How A Northeast Tennessee Mom Became A GOP Leader

COVID didn’t just disrupt routines. For a lot of families, it exposed who actually holds power over your kids, your job, and your ability to live out your faith. We sit down with Danielle Goodrich, chair of the Washington County Republican Party, to talk about the moment she went from focused on home and school to fully engaged in local politics in Northeast Tennessee.

We get into why local government matters as much as national elections, especially when school boards and state policy can change your life overnight. Danielle explains what she means by a biblical worldview and how she believes it should shape political decisions, from the sanctity of life to freedom of conscience. We also talk about the frustration many people felt watching inconsistent standards during COVID, and why “my body, my choice” became a flashpoint across multiple issues.

Then we zoom out to the Constitution, limited government, and the balance of power between the federal government and the states. Danielle shares why grassroots organizing matters, what it looks like to “follow principles, not politicians,” and how listeners can evaluate candidates during Tennessee primaries and the governor’s race. We also highlight the America 250 dinner as a chance to hear directly from candidates and support local races.

If you care about civic engagement, conservative principles, and what keeps Northeast Tennessee free, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review.

To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com. 

Transcript

Welcome To Benchmark Happenings

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is Benchmark Company. Brought to you by Jonathan and Steve from Benchmark Homeland. Northeast Tennessee, Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, the Tri City, one of the most beautiful places in the country to live. Tons of great things to do and awesome local businesses. And on this show, you'll find out why people are dying to move to Northeast Tennessee. And on the way, we'll have discussions about mortgages. And we'll interview people in the real estate industry. It's what we do. This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Benchmark Home Loans. And now your host, Christine Reed.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Benchmark Happenings. And you know, every time that we are come live on the air, we have a star. And so our star today is Miss Danielle Goodrich. So, Danielle, thank you for being here with us today. Thank you so much for having me, Christine. Yeah, you are one busy lady, and uh just want to thank you for being the chair of our uh GOP here in Washington County, the Grand Ole Party, um, the Republican Club, Conservative Values. And um, Danielle, I'm glad that you came on today because I think there's just a lot of things we need to talk about, not only with the primaries happening and the upcoming uh governor's race of Tennessee, and um it's it looks pretty exciting. And so just tell us a little bit about uh who you are and your uh passion and desire to want to take on being the chair of the GLP here in Washington County.

COVID Sparks A Political Wake Up

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Absolutely. So I really got started in politics during COVID and I was a mom, I had kids in public school, and it was when all these policies started cut to come down where they were telling us we couldn't go to church, they were masking our kids, they were defining people as non-essential and other people as essential. And it really piqued my attention into politics for the first time in my life, and I started to become active, and uh I started false following Gary Humble and Tennessee stands, and and he was talking about the constitution, and he was talking about how it was really unconstitutional for government to have this type of overreach into our lives. And it got me plugged in with the Republican Party, and I heard Charlene Thomas talk about the Republican principles during this time at one of the meetings, and she was talking about how the Republican principles are to uphold the Constitution as binding and inflexible, to ensure limited government, to stand for fiscal conservatism, to stand for minimal taxation. And everything that she was talking about, if we did that as a Republican Party, we would ensure liberty and we would be able to pass down freedom for the next generation to do the same, like Ronald Reagan said. And at that time when our freedom was being challenged, I was like, that is the solution right there. If we do everything that the Republican Party has claimed as principles, then we would be able to hand down freedom for the next generation to do the same. And so that's what really got me active. I was at that meeting. I had my oldest at the time, he was sitting on my lap, and I was tired of them masking my kids, and I was tired of them, you know, telling us we couldn't go to school for this, you know, this illness that really wasn't affecting the children. Right. And so uh it got me active in in politics, and I never turned back and started following the legislature and started speaking out if they tried to pass unconstitutional laws, if they tried to pass laws that were infringing, if they tried to pass laws that weren't limited, weren't fiscally conservative, because I realized that we need to start standing for those principles and to ensure. I mean, we are celebrating America 250 this year, and I want us to be able to celebrate another 250. And I see it, my part in this as a mom is to do my best to hand it down better than I found it. And when I look around right now, you know, um, we're better off than we would have been with Kamala for sure. But I want to make sure that, you know, we are standing for those principles and that we're not leaving our kids with this enormous debt, and we're not leaving our kids with a less American dream, and that we are handing it down to our children better than we found it. So that's really got what got me involved. And yeah, I started out with just you know, with creating this freedom group to do this. And then the freedom group, I stepped out of that and into this GOP chair position. I ran because I saw it as kind of the my next step to be able to influence those policies in our community and our state.

