State Senator Mark Pody

State Senator Mark Pody Details Role as Davidson County’s Sole Republican Representative in the Tennessee General Assembly

Jun 3, 2025

Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) detailed how he approaches the dynamics of representing a politically split district that includes both conservative Wilson County and liberal parts of Davidson County during a sit down interview on Monday with Michael Patrick Leahy, The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

Pody, known for maintaining a strong, consistent conservative record in the Tennessee Senate, highlighted the challenges of serving constituents with drastically differing values, pointing to instances where he would receive standing ovations when he spoke at events in rural counties, but silence in Davidson County when delivering the same conservative speech.

“I had a real awakening when I came into Davidson County,” Pody explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

“I don’t know why Davidson County is not catching up to what Tennessee’s about, which is conservative values. People are moving in here, but Davidson County’s not making the move to conservatism. They’re stuck on this liberal mindset,” Pody added.

Noting how he shares part of his district with Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Pody said he strongly disagrees with Jones on most issues but shares the concern that state roads need to be fixed.

“We haven’t really found a lot of issues [we agree on], but building roads or making our roads better is something we can agree on,” he said.

As for the rest of the other politicians in the General Assembly representing Davidson County, Pody stressed how the Davidson County delegation is overwhelmingly liberal but noted they now recognize they need his support as a Republican to advance legislation in the GOP supermajority General Assembly.

“If there’s legislation going through and Davidson County needs it or wants it, I tell them, if you guys are going to try and get this through and you don’t have me a part of it, it’s not going to go through,” Pody explained, going on to cite an example where he nearly passed a bill by urging the group to let him speak for Davidson County.

Pody said he is the most effective legislator for Davidson County interests because of his ability to get Republican support for local needs.

“There can’t be a piece of legislation that they would want to go through that if I said to the delegation, ‘No, this needs to stop,’ I think that our caucus would stand with me,” he said.

Watch the full segment:

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

EJ Haust: Nashville Mayor Obstructing Crucial Law Enforcement Operations with Efforts Supporting Illegal Aliens

EJ Haust: Nashville Mayor Obstructing Crucial Law Enforcement Operations with Efforts Supporting Illegal Aliens

Jun 2, 2025

EJ Haust, a digital marketing expert and official guest host of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s efforts to help illegal aliens avoid law enforcement are not only undermining federal immigration operations but also obstructing the greater work of law enforcement between state and federal agencies, keeping all Tennesseans safe.

In response to a joint operation between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol conducted in Nashville last month which saw the arrests of 196 criminal illegal aliens, O’Connell amended an executive order to mandate that Metro Nashville employees report contacts with federal immigration officials to him and the Office of New Americans – essentially creating an early warning system for immigrants to evade federal immigration enforcement.