Noah Nordstrom, a Democrat, has lost the Tennessee State House election against Republican Mark White. Nordstrom sat down to discuss what it was like on the campaign trail and running as Democratic Party nominee.
“It was really a beautiful experience, getting to meet thousands in the community and hear their concerns,” said Nordstrom. "Highlights were seeing people come together at events or meaningful conversations at the door.”
However, his tone changed when mentioning the struggles.
“Begging for support from the party, trying to prove yourself in the established political community, and feeling ignored,” said Nordstrom explaining his challenges.
Nordstrom was asked to expand what he meant by saying he was ignored.
“The chair of the Democratic House caucus didn’t answer my calls until October,” he said.
The Democrats propositioned Nordstrom to pay $4,000 for help, but he refused.
“The former county party chair (Lexie Carter, who was fired in September) didn’t want to work with me,” he said.
The Shelby County Republican Party ran attack ads on Nordstrom, but Nordstrom refused to run attack ads on Mark White, his opponent.
“I don’t think attack ads are what politics are about, it's about policies,” said Nordstrom.
Nordstrom said people in his district did not want him to run negative ads. However, he said the state Democratic Party kept attempting to get him to run attack ads.
"The state party is very about negative ads, and so they were for that, but I said that's not the route I want to go, and I told them not to send anything out on my behalf. There was one third-party PAC mailer who sent out negative ads. I cannot control that — they aren't allowed to collaborate with me,” said Nordstrom.
Nordstrom was asked if he would run again and if he would do so as a Democrat.
“People have asked me to run again— frankly I don’t know if I would run Democrat again,” he said. “I think the party has to do a lot of soul searching but there is a lack of soul at the moment.”
Nordstrom said he would do one thing differently.
“I would have distanced myself from the Democratic Party,” said Nordstrom.
He mentioned how the party “lost touch with its voters.”
On Trump getting elected, Nordstrom said it was “heartbreaking but not a surprise. You cannot run on nothing.”
“We had Trump and diet-Trump, and I think people would rather have Trump. Like what Bernie Sanders pointed out, the Democratic Party has lost touch with the working class of America and has sowed the seeds of this since 2016. They rigged the primary against Bernie and shunned the Bernie Bros and were surprised when they didn't show up for the Democrats. They have turned their back on left-wing popular policy,” said Nordstrom.
