In an effort to keep the students of PSCI 1150 informed not only about national but also local and state politics, Senator Charlane Oliver (D-TN, District 19) was invited to address the class regarding her experience navigating the State Legislature. Oliver currently represents Tennessee’s 19th Senate District in Nashville as a member of the Democratic Party, making her one of six Democratic Senators in the State of Tennessee. Oliver co-founded The Equity Alliance, a statewide 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization in 2016, which focuses on building independent Black political and economic power while promoting accountability in government. In 2023, after winning the Democratic primaries with a narrow yet crucial margin, she went on to win the general election and assumed office on November 8, 2023.
The discussion began with a brief introduction to Senator Oliver’s personal life. Oliver was brought up in a conservative Christian home, where her earliest memory of being civically involved was accompanying her mother to the polling station. Since early childhood, Oliver had an instinct for standing in the way of injustice, recalling an anecdote about defending one of her friends from an older bully in elementary school. When asked if said instinct led her to run for office, she responded by saying “it chose her,” and that she saw the opportunity as a pathway through which she could channel her national inclination towards justice. Additionally, she saw the Senate as a platform through which she could further her initiative of Equity Alliance, something she had been working for since after she graduated Vanderbilt as an HOD major in 2005.
The next question from Professor Meacham asked about her experience transitioning from campaigning to getting settled into office. In lieu of response, Oliver shared with the class how her timeline of deciding to run was very hurried; she had less than a week to make a decision on running for the position and subsequently only had a 100 days to campaign. This was a result of her predecessor announcing their resignation at what she described as “the eleventh hour.” She was the only woman in her race and addressed how gender was a challenge for her during and after the election. In her words, “being black, young, female, democrat in super minority, and a freshman legislator were challenges stacked [against her] before [she] ever entered the [Senate] building.”
She compared her experience of transitioning into office to that of her transitioning to her life at Vanderbilt. Coming from a low-income household, and therefore a “scholarship kid,” the environment at Vanderbilt was somewhat of a cultural shock to her — similar to the initial culture shock she said she faced joining the legislature. But that’s not the only way she was advantaged by her Vanderbilt experience. She cited her Vanderbilt alumni network as the source of some of her most important relationships. To her, “relationships are the most valuable thing money cannot buy,” and because of these same relationships, she had a coalition of support that voted and donated for her campaign, paving her way to office.
When asked about whether she thought her being an “activist” was something that blemished her reputation in the minds of those who believe that “activists can’t be legislators,” Oliver responded by saying that she didn’t see herself as an activist but rather as a leader and as an organizer. An organizer who wanted the endorsement of the people — people like small business owners, church pastors, incarcerated people turned community leaders, people you see in grocery stores. Which led her to her next point: she was someone who represented the struggle of the people, not corporate preferences or professional lobbyists. She is one of the very few legislators in Tennessee that does not accept corporate PAC money because in her own words, she “doesn’t want to owe anyone, anything.”
Another topic the conversation touched was the political condition of today, specifically concerning the election. Professor Geer drew a parallel to another candidate who also now has 100 days to campaign but for the office of the presidency. Oliver responded by saying that she and Kamala Harris are also similar in the way that their path to office was unconventional; while Charlane herself went straight to the Senate, Vice President Harris was a prosecutor before she joined the executive branch– a reason that led to her being overlooked for the position of president in the past.
Further building upon the topic of the 2024 presidential election, Professor Meacham asked Oliver for her thoughts on Black voters and what her outlook is on the stereotype of the Black voter demographic being seen as “lazy.” In response, Oliver referenced her own experience coming from a majority African American community where efforts from candidates to mobilize the community would be made on the eleventh hour of the election and said that “civic engagement should be a year round effort and not just two weeks before election day.” She further elaborated on the misconception of Black voters being seen as “lazy” by voicing that the reason Black voters wait until the last moment to vote is to assess which candidate is doing for them and their community — which is why in her words, “Black voters are the true swing voters; they tip the scales of elections.”
At the end of the talk, I had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Senator Oliver, and I asked her for the one piece of advice she’d like to give to Vanderbilt students both within and beyond today’s political context. “Never underestimate your power as the new generation and the up-and-comers,” was her response. She emphasized her point by further saying that in the rapidly evolving political context that we now live in, Gen-Z will be the rising entrant whose political views will shape the results this year and going forward. Therefore, one of the most important things to do right now, in her opinion, is to not only mobilize yourself but also those around you by participating in democracy. Additionally, she believes that due to the magnitude of the impact that this election will have on the future of the country, people at the polls cannot afford to be single issue voters in this election and must choose their candidates wisely. She said if there is one thing students take away, she would like it to be this: participation is key.
