The Sierra Club’s political program focuses on electing environmental champions through nonpartisan, grassroots political action. We work to:
- Elect candidates who will support and promote environmental protection, as well as environmental and social justice
- Hold elected officials accountable, both for the impact of their decisions on the planet and social justice issues
- Raise the visibility of environmental and social justice issues in electoral campaigns.
- Strengthen the Sierra Club’s capacity to elect pro-environment candidates at every level of government.
2026 County Leadership Candidate Endorsement Statements
Beau Hawk is a strong on protecting green spaces and believes that environmental justice includes farmers and rural communities, especially with the growing threat from data centers. He has a firm position on the childcare crisis and believes that people under 6 need the same level of public investment as those over. Hawk is also the president of the Knoxville-Oakridge Central Labor Council.
Some of his campaign prioritizes are:
►Stronger economy for working families and raising the minimum wage to $18 an hour
►Land conservation and public parks
►Building affordable housing and increasing public safety
Brandon’s work as an environmental leader centers on his Board positions with Keep Knoxville Beautiful, where he’s been Treasurer and Vice-President. His work as a community organizer takes him out of the boardroom and into direct contact with the community, which fits nicely with his other avocation as an urban forester with Trees Knoxville.
Electing Brandon is particularly important now that his opponent is part of a far-right move to assert control over county government. He’s an environmentalist who can use his background as a community banker to help fight traffic congestion and rising rents while running the County’s business in a way that reflects a majority consensus in Cedar Bluff, Amherst, and Ball Camp areas. He’s a voice for unity and against the domination of political extremism and divisive national issues.
Some of his campaign prioritizes are:
►Affordable housing, smart growth on infrastructure, and diverse housing options
►Strong, fully-funded public schools
►Safe neighborhoods and investing in youth programs and crime prevention
While she supports the core framework of Advance Knox, which means protecting farmland and green space and directing growth toward areas with already developed infrastructure, she hasn’t seen the political will to protect vulnerable populations from displacement and hold the line on sprawl. That’s what she wants to change. She sees transportation centered on the private automobile as outdated and wants to see sidewalks, greenways, transit connections, and bike infrastructure actually get built. The heart of the problem is the undue influence of developers, which has created expensive sprawl where the cost of extending sidewalks, greenways, transit connections, and bike infrastructure out into the countryside routinely exceeds the tax revenue the developments generate. Getting political victories for candidates like Sharp is crucial for the sustainable development we need.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Stronger public schools and funding that supports students and teachers
►Stronger funding with public safety resources and public entities such as libraries
►Smarter infrastructure planning with public transportation access in mind
During the fight to save the Midway at Chilhowee Park from being sold to Emerald Youth, the city held an allegedly public forum at the Davidson Center that split the attendees into small conversations with staffers next to maps and charts on easels. Vivian clearly saw the manipulation and took over a corner of the gym to create a genuine public forum. Vivian made sure all voices had a chance, even when they disagreed with her and supported the sale. This kind of scrupulous fairness is classic Vivian. Her non-profit is called “The Voice of the Voiceless.” She has a deep calling to make sure the marginalized have a place in every conversation. This gives her a large following in disadvantaged communities and provides her with detailed intelligence on the problems facing the folks who have the least. And her background as president of the postal workers union gives her a strong presence when advocating for their interests.
Her campaign will continue the advocacy she’s been waging for the past 15 years. She helped close a facility that was abusing elders, worked to open the Safety Center (now known as the BHUCC) for the mentally ill, helped the Sierra Club save the trees in the Cradle of Country Music Park, and was crucial in the fight to save Chilhowee Park. If there’s an issue about the homeless or feeding the hungry, Vivian is at the center of it, pushing the interests of the most vulnerable. It will be a huge benefit for our city to have her sensibility in government.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Supporting education needs for the community
►Supporting mental health in the community and increasing access to resources
►Affordable housing for all in Knox County
2026 School Board Endorsements
We were surprised when Breyauna Holloway handily beat John Butler in the primary for School Board District #1. But folks in the district were long familiar with her and responded to both her style and her message. Reachable and relatable says it all about her style, and her message is increase teacher pay and get back to a curriculum focused on comprehension and skill level learning. She also doesn’t think high stakes testing is the best way to evaluate student progress. Creative teacher interaction is far more effective. Nor does she favor watered down history, especially when it comes to the racial issues in America’s past. She agrees with the other Sierra Club-endorsed school board candidates about keeping public money in public schools.