Why Local Power Shapes Daily Life

SPEAKER_03 4:59

And what I find interesting, Danielle, is that people that I have interviewed over the last couple of years doing this podcast, and especially when we are talking about health and wellness, and because here at Benchmark Happenings, we we discuss a lot of different topics. We're not limited because we love we love East Tennessee. We think it's a beautiful place to live, and it's a it's so far it's been a free place to live. But I have found that people like yourself and others, COVID actually woke people up. It woke us up. And I think we can say that that's probably a gift that COVID provided, where the government was trying to overstep their reach to violate our rights that are given to us by God, our creator. And so I think people finally started to realize something's not right here. And and you know, you mentioned thank God it's not Kamala, but we have Trump, which I'm very thankful for that. However, most people pay more attention to the national political side. And but really, I always go back to what Charlie Kirk said before he was brutally um murdered, is that it's the local politics, it's our region, it's what's happening here today that affects the tomorrow for our children.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Exactly, exactly. Yeah. I mean, there's so many people, like you said, they pay attention to what's going on federally, but they can't tell you what's happening in their own town.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

And we saw during COVID that the school boards can make a huge difference in your in your children's life. And it really matters who is governing. It really matters who's governing at every level of government. And you want them to share in your biblical worldview, you want them to understand that those principles and that our rights come from God. That way, you know, government can't take that away from us. If we're doing our job, um, then we understand that those rights come from God and that they can't be revoked by the government.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

And there's, you know, the past decade we have really turned into a post-Christian society. So there's a lot of pushback on people who follow Jesus and and we but we know that our constitution, our founding fathers, it was based on a biblical worldview. So, Danielle, just for those that probably don't really um, you know, maybe have a question, what's well, a biblical worldview, what's the difference between that and the way I see the world? So, do you want to talk about that a little bit?

What A Biblical Worldview Means

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, sure. So a biblical worldview is using the Bible as the lens in which you see the world. And so, really, you I saw this podcast the other day and they were talking about does faith influence your politics or does politics influence your faith? And really, our faith is influencing our politics and a biblical worldview. So there's a lot of things that we're told are politics and we can't touch, but we know as Christians what we should think about those topics, and therefore that is what really influences how we think on them. For instance, you know, with the whole my body, my choice, my body, my choice. They were able to influence generations with the slogan. But what does our biblical worldview really say about that? What does our Bible tell us? What does our faith tell us? Um God tells us to be fruitful and multiply. God tells us that it would be better to put a millstone around somebody's neck and toss them into the sea than to hurt an innocent. And so there's a lot of different political policies that if we look at it through a biblical worldview, then we know our answer to those. We know marriage is between a man and woman. We know that God calls us to be fruitful and and to be fruitful and to multiply. Um, we we know that there's a lot of these different political issues that if we are Christians and we're bringing our faith to the forefront, that we know how we should think about those and we know how we should vote on those too. Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

And I think people should understand too that we are made in the image of God, whether you believe in God or not, or whatever your God is, that all life is valuable and it's the sanctity of life. And um, I'm glad I was born, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Oh, amen.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

You know, I'm certainly glad of that and uh thankful for my mom that gave birth to five children. I'm the youngest of five. But you know, I think our children have been told for so long that you know you're not created in the image of God. You came from uh goop or um you um you know you just you came from uh animals, you know. I mean, all these just crazy things. And it's like you know, when when we place people and and set the bar really high that you are valuable, you're valuable, you're valued, no matter who you are, you are a soul and you are in the image of God. Yeah, whoever you are, whatever color, creed, uh, gender, male, female, you are valuable, and you have been created for a purpose here on this earth. Yeah. And I think that's the message that I would love for people to truly hear that instead of my body, my choice. And then on the flip side of that, you know, we tried to turn that during COVID on the vaccine. Yeah. Why is it that, you know, we can say my body, my choice. I don't want that vaccine. I don't want something that that I have done my research, I've studied, I don't want that in my body because I don't want to suffer the consequences of that. But you know, the government had an overreach. A lot of people lost their jobs during that time, even here locally.

