Will Tennessee’s Ninth Stop the Socialist Surge?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
A mighty 990KWAM exclusive, the Ninth Congressional District Radio Forum, hosted by Todd Starnes.

**Todd Starnes** (0:10)
And good evening, everyone across the Mid-South. I'm Todd Starnes, and you are listening to an exclusive conversation on the mighty 990KWAM.
The Ninth Congressional District Republican Primary is, folks, it is fired up, and we have a lot of great candidates in the race, a lot of great choices for you. And one of the things that we promised to do when I bought KWAM seven years ago was to make sure we provided a local source for news and information. And this is one of those moments when we have that kind of a conversation here for the next 90 minutes. Not only are we going to be taking questions from the candidates, but also we're going to be taking your questions as well. I want you to write down our telephone number. You will need this if you plan on calling in and asking a question. That number 901-260-5926.
That's 901-260-5926.
Well, for us, before we get started, I wanted to introduce all four of the candidates who have graciously taken time off of the campaign trail to hang out with us. First, we're excited to welcome Charlotte Bergmann, a native Memphian, a lifelong Christian, and a dedicated conservative leader here in the Mid-South. She is a graduate of Northside High School and was the first person in her family to pursue higher education, earning an associate degree from State Technical Institute and also getting a Bachelor of Science degree from Christian Brothers University. She began her professional career at FedEx, where she worked as an information technology project manager. She went on to become a small business owner. She has been actively involved in the Republican Party, both statewide, locally and nationally, serving on the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee. She was named Statesman of the Year in 2018 In 2019, she authored the book, The Last Trumpet, which addresses the battle for America's future and the dangers of government dependency. Charlotte is a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother. And we are also excited to welcome Jeremy Thompson, an Afghanistan Special Operations and Military Intelligence combat veteran, a retired US. Army Sergeant First Class. He served as Executive Director of the Special Operations Association of America, where he advocated for veterans, military readiness and national security and helped shape federal policy. Mr. Thompson has served as a reserve Deputy Sheriff, a volunteer firefighter and EMT in his community for many years. He is also a small business owner operating the Revolutionary Tavern in downtown Fayetteville with his wife, Lindsay, and their two children.
Senator Brent Taylor, a successful small business owner, an outspoken conservative leader, and of course, a state senator who spent his career fighting for Tennesseans, born and raised in a rural community before moving to Tennessee after school. In 1995, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Memphis City Council at the age of 27
Senator Taylor, who never voted for a tax increase, is viewed as the leading conservative voice on the council. He and his wife, Kimberly, purchased their first funeral home in 2004 They have been married for over 30 years, and they are parents of two adult children. They reside in the Eads community and are active members of Trinity Baptist Church. And state representative Todd Warner, an eighth generation Tennessean, born and raised on a dairy farm in Chapel Hill in northern Marshall County. To this day, he is a row crop farmer of corn and soybeans, and he's worked the same land. His family has worked for eight generations. He graduated from Forest High School in 1989, married his wife Cindy in 1991 Todd and Cindy have three children, Patrick, Kathleen, and Kacen. And he began his career with United Telephone. Well, we're going to get to know a lot more about these four wonderful, great American patriots. If nothing else, they took a stand. And as Theodore Roosevelt said, our great Republican president, they are men and women in the arena. And we certainly respect that. Welcome to everybody.

**Jeremy Thompson** (4:22)
Thank you for having us. We appreciate you.

**Todd Starnes** (4:24)
All right. Well, you know, we were going to start out talking about the squad coming to town. And we're going to get to that in just a moment. But we do have some breaking news to share with everybody. President Trump earlier this afternoon announced that he is endorsing State Senator Brent Taylor in the ninth Congressional District race. And I want to ask all of you, and we'll start with you, Charlotte Bergman.
How does this impact your race moving forward?

**Charlotte Bergmann** (4:49)
Oh, great question, Todd. I'm so glad you asked.