Her three main areas of focus are:
►Secure funding for schools in our district so that teachers can be supported with additional staff whether it be a teaching assistant, school-based therapist, or behavioral specialist.
►Create a district wide PTA to build community and school support, especially for struggling schools.
►Teacher and student recruitment and retention
We endorsed Kat Bike back in 2022, and boy, are we glad. Four years ago, we were intrigued by a parent who ran for the school board because she had a child in need of extra support in the classroom and wanted to advocate for children of all kinds to get the support they needed. This particular emphasis gives her a sharp focus on student support services and how they need to be constantly upgraded. Now we’ve learned that Bike grew up autistic herself and has had to struggle to acquire her extensive areas of knowledge by learning to “navigate systems that weren’t built for me,” as she said in a recent interview.
Anyone who’s really learned something well knows it's a struggle, and in Kat’s case, the struggle has given her a unique ability to listen to absolutely everybody fairly. She’s a very dedicated Democrat but despises the way partisan divisions have damaged our public dialogue. She’s committed to serving everybody regardless, even if it ticks off some fellow party members. She’s gotten down to business and worked with a majority-Republican school board and earned their respect. She particularly admires fellow Board member Anne Templeton and school Superintendent Jon Rysewyk, two very divergent figures.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Increasing student support services
►Defending schools from privatization
►Supporting teachers and funding to schools
She comes from a long line of educators and has put solid time in with the Knox County Education Coalition’s Public Schools Strong campaign. This campaign works with Tennessee Immigration and Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Allies of Knoxville Immigrant Neighbors (AKIN), and other groups on preserving the foundational principle of education for all and resisting discriminatory efforts by our state legislature to deny education access to certain groups. This work has helped her grasp the economic consequences of vouchers and laws like HB0793 that would allow schools to refuse admission to some students based on immigration status. They all whittle away at the funding basis for public schools and steadily increase economic pressure on teachers and support staff.
So, we urge you to think of her youth as more of an advantage than a liability. Don't let her baby face fool you, this 35-year-old has experience working as a registrar for a non-profit, is Creator & CEO of a children's educational program called Broadway for Babies, LLC, and currently serves on the Board of Governors for Knox County Democrats representing District 6. She has well-practiced ability in public speaking, conducting meetings, analyzing spreadsheets, and communicating with the public. She’s already launched an energetic campaign with lots of dedicated volunteers and plenty of support from other candidates like Michaela Barnett and Beau Hawk.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Fully funding public schools and saying "No" to vouchers
►Increasing pay and safety for teachers
►Protecting the freedom of reading in schools and opposing book bans
She belongs to a rising tide of young candidates for office who are tired of the plodding downward path our country has been on for a while. Schools are a public institution where that decline is keenly felt. Full funding for schools is a basic first step in stopping the slide, and right now, that means Amy’s pledge to vote against public tax dollars being allocated to private schools. Other principles she holds to are staying open to her community through frequent town halls and email communication in multiple languages, supporting vaccines for children under the care of medical professionals, and keeping decisions about age-appropriate reading material in the hands of education professionals. She’s also emphatic about teaching the accurate history of our nation’s race and ethnic relations. Finally, she favors students receiving an age-appropriate and objective, science-based grounding in climate change so they’ll be able to do their part in slowing it down.
Amy has strong motives behind her campaign and a solid commitment to fighting for students, teachers, and parents.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Fully funding public schools systems
►Supporting teachers with increased pay and safety
►Safety for all students in schools and increasing resources to help student education
After years of volunteering in schools, Brandy Jenkins started developing some ideas about why burnout, testing pressures, and understaffing have been driving teachers away from the profession – ideas like lack of competitive pay, manageable workloads, or policies that create respect for teachers. Underfunding is at the root of much of this, and with extensive experience in budget oversight and management, she has impressive skills to tackle the subject. She’s strong against politically motivated book bans. She’s committed to protecting students’ freedom to learn, supporting librarians and teachers, and keeping partisan politics out of the classroom.
Working with SOCM and the Knox County Education Coalition, she’s advocated before state leaders in Nashville for protections for undocumented workers and against vouchers. Her stance on education equity also includes local issues like reopening the Clothing Center for Kids, which the current Board voted too close.
Some of her campaign prioritizes are:
►Supporting teachers while increasing pay, retention, and working conditions
►Fully funding public schools, student services, and facilities
►Protecting students from book bans and their ability to learn