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Matthew Park

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This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Matthew Park
Image of Matthew Park
Elections and appointments
Last election

August 6, 2020

Personal
Profession
Cloud solution architect
Contact

Matthew Park (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Tennessee House of Representatives to represent District 15. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 6, 2020.

Park completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2020

See also: Tennessee House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Tennessee House of Representatives District 15

Sam McKenzie defeated Troy Jones in the general election for Tennessee House of Representatives District 15 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Sam McKenzie
Sam McKenzie (D)
 
72.9
 
13,158
Troy Jones (Independent)
 
27.1
 
4,887

Total votes: 18,045
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Tennessee House of Representatives District 15

Sam McKenzie defeated Matthew Park and incumbent Rick Staples in the Democratic primary for Tennessee House of Representatives District 15 on August 6, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Sam McKenzie
Sam McKenzie
 
39.6
 
2,032
Image of Matthew Park
Matthew Park Candidate Connection
 
39.1
 
2,007
Image of Rick Staples
Rick Staples
 
21.3
 
1,095

Total votes: 5,134
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

To view Park's endorsements in his 2020 campaign, please click here.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Matthew Park completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Park's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Matthew grew up in poverty and became an EMT to support his community. After starting his career as a Cloud Architect a decade ago, Matthew has focused on using technology to reduce the costs of healthcare. Matthew and his partner, both union members, live in Knoxville with their puppy, Nyx.
  • Criminal Justice reform including ending money bail, stopping arbitrary time-based punishments, and ending mass incarceration.
  • Fully fund public education and a real raise for Tennessee's teachers. Fight against vouchers and charter schools.
  • Pass a Tennessee Green New Deal that confirms housing and healthcare as human rights.
I am concerned about the erosion of labor rights in Tennessee. That is why labor rights and a strong union culture state-wide are integral to our TN Green New Deal policy.

Working with local governments to expand public transit, including passenger rail, is important for climate justice as well as attracting new businesses to Tennessee.

Trusting women and end restrictions all on their healthcare.

Abolishing the prison industrial complex that has fueled mass incarceration over the last century.

Creating a financial system that works for working people.
An elected official in our modern world must have a theory of change, willing to tear down and replace systems when needed. Elected officials need to be expert generalists, able to understand the technical aspects of any issue while seeking and trusting the input of real experts in the issue's field.

Elected officials must make regular contact with their constituents via email, social media, text messages, phone calls, and meetings. This contact should be at least weekly but should be daily via email and social media.

Holders of any office should be continuous learners, reading at least 30 books a year, much like any business executive.

Elected Officials should be accountable, and actively seek to be held accountable. Officials must take responsibility for their actions and be transparent with constituents about what they are doing with the power of their office.

Officials and candidates must be continuous champions of working people. Accepting money from corporations, fossil fuel executives, and private prisons is incompatible with fighting for the working class.
I would like my election to be seen as a turning point for Tennessee. A point where we embraced progressive values and stopped seeing working people as something to be exploited for profit. I would like my legacy to be one of courage, standing up for what is right no matter the cost to me personally.
One of my earliest memories comes from when I was 10 years old. I was inside my grandmother's house when my youngest brother ran in covered in blood. He was screaming. He and my other little brother had been involved in an ATV accident minutes before. When I ran out of the house, I found my little brother unconscious. It was over a month before he would wake from the coma. Because it took place over an hour away from a trauma center, both of my little brothers suffered lasting damage.

Seeing my brother come so close to death, so far away from a trauma center, led me to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) later in life to help and comfort those that were sick and injured. This also led to my decade long advocacy in healthcare, working to make healthcare cheaper and more accessible through technology.
We often find Tennessee at the top of bad lists and the bottom of good lists. Our most significant challenges over the next decade will be to drastically increase public education funding, combat climate change by passing a Tennessee Green New Deal, and ensure that every Tennessean has quality healthcare coverage and access.
Relationship building is essential for every legislator. There is a clear divide in the Tennessee General Assembly between rural and urban legislators. As an urban resident with a heavily rural family, I am uniquely qualified to build relationships not only across parties but across the urban/rural divide. I will be the first openly LGBTQ+ person ever elected to the Tennessee General Assembly. It will be essential to build relationships to help other legislators understand LGBTQ+ issues and stop the 'Slate of Hate' legislation that has been commonplace in the General Assembly.
Months ago, I met a woman who told me her dream in life was to start a home cleaning business. She told me of the clients that were lined up and the business plan she had put together. Her estimate of being able to start was another year. When I asked what the primary blocker to starting the business was, she replied, "I've got everything I need except $300 for a vacuum cleaner."

This led us to develop a plan for a Nano-Capital program, providing direct grants of $5000 or less to help local businesses start or grow. This plan was eventually incorporated in our Black Agenda to create 1000 new black businesses in Tennessee within 5 years.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also


External links

Footnotes


Current members of the Tennessee House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Cameron Sexton
Majority Leader:William Lamberth
Minority Leader:Karen Camper
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
Tim Hicks (R)
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
Tim Rudd (R)
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
District 41
Ed Butler (R)
District 42
District 43
District 44
District 45
District 46
District 47
District 48
District 49
District 50
District 51
District 52
District 53
District 54
District 55
District 56
District 57
District 58
District 59
District 60
District 61
District 62
Pat Marsh (R)
District 63
District 64
District 65
District 66
District 67
District 68
District 69
District 70
District 71
District 72
District 73
District 74
Jay Reedy (R)
District 75
District 76
District 77
District 78
District 79
District 80
District 81
District 82
District 83
District 84
Joe Towns (D)
District 85
District 86
District 87
District 88
District 89
District 90
District 91
District 92
District 93
District 94
Ron Gant (R)
District 95
District 96
District 97
District 98
District 99
Republican Party (75)
Democratic Party (24)