Shelby County resident Dr. George Flinn, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in West Tennessee’s 8th District, said he is running because incumbent U.S. Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) needs to be “challenged.”
Flinn, who has run as a Republican and Independent candidate in U.S. Senate and primary races for Tennessee’s 8th and 9th Congressional districts, said he believes Kustoff “should not go unchallenged” considering the incumbent’s recent voting record on bills, particularly spending packages.
Last month, for example, Kustoff voted with the majority of the U.S. House to pass a $1.2 trillion spending package which was criticized by fiscal conservatives for its lack of funding for the U.S.-Mexico border and other areas of interest.
Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), who voted against the particular spending package, said at the time that the American people had been “sold out” as lawmakers voted to advance the bill.
Flinn (pictured above, right) used Kustoff’s vote for the spending package as an example of the incumbent’s voting record that has not aligned exactly with the America First agenda.
“The main vote I was appalled at was the voting for the $1.2 trillion budget package where it had no money for our borders, but it did have $880 million for the borders of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries. It is protecting other countries’ borders, but not ours. Illegal immigration is a problem, a big problem in West Tennessee, and we need to have legal immigration, but we need to have borders to stop all of the illegal immigration. I’ve been down to McAllen, Texas. I’ve seen what happens there, and it’s just overwhelming. The border agents are overwhelmed by this influx of people. We just have to have a border wall and stop that illegal immigration,” Flinn said on a recent episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Flinn, noting that he’s in the race to win, said voters should be given an alternative to Kustoff.
“If people approve of what he’s doing, that’s fine; they should vote for him. If every vote for me is a message to him that they don’t approve of it, they don’t approve of the votes that he’s making; it’s just an approval and not approval. He should not go unchallenged. He should not just file and win the election. He should have opposition, and people should be able to express their opinion. A lot of times, you’ll express your opinion to a congressman or a senator or anyone, and you’re not sure if it’s heard or not. This way, your vote, if you give a thumbs down to the votes that he’s made and things like that, you can vote for me, and it’ll show him, ‘Hey, this guy has support.’ This is where we are,” Flinn added.
Regarding his stance on policy issues, Flinn said tackling the nation’s debt—other than border security—is the top issue he’d address in Congress.
“We got to reign in the spending. We’re actually spending so much more than we need to. It’s just pitiful. Some of the things we’re spending on are just crazy,” Flinn said.
Flinn also addressed the political scene in the U.S. House of Representatives, criticizing Republican lawmakers for not pushing through their agenda while currently holding the majority.
“We are not headed in the right direction. We have a Republican majority and we don’t act like it. We act like the Democrats are holding the gavel, we act like the Democrats are running the show. We have the majority. Let’s act like it. Let’s put on our big boy pants and act like it and not be afraid of them saying bad things about it, because they’re going to anyway,” Flinn said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “George Flinn” by George Flinn.
