Amber Hysell
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Amber Hysell (independent) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Hysell completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2020
See also: Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020
Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020 (August 6 Democratic primary)
Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020 (August 6 Republican primary)
General election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Amber Hysell completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hysell's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm a mother who is tired of seeing my daughter's future sold off for short-term gains. It's ridiculous that the people who are suppose to represent us seem to only make the decisions that fatten their own wallets. We don't have a representative government, we have a self-serving ruling class. My daughter deserves better than to spend her 20s as a climate refugee fleeing to Canada because our politicians, very few of them possessing any scientific background, decided to deny that climate change is happening. She deserves better than to have a small town lawyer with a big ego restrict her personal freedoms, citing moral righteousness while disregarding medical evidence. I wasn't born here, because my dad was stationed in Pennsylvania at the time, but I was raised here in TN-03. I'm tired of seeing my community stripped apart because profits have overridden our humanity. Our leaders are selling off our kid's education, our medical care, and our infrastructure, and all the while pitting us against each other so we don't notice the cowards behind the curtain. Spoiler alert: they wear both red and blue. Enough is enough.
- Climate Change is happening. Denial is no longer a stance that should be taken seriously.
- True equality is something we have not achieved, and we must continue to strive for it every day.
- Democrats and Republicans are functionally the same. Both ultimately care about keeping and growing their power. They may not be sleeping together, but they've always been in bed together.
Climate change is happening, and it must be addressed quickly and aggressively.
We must move toward a Medicare for All program and immediately fund our rural hospitals to ensure every community has access to quality healthcare.
State/county/city resources should be reallocated to reflect our responsibilities to our citizens.
It's time to legalize recreational marijuana and use the tax revenue to fund our schools properly, pay our teachers fairly, fund our community assistance programs, and open community clinics that offer rehabilitation and medical services regardless of insurance or income.
We must invest in our infrastructure instead of slapping a bandage on our problems and calling it fixed. When the foundation crumbles, it takes the whole building with it. My dad for his honesty and kindness, my mother for her perseverance and tenacity, and my sister for her strength and candor.
My political philosophy has been influenced by many books, essays, and films, so I can't say that there is just one that would be a clear picture of my personal political philosophy, but I will try to sum it up. I believe that people ultimately want what's best for themselves and the people they care about, and that we all believe we're arguing from the default moral position. The problem is, if we're all unique, then most of us are wrong about a lot. Always go into a debate knowing that you might learn something you didn't know, or see something from an angle you hadn't considered. Don't interpret disagreement as an attack, and remind yourself that you can't possibly always be right. You don't learn anything if you can't admit you don't know everything. It's okay to make mistakes, as long as you grow from the experience.
Honesty, integrity, and humility. Unfortunately, there's precious little of any of those characteristics in our current elected officials.
I've been told that I'm a good listener, and I believe that's a quality most of our current politicians don't possess. You can't fix problems by ignoring the people affected by them. I'm also not afraid to admit when I've made a mistake, or when I don't know something. That's a lesson that's difficult to learn in a culture that has been convinced that beating your chest is strength. It doesn't make you strong to dig your heels in and reject reality because it makes you uncomfortable. True strength is not pure stubbornness and refusal to bend. It's understanding that sometimes we have to bend a little, and admit that we aren't perfect and shouldn't be expected to be.
The job is to represent the interests of your constituents. Anything short of that is a violation of your duty. Our constituents are struggling. Covid-19, the unemployment it's caused, and the growing movement we're seeing across our country, were piled on top of increases in overdoses, our rural citizens being written off, and our schools begging for resources they shouldn't even have to ask for. Our elected officials have abandoned us, so it's time for us to let them go. Trust me, they all have significant retirement packages.
I simply want to leave this world better than I found it. For my kid, and yours.
The first historical event I remember was Columbine. I was in high school at the time, and I remember wondering how anyone could commit such a horrible act of violence. I wasn't what anyone would call "popular," and I had a squad of tormentors, but I still couldn't understand it. It was that experience that finally got me to start asking questions, often to the annoyance of those around me. We have a system that doesn't prepare our kids for reality. We remove any distractions, barriers, or real consequences for some. We add extra distractions, barriers, and imagined offenses for others. Neither approach does any favors for people, or their ability to cope with the world we live in. We must take an objective look at our society, and we must have the strength to be honest about our many shortcomings. Anything less ensures that such tragedies will continue.
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (the movie was atrocious, by the way). I think Ender's Game is a perfect depiction of how far governments or the military will go, if given too much power.
We Built This City - Jefferson Starship
Depression is an old friend that still stops by from time to time. I've struggled with it for most of my life, and I expect I'll never really stop. Fortunately, I have friends and family who have been supportive of changes I've had to make to be the person I am today. A good support network is crucial, and absent that, properly funded mental health services must be available to everyone.
Redistricting should be handled by a neutral party, and the citizens within the district(s) should be notified of proposed changes, as well as be supplied with a means to object to said changes.
Unfortunately, there's quite a difference between the qualities our current Representatives possess, and the qualities a representative should possess. It doesn't matter what side you look at as both are petty, argumentative, and perfectly fine with a broken system that they can profit from. The House of Representatives should be just that. A house of representatives. Instead, it's a house of greedy children, pretending to know what's best for people whose lives they can't possibly understand but claim to care about.
No, I don't. I believe that how we govern must change. We can no longer operate with a system of leadership two generations behind their citizens. Our government websites are coded in a dead language. Our policies and laws aren't equipped to handle things like social media or the internet, in general, and our leaders have no idea what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, and they are completely out of touch with the harsh reality they've created for their constituents. We need new people with new ideas. We cannot continue this tug of war between two sides that ultimately only care about securing and increasing their power. It's time to put both parties on notice.
Climate change is always the number one concern, because it affects all of us.
We have to address inequality in good faith, but it will require our leaders to do less talking and more listening.
We must make sure we back up the "Right to Life" by providing healthcare to all our citizens. I do, but I also believe that term limits should be implemented. Personally, I think 12 years total is more than fair.
I believe that term limits are necessary, but there are other changes that must be made first. All candidates should receive the same amount of funding from taxpayers. All forms of external fundraising must be removed, and attempting to raise funds outside of the candidate allotment automatically forfeits your campaign. Anyone who has served in an elected position is banned from being employed or contracted by special interest groups for a period of no less than five years, and anyone who has worked for such an entity cannot seek public office for a period of no less than five years after termination of their employment. Once those rules are in place, term limits can be established. I do not believe in "grandfathering" anyone in. Anyone outside of the established limit can finish their current term and cannot seek reelection.
I would want to wait on joining a leadership role until I had a better understanding of my colleagues.
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