Federal Overreach And State Authority

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Yeah, and that was a big thing that we stood against too during that time, was because, you know, the federal government is supposed to be limited. They were really only given 18 authorities. They're not supposed to have authority over health care, they're not supposed to have authority over education. They were given things like the post office, like the military, and then everything else was supposed to be decentralized to the states and the people. It was the states who created the federal government, and then they used the constitution to bind it because they had just escaped the rule of a king. They didn't want it to be a centralized authority that becomes absolute, and we know absolute power is that is absolutely corrupting. It corrupts absolutely. Yes. And so they had just escaped that and they came and they made this decentralized system. And so in this system, the states were the creator. The federal government is the created. We know the creator has more authority than the created. Um, but we're we've forgotten that. And during COVID, the federal government was trying to tell us what we could do with healthcare. They were using uh Ocean, they were using these Medicare over the uh states to say you need to comply with this unconstitutional federal mandate or you're not gonna get this federal funding. And at that point, that's really when the states need to step up and say, listen, you know, that is unconstitutional. You were not delegated that authority, and we as a state, we can nullify what you just said because it's unconstitutional and we don't have to follow that mandate. That's right. But the states did not. Yeah. And so, you know, we uh we tried to rally in Tennessee, and there was actually a there was a pretty big uh at that time, there was a special session that was called. Um, Governor Lee had called a special session at that time, and it was to give Ford money to come to our state and build this huge electric car mega site. And this was at a time when people were getting fired for uh from their jobs. This was at a time that hairdressers were told they can't feed their families because they're non-essential. Yeah, and so there's even the gyms.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Yeah, gyms shut down. But you could keep the liquor store open. Yeah, you could keep strip clubs open.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Those are essential, of course.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

But churches were shut down and pastors complied to that.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah. And so there was this big push from the grassroots movement that sprung up during this time to do freedom over Ford, where where we pushed for that special session to also address the issue of the COVID mandates. And and they it did. I mean, that was a time when grassroots was successful and having the legislature hear us, and they did add that to that special session where they did address the COVID issue. So it was successful. It showed that your voice can make a difference uh when you stand shoulder to shoulder with other people who have the same convictions as you.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

That's right. And courage is contagious.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yeah, it is. All it takes is one. You see one person stand up and and say the the right thing, say the biblical thing. And we see that through the Bible too, right? And we can see how one person can make a difference. We we see, you know, Jonah, Jonah didn't want to do what he was told to do. He got caught in the belly of a whale. He eventually did, and he told Nineveh, you know, your city's gonna burn unless you you do as you're told. And so we can see how one person can really make a difference.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

That's right. That's right. And I think about Esther, think about Daniel, yeah. Uh all these that God used powerfully. And, you know, there's always I think Christians think that, well, you know, should I participate in politics or should I even vote? Um, you know, what would you say to that, Danielle, when when um or you hear pastors say, Oh, I don't get involved in politics, I'm just preaching the gospel. I'm not gonna, you know, I think there's just so much confusion of our uh God's um intention for his people to be part of the public square.

