About this episode

Michaela Barnett discusses her candidacy for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district and key issues affecting the community.

Michaela Barnett is a small business owner, scientist, and community leader who spent the last year working in Congress — so she knows firsthand what isn’t working, why, and what to do about it. She's running to flip the longest-held Republican seat in the country, Tennessee's second congressional district. Michaela is fighting to reclaim our people's power and reform our government to better serve the people of East Tennessee. This race is going to take all of us working together to flip this long-held Republican seat. Think about the message it would send to the powers that be, if we flip TN-02 blue! Timeline of our conversation: 0:00 Introduction 1: 30 Michaela's backstory and civil engineering career 5:30 Knoxfill - A community refillery in Knoxville, TN 9:17 Why is policy important? 12:17 School Vouchers and Students with Disabilities 16:00 Medicaid and universal basic healthcare 17:30 Women's Reproductive Health 24:29: Voting Rights and the SAVE Act 28:00 Action Items

People in this episode

Host: Marsh Naidoo

Guest: Michaela Barnett

Topics covered

• politics
• community leadership
• healthcare
• voting rights
• education policy

Keywords

• Tennessee
• congressional district
• healthcare
• voting rights
• school vouchers
• women's health
• community refillery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Knoxfill

Places: Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

More episodes of Raising Kellan

• Episode 167: Heart of Champions VBS - June 8-12, 2026 at Roellen Baptist Church in Dyersburg, Tennessee · May 25, 2026 · 9 min
• Episode 166. Voting and Redistricting of Tennessee Congressional Maps with Rachel Lovell - Weakley County Election Commissioner · May 13, 2026 · 26 min
• Episode 164: ( 7 min epsiode) Thriving Caregivers - 4/18/26 Dyersburg TN · April 15, 2026 · 2h 17m
• Episode 163: Operation Metro Surge, Minneapolis MN with Journalist, Kyndell Harkness. · March 27, 2026 · 41 min
• Episode 161: Operation Metro Surge Convo with the co-hosts of "Mama You Belong" Podcast · February 22, 2026 · 43 min
• Episode 160: "The Pantry" at St Johns Community Services · February 12, 2026 · 16 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Raising Kellan podcast page.