe storage when children are in the home. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children in Tennessee, so something must be done. I also support universal background checks and red flag laws, which have been shown to reduce suicides.

Do you support the Education Freedom Scholarship/ school voucher program? What, if any, transparency or accountability measures would you support for the program?

I’m against the voucher program because I dont think taxpayers should be subsidizing private education businesses and financing elite educations for children whose families can already afford it on their own. I would repeal it and put every dollar of the $303 million back into public schools allocated to what teachers say they need most like counselors, social workers, and free school meals in the districts that need them. Private schools should take the same standardized tests as public school students regardless of where their funding comes from and the results should be published. Schools in wealthy areas perform better because it’s easier to learn when housing and food are secure. Schools that perform worse need more money, not less.

On that note, I’m also the only candidate with a plan to raise public school funding over time through the creation of the Future Families Fund which would pay for new programs for childhood development through public schools. I’d seed this fund with $1.25B of our surplus and push for legislation to feed it annually with two wealth transfer taxes and 100% of a cannabis tax after legalization.

Currently under federal law, undocumented children have free access to public schools in Tennessee. Should that continue?

Yes, children deserve education no matter what. A child doesn’t choose where they’re born and shouldn’t be punished for what they cannot help. Tennessee is better off with those children in classrooms because educating children who live here is necessary to help them become the neighbors and taxpayers we need to function. I also support in-state tuition for students brought here as children.

Do you support President Trump’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education? Should states be in charge of the money currently allocated by the DOE? How would you propose spending that money differently?

No, I oppose the dismantling of public education. Tennessee gets over a third of its budget from Washington, and the Department of Education money is mostly Title I for low-income students, IDEA for students with disabilities, and Pell grants. Losing that money would be devastating for Tennessee’s well-being. The Department also enforces students’ civil rights so dismantling it puts kids in harms way.

If the money does come to states as block grants, then I’d make sure it still flows to Title I low-income students and IDEA students with disabilities and not private school vouchers. Tennessee is ranked dead last in per-pupil funding and the governor’s control over the budget makes it their responsibility to improve that ranking no matter what the federal government throws our way.

Does the state have enough, too much or the right amount of oversight over public schools? In what aspects would you want to see more or less statewide control?

The legislature has spent years telling teachers what they can’t say, which books they can’t read, and which students they can’t protect under the guise of giving more rights to parents. In reality they’re limiting what teachers are able to do for parents which is causing us to lose teachers at an alarming rate. Faster than we can replace them. Combined with defunding public education, they’re directly harming the school system. We need less statewide control over curriculum and we ought to trust teachers and local district decisions more.

Is religion too prevalent, not prevalent enough or at the right level in Tennessee education? How would you change that, if at all?

Government should protect religious freedom because when the government gets involved in telling you what religion is or how to practice it they corrupt the sanctity of religious truth. Students can already pray, form clubs, and live their faith at school today, and I’d defend that. I will not allow the state to write one faith into curriculum or mandate its display. There are candidates who’ve said they want Tennessee to be a Christian state, but in America religious freedom is enshrined in our Constitution along with free speech and I’ll fight to protect those rights.

Outside of religious matters, I would use data to inform best practices for educational reform. For example, I would push to change the family life education statutes, which today center on abstinence, to focus on age-appropriate health education, because doing so has been shown to make abortion rates plummet, which is a pro-life measure I think we can all get behind.

Would you accept federal funding for the Summer EBT program?

Yes, I can’t imaginw why we’d turn down federal money to feed kids while more than one in five Tennessee children lives in a food-insecure household. These kids are our future! I’d go even further and expand free breakfast and lunch in Tennessee’s ten distressed counties in the first budget year and work to source more school food from Tennessee farms, cooked in upgraded school kitchens through a needs-based grant program.

Do you believe that the state is too preemptive with local governments? In what areas would you like to see more or less state control?

Yes, far too preemptive. Tennessee preempts cities from setting a minimum wage, from passing nondiscrimination ordinances that cover private employers and landlords, from enacting their own red flag laws, from running their own broadband, and more. Our so-called conservative legislature has taken a big government approach to running our state and telling locals what they can and cannot do, and I oppose it. In each case I listed, the legislature took a choice away from local voters and replaced it with nothing. I’d repeal all of those preemptions and work to set statewide baselines that local governments can build on, like environmental standards for data centers. The state’s job is to set minimum standards and fund them, not to overrule high standards set by locals for themselves.