Grassroots Wins And Freedom Over Ford

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah, I mean, we saw Nehemiah. Nehemiah stood up against the tax collectors, Nehemiah built a wall. You know, we see uh all throughout these stories where what that person was doing, if they were doing it today, they would be like, don't do that. You're you're being political. But we have to look at what is politics really? It's governance, it's governance and how we want to be governed. Um, and you know, our founding fathers said our form of government is only for a moral and religious people, it's wholly inadequate for the government of any other. And, you know, really that's where we're at right now. I forget which founding that was John Adams that said that, and I forget who said this one, but they said um, when moral, when morality dies, uh so too will this form of government. And that's where we're at. We're at this place where uh, you know, our founding fathers, Benjamin Rush, he argued on behalf of teaching Bibles in schools. And he with that whole purpose that people need to understand biblical truth. They need to understand God in order to have our form of government. I mean, we, you know, we we say uh that we're one nation under God, and then people will say, oh, but separation of church and state. What that was supposed to mean, that was a letter from Jefferson that was supposed to say that the government's supposed to stay out of the church, which we obviously didn't see from COVID. But it doesn't mean that God is supposed to be out of government. And even in our state constitution, our state constitution references Almighty God, capital A, capital G, God of the Bible. Um, and so, you know, even in Tennessee and our constitution recognizes that, you know, our rights are God given. Right. And it's up to people who have those same beliefs. It's it's up to us to stand in that gap and and be the ones who are governing. Um I saw this great, uh, posted on my Facebook, but there was a monologue, and it was from that show 1923. It's a spin-off from uh the um Sutton Ranch on what is that, Yellowstone. So it's a spin off from Yellowstone. And in 1923, Harrison Ford is one of the main characters, and he talks about this experiment where they looked at tribes of people. And when the tribe got over 500 people and above, then what would happen is the stronger people would take advantage of the weaker people, and they would use uh basically they would use the the government at that point to enrich themselves at the behest of the others. And that was the argument for why you need government is to keep people in line. Right. But the truth is, you know, that we're all flawed. And so he brought up the point what happens when the people who want to enrich themselves at the expense of others are in the government? And they'll pass laws so that you can't challenge them.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

And unfortunately, we're even seeing that in Tennessee, we have a Republican uh majority, but we just saw our legislature pass a law, uh SB 1958, HB 1971, where it makes it harder for us to sue the state if they pass unconstitutional laws. And so that's almost exactly what he was talking about, where you know, once people get in there who are looking to enrich themselves, they'll protect their turf and they'll make it harder for you to challenge them.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

And so And that's what we've seen for a long time. And I was surprised that this bill actually passed and the number of of our legislators who opted not to even vote yes or no.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yep. And that's what really why I got in the GOP because I saw certain things like that happening. And I said, I thought to myself, here we are, we we are saying that we claim these principles, these principles that if we follow them, they will hand down liberty for the next generation to do the same.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

But it takes us following them, it takes us governing with those principles. And so my hope was that when conservatives, or if you want to call us restorationists, I heard that recently, um, because we're trying to restore it back to what the founding fathers' vision was. But if you get more people in government like that, um, then we will follow the principles and we wouldn't be trying to pass these laws that were unconstitutional because we understand the importance of that principle. We understand that the constitution is what enables freedom and that we have to stand for the constitution if we want to enable freedom.

How To Run On Principles

SPEAKER_03 19:33

That's right. And and so you've had some challenges. We've got just a a couple of minutes left here. I know it's been some challenges and bringing the Republican Party together because you know that's we we need to stand together and work together upholding these conservative Republican principles. And uh I hope those that listen to this understand that it's um it's it's important that we stand on those conservative principles together. And so what um what pearls do you have for those who are might maybe thinking about running for an a local office?

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah, sure. Yeah, so I ran on following principles, not politicians. That way, if a politician strays from the principles, we don't just blindly follow them in the wrong direction. That way, when we're asked why we voted a certain way, we can stand on that principle and we can say, you know, my vote aligned with this. Like we're the Republican Party, we said that we're for minimal taxation, we said we're for fiscal conservatism, that's why I didn't vote for this entitlement program. That's why I didn't vote for, you know, this growth and in the budget. Um, and so to people who want to run, you know, I would say that really you don't need a ton of money, but you need that work ethic. And I think if folks run and they get in, what their focus should be is if they deliver on their campaign promises, they'll get elected, they'll get re-elected. So it should be less about getting out there and, you know, raising money, raising money, and then you're beholden to those special interests. It should be more about getting in, standing strong on those principles and delivering on your campaign promises, and then you'll be more likely to get in.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

