David Kerr Jr.

David Kerr Jr. served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1997 to 2017. Kerr earned a high school diploma from Knoxville Catholic High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix in 2016. Kerr's career experience includes working as a mechanic.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am David Kerr. I was born and raised in Knoxville, TN. I graduated High School in 1997. I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. While in I served in two wars. Iraq from 2007-2008. I was on a Point of Entry Transition Team and was stationed in Aw Waleed Iraq on the border of Syria and Iraq. It was an 11 Man team and we embedded with our Iraqi counterparts. I from 2012 to 2013 I was sent to Afghanistan and served with I Marine Expeditionary Force Civil Military Operations. Where I coordinated moving U.S. state department personnel, Marines, and others throughout the battle-space. I retired in 2017 as a Master Sergeant of Marines. I spent many great years learning from, leading, and serving my fellow Marines. Now I am going to serve the people of Appalachia! The place I call home!

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I believe that everyone should be treated equally. I believe your only true right is to vote and to exercise that vote. In order to exercise that right you must perform some sort of research on your candidates. Watch what they are saying! Then measure that against what they do! Are they really representing you anymore or are they just out for themselves? I have already committed to only taken the median income for the district I live in as a Congressman. The rest will be divided equally between to children’s homes in Tennessee’s first congressional district. Smokey Mountains Children’s Home in Sevierville, TN and Holston Children’s Home of United Methodist in Greenville, TN.All Americans should access to healthcare. The ACA has been defunded by the Republican Party which has caused many people to lose health care coverage. We are the richest nation in the world and yet we do not provide healthcare to the least of these! We spend 7 times more than any country on our military industrial complex. Maybe we could take. 3 times away from that and fund things like, healthcare for the human beings that are already born. Then I think we could really align more with the right’s pro life message. We cannot just worry about babies who aren’t born yet we should worry about the babies who have been born and have grown up. Meaning life!In this country and in the state of Tennessee women have lost the rights to their own bodies. This is not ok. I have a daughter. I didn’t serve 20 years in the Marine Corps so she could possibly die during pregnancy. One in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriages. This is a very common issue that I wasn’t taught about here in Appalachia. Two of my children were never born. They were miscarried. It wasn’t their fault it was just nature saying it wasn’t time for that child yet. However, we as men will let our women die because they have to carry a miscarried baby until they either pass it naturally or it makes the mother go into sepsis! That is putting our women at way too much risk when we have the technology to know better!

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am personally passionate about holding true to our constitution, and codifying women’s rights into law so that we don’t have to worry about a judge or a group of men who think they know better. We need to hold our representatives accountable for any injustices they have committed while in office. While in the Marine Corps I held myself to the Marine Corps Standard which is often hard to attain. I want to show Appalachia what service looks like. I want to serve you and show you what it should look like. No one should be about to profit off of their office. That’s why I will not take any PAC money from corporations or foreign governments. I will also not trade stocks while I hold office.