Do you consider Tennessee’s current abortion ban appropriate, too restrictive or not restrictive enough?

Most Tennesseans want the same thing regardless of politics or faith and that’s fewer abortions and healthier families. So I make the case that if we really want to reduce abortions, then we’re doing it the wrong way. Bans don’t get us there. National abortion numbers rose after Roe fell. What actually works is preventing unintended pregnancy and supporting families. Things like contraception access, comprehensive sex education, and healthcare, childcare, and wages so no one feels abortion is their only option. The reality is that these aren’t flippant decisions, they’re serious medical ones. Six in ten women who seek an abortion are already mothers. They’re raising kids, navigating complicated pregnancies, and making the hardest medical decisions of their lives with their doctor, and having the legislature in the room doesn’t help. I’ll only sign legislation proven to reduce abortions, and I’ll repeal laws that make pregnancy more dangerous for mothers and babies.

What would you do as governor to address access to hospitals and medical care in rural parts of the state?

Tennessee is near first in the nation for hospital closures and a large part of that is because we dont have enough money flowing to keep them open. I’d expand Medicaid as long as the provider-tax changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill don’t cost us more than expansion brings in. Secon I’d repeal the certificate of need (CON) law that keeps hospitals and emergency rooms from opening. Third I support policies to create a matching fund to put a community health center in every county, a 24/7 mental health crisis response system in every county, and a rural residency pipeline that trains doctors in the country so they’re more likely to stay where they’re needed most. Lastly, I support a public transit plan to test twice-daily bus routes between rural counties that stop at regional hospitals to help commuters priced out of cities and those seeking care.

Do you support the state’s ban on cannabis?

No and over 60% of Tennessee voters, including over 50% of Republicans, support legalization. Nearly every neighboring state has a legal market and yet we’re arresting people for something most of the country has moved past. I’d create a regulated adult-use market, automatically clear the record of every Tennessean with a cannabis-only offense, fund equity grants so people from the communities impacted by criminalization can have a stake in the industry, and direct the tax revenue to the Future Families Fund for childhood development and public schools.

Do you support The Boring Company building tunnels under state roadways?

One of my calling cards is “save the commons,” and that includes the ground beneath our feet from being stolen by billionaires. I’m against handing public rights-of-way to a private company for a for-profit tunnel that would barely make a difference compared to a rail project. Nashville needs transit that moves hundreds of thousands of people a day. Frequent buses with dedicated lanes and a serious study of regional rail. If a company wants to build under a state road, they can seek approval through the proper environmental review and work to earn the public’s support by offering a service we actually want.

What is one area or issue that you disagree with your party on and why?

With Republicans, I disagree on their treatment of minorities in TN and on vouchers, preemption, and 287(g). Each one takes money or authority away from Tennessee communities and gives it to a private business or the federal government, which is not what I think conservatism in Tennessee is really about.

With Democrats, I think they often fail to create arguments for social issues that can persuade voters outside their base, and end up moving on policy instead of finding better arguments. I’m the only candidate proposing new revenue like taxes on extreme wealth transfers, and I found a way to do that’s a little harder to argue with.

I hold both parties responsible for what our federal government has financed abroad, which is a big part of why I’m an Independent. There are good candidates and organizations but the system itself is a broken one.

Name a policy that you have or could work with members of the opposite party on.

With Republicans, I’d work on passing right-to-repair for farmers and the policies in my platform that help farmers stay in business by restoring forests and wetlands and growing legalized cannabis that’s used to fund education instead of roads.

With Democrats, I’d work on repealing vouchers and closing the healthcare coverage gap for about 100,000 Tennesseans.

And with both, I’d work on creating the Office of Civic Design which gives Tennesseeans a voice in their legislature. It would tandomly selected Tennesseans, paid like jurors to create a report of what Tennesseans want anow and in the future. The legislature would have to hear that report and respond in writing within 90 days. That way every legislator can show the public that they’re listening and acting on what the people want. I built The Volunteer Plan by talking to Tennesseeans and most policies have majority support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. So my legislative agenda should be one that many lawmakers can call a win for the people they represent.