And you know, really they they try to legislators always try to say, it's so gray, it's so hard. We get all this legislation and it's just oh, we just labor and labor over, you know, how we're gonna vote, what we're gonna do. Well, number one, represent your constituents and what they want, be connected. And then if you're standing on these conservative Republican principles, which I dare say that most probably couldn't even quote them, but if you're making decisions based aligning with these conservative principles, then the decision I mean, I don't want to be presumptuous, but it shouldn't be that hard, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah. I mean, I think it you should always ask yourself, you know, does this align with the Republican principles? And you can go look on the Tngop.org website and read what they are. Um, it's pretty awesome that in Tennessee they took a hard line on the conservative principles and they wrote them down. You know, this is what we're for. And so you should be asking yourself, is it limited or am I growing government outside of its authority? Does it follow the constitution? Is it constitutional or to the original intent of the founding fathers? Is it fiscally conservative? Because we know that an unsustainable budget is a step to socialism.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

That's right.

Primaries And The America 250 Dinner

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Um, and so is and creating entitlement programs and welfare programs because that creates a dependent people. Um, our founding fathers knew it it takes independent people to have liberty. And so, you know, we have to look at those eight steps to communism and the Republican principles basically stand directly opposed to them on every level. And so, you know, if we're fiscally conservative, we're not driving up the debt. And if we're standing for independence, we're not creating a bunch of entitlement programs. And if we're, you know, uh for the constitution, we're not gonna vote outside of it. And it there's a lot of uh buts that happen in the legislature where they're like, but and it's like, is it constitutional? If it's not, then we shouldn't be voting for it.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

That's right. And and I know with the governor's race, we've got John Rose, Marsha Blackburn, and Monty Fritz. And Monty has uh picked up some steam here lately. Um so um we uh we support him, wish him well, and he was actually on the podcast um several weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

So um and as chair, I'm not supposed to endorse, but I can say that we do have a dinner coming up. So it's our America 250 dinner. Yes, I was gonna ask you about that. And this is our biggest fundraiser of the year. So we actually Bill Boswell, he made it so that we're a pack, so we can actually donate to uh in Washington County for some of these races. We have Democrats in almost every one of these commission races. We have some Democrats that are running for school board. And so we understand that even if uh a Republican doesn't vote the way you want, Democrat is not the answer. Democrat policies don't fix, they break. We we know that from looking at California and these other you know, New York and these Democrat-led states. They may promise you something, but their policies do not fix, they break. And so this dinner is our biggest fundraiser, and we will be able to put money towards some of those races that um look like they're a little bit more vulnerable here in the general election, which is in August. We do have a primary election, which is tomorrow. So go out and choose the candidate who aligns with those Republican principles the best. Um, but yeah, our dinner is our biggest fundraiser, and Monty Friss will be there. Um, John Rose will be there. Uh Marsha Blackburn is sending Glenn Jacobs there instead, just like she did last year. But that will be an opportunity for you to hear from these gubernatorial candidates before that August election. You can meet them, you can ask them questions, you can see exactly what they think on all of the issues.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

And when is that, Danielle?

SPEAKER_02 25:12

So that is June 5th. Tickets are on sale now. You can go to our website, it's Washington County Republican Party.org, go to America 250. It's gonna be a great celebration. And again, it's our biggest fundraiser, but you can buy tickets on the website.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Okay. Well, Danielle, thank you for being with us today. And um, we wish you well. Thank you for what you're doing for our community and for um in the GOP. And I know it's been a an uphill battle and a lot of hard work, so thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Thank you so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Jonathan Tipton and Steve Reed from Benchmark Home Loans. Jonathan and Steve are residential mortgage lenders. They do home loans in Northeast Tennessee. And they're not only licensed in Tennessee, but Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review. Our passion is Northeast Tennessee. So if you have questions about mortgages, call us at 423-491-5405. And the website is www.jonathansteve.com. Thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next time on Benchmark Happenings.