Thread by @VoteGloriaJ

Thread👇🏼 So as many of you know, when office assignments were given out at the beginning of this session, HD13 was not given one of the 99 member offices-all the other 98 members were assigned a member office.

Instead, HD13 was given a small conference room about 1/3-1/4 the size of the other 98 member offices-without an attached suite for the legislative assistant. It fit my desk and chair and one other chair for a single visitor.

It is important to note that I was the only member of the 99 who did not vote for Rep. Sexton as Speaker—and the only one who wasn’t assigned a member office.

I met with GOP Leadership about the office and they gaslighted me for about an hour, asking over and over why I thought I needed a bigger office. I continued to stress that I wanted a comparable office to the other 98 members, as I was elected by my district just as they were.

My former office had seating for 8 visitors and a round table to work with visitors on bills and projects. This is absolutely not possible in my current office which is crowded with 2 chairs.

They continually brought up the old offices in Legislative Plaza, but were dishonest in their comparison. My current office is actually smaller than my LP office. The reason the GOP gave for the move to Cordell Hull was so that every member could have a decent office.

Even Speaker Casada assigned me a member office when I did not vote for him for Speaker.

My Legislative Asst passed away on Good Friday, she was so looking forward to coming back, but was waiting to get her second vaccination.

She had concern because the Speaker would not tell us where she would be located when she returned and her health issues needed to be considered-she did not need that stress and concern.

A few weeks after her death, I asked HR about getting a new assistant. HR told me I needed to go through Kevin, the Speaker's replacement Chief of Staff who replaced his former Chief who was on leave due to an FBI investigation.

It was weeks before he got back to me to tell me Connie in HR would have to do it and she was out for surgery. All other HR business was handled, just not the business for HD13, and Connie told me Kevin would handle it. No one handled it and I have been without a LA since April.

It was extremely difficult to do the business of the district, but I typically stayed late each night to make sure I got everything done for my constituents.

After session, it is tough to keep up with constituent issues and my calendar without someone in our office answering the Nashville phone when constituents call.

I make sure I get to everyone, but all 98 other members have someone answering their calls every day and working with constituents from Nashville, where our department liaisons are located and ready to assist.

I went to Nashville today to work on a project with one of the senators. When I got to my office, they had moved my furniture, cut out part of the wall, and added a door-leaving less room for the little furniture I could fit in the room.

The door led to another cubby size room with half a desk and a single chair. This was their solution to house my assistant, if I got one, I suppose. A tiny room that would hold none of the tools needed for an LA to do the work they need to do for the District.

I had a Legislative Assistant (LA) on board to get started as she had worked with another member, when she heard I needed an assistant, she asked to work with me and I agreed.

I asked the Speaker and HR to assign her to me, and a month ago the Speaker told Rep Dixie it would happen in 2 weeks-it has been a month.

Today when she saw the space she was expected to work in, she said there was no way she could do her job in that space. I lost a great assistant because of the Speakers fragile ego and petty politics.

Let's talk about the space he created--how much of the taxpayers money did the Speaker use to bully the folks of HD13? I’ll be requesting that information.

They added a door, cut a place for it in the wall. Built new walls around my neighbors office and walled in part of a neat little alcove on our hall where visitors could sit and wait on their appointments.

Another thing important to note is right outside my door across the hall is an empty member office that belonged to Rep Miller, who was moved upstairs.

They could have moved me across the hall for free, to an actual member office--instead they spent likely thousands of taxpayer dollars to bully a member who was overwhelmingly elected by her district, the same as the Speaker was.

It doesn't matter what they do to me, I will fight for my constituents, speak truth to power, and always get my work done. But it is absolutely not fair to the people of HD13 to be slighted because their Rep voted her conscience and that of her district.

I can promise you they would not do this to a man. They are fragile, scared, authoritarians who must exert their power to feel important. They believe their power is more important than the taxpayers of TN.

They work hard at creating a toxic work environment to demonstrate their "power." It must be awful to be as fragile as they are, to have me living in the big spaces in their heads. They spend more time trying to figure out ways to bully than working on policy for TN families.

Actually, this is exactly how they address policy, it is a complete reflection of how they look at taxpayers and their need to bully and control.

How they bully women and control their bodies, how they bully immigrants, protesters, the unemployed, the LGBTQ community and more. The same philosophy they use to bully a member is the same philosophy they use to justify disregarding millions of TN families.

I didn't vote for Rep Sexton for Speaker and he has proven I was right. This isn't leadership, it’s the opposite. If the world flipped and I was up for Speaker tomorrow, he would have a member office no matter his vote.

No matter their attempts to push me down, I’ll continue to fight for HD13. I will not act as they do. It’s an honor you chose me and I won’t back down!