2024 House District 97 Election

Why does the state house representative election matter?

Though many voters are focused on the presidential election, other races on the ballot – including the state house race – will have a crucial impact on our day-to-day lives, from education to healthcare to public safety and much more.

Throughout recent legislative sessions, Tennessee legislators have discriminatorily and often unconstitutionally introduced bills that target immigrants, low-income families, the LGBTQ+ community, Black and Brown people, and other marginalized communities to fuel divisions for their own political gain.

We watch as lawmakers introduce and vote to pass legislation that attempts to censor LGBTQ people, take money out of public school systems, reduce our ability to make our own healthcare decisions for ourselves and our families, and prevent local municipal governments from being able to pass legislation to make their own communities safer.

Voters should know how their elected officials, including the members of the Tennessee State House of Representatives, are casting their votes when it comes to critically important civil rights and civil liberties matters, on behalf of the constituents they have been elected to represent.

To get ready to vote visit our voter information center

The 2024 House District 97 Candidates

• Jesse Huseth

• John Gillespie (incumbent)

The ACLU of Tennessee sent a questionnaire to both candidates for House District 97 asking about their positions on key civil liberties and civil rights issues. Our goal is to promote voter education and voter participation. The ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates, but we do want to give you the information you need to make informed decisions. Information below is from the candidate questionnaire we distributed to both candidates. John Gillespie did not respond to the questionnaire, so we have included legislative votes and publicly available information related to the questions at issue.

Jesse Huseth | John Gillespie did not respond to the Candidate Questionnaire