By Monique Gooch-Brown
NASHVILLE, TN — Natisha Brooks is running on the Republican ticket to represent the 5th Congressional District from Tennessee. One of the few African-American women to run, Brooks is humbly asking for the opportunity to represent Tennesseans as the next Congresswoman of the 5th Congressional District.
Brooks attended Prairie View A&M University and is an educational consultant. More information is available at Brooks Home School Academy. “We have 319 families across the state, nation and we have five international families. I have officially resigned since I’m running for Congress. I don’t want people to think I’m running for Congress to beef up my business, so I officially resigned but I kept my African-American students, my people of color. I also have one Asian family. We’re down to four and they refuse to let me go. I’m trying to ease my way out.”
Brooks was a former Democrat, but switched to the Republican Party in 2010. “In my mind I didn’t leave the Democrat party, the Democrat party left me. I didn’t feel the Obama administration did enough for African Americans,” she said. Brooks added that she switched to the Republican party, because of these words: fiscal responsibility and stewardship. “I needed to be around people that made me want to do better with my finances, make me think better about my finances.”
Brooks originally had no intention of running. But she ran because she was dissatisfied with the lack of leadership from Jim Cooper and she felt for attorney Kita Haynes. “She ran and Democrats had the chance to put an African-American woman in Congress, but yet you voted Jim Cooper over her.”
According to Brooks, it was a close race. Haynes got 32,000 votes and Cooper got 50,000 votes and now Republicans are using it. “If we Republicans) win this, I guarantee Republicans will slam dunk this in Democrats’ faces. There were a lot of Republicans pulling for her. They wanted that glass ceiling cracked.” Brooks also said that Haynes should’ve been the first woman of color in congress (from Tennessee). “Jim Cooper should’ve stepped aside and endorsed her. To Kita Haynes we don’t have the same philosophical views. I’m a Republican, you’re a Democrat, but my hat is off to you for putting your name in the ranks. Get back in because we need people like you!”
If elected Brooks says there are a few things she’d like to accomplish, starting with HBCUs. “I’d like to see Knox College (HBCU) come back. I’d like to get a committee, we have a lot of people of people of color with PhD’s, let’s put them to work and rebuild Knox college.” Being a
proud graduate of an HCBU, one of her first priorities is to see that no other HBCU fails. “As a Republican female candidate, I want HBCUs to have the whole. Whatever the white public institutions are getting I want to make sure the HBCUs are getting as well. I want to make sure we get an equal portion. I want to make sure that people of color are taken care of, that’s my first priority in education.”
Brooks has done a mostly grassroots campaign and says it’s going pretty well. There is a campaign kickoff happening on Thursday, April 8, 2022 from 5:30 to 7:30 in Lewis County (which is the smallest county in the district) at High Forest Farm. A portion of funds raised will be donated to the Lewis County Public Library and the Hohenwald Police Department.
“This is not a color thing. But in 240 years, we have never had representation. We have been underrepresented for long enough. The people in the small rural counties don’t look at me as Black; they look at me as the best person for the job.” That is a point Brooks wants the world to get to, “I want to get to the point where we just vote for the right person, let’s just drop the title and just be who we are as Americans.”
One thing Brooks wants to leave with voters is this: “We live in the greatest country in the world and I’m fighting for that little girl or little boy who thinks they don’t have what it takes. Send a person to Congress that knows and understands Tennessee; that knows and understands Davidson, the 5th new district which is the melting pot of the U.S. If the person can win the new 5th, that person can win the presidency of the United States. I’m fighting for that little girl or boy. We will win this campaign by grassroots.”
To follow Natisha Brooks, visit www.natishaforcongress2022.org, and follow her on social media. Her Instagram is @natisha.brooks and on Facebook Natisha Brooks.
For answers to questions, call 615-379-7286 and speak with her campaign manager Jayla Goode or email: admindirector@electnatishabrooks.org.