- (female announcer) Production funding for Behind the Headlines is made possible in part by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

- Democratic House Candidate, Chaz Molder, tonight, on Behind the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight by Democratic House Candidate for District 5, Chaz Molder.

Thank you for being here.

- Eric, thanks for having me.

- Along with Bill Dries, reporter with The Daily Memphian.

Before we get started with Chaz Molder, who's also the Mayor of Columbia, Tennessee, I should have said in a second term, just a couple notes, we're moving toward through a series of interviews, profiles with some of the key candidates and key races.

That all moves towards November 3rd with early voting starting October 14th through October 29.

We have reached out to the Republican opponent for District 5, Charlie Hatcher.

We also had Brent Taylor on, Republican for district-- Help me out, Bill.

- Nine.

- Nine.

I knew that, and we have Justin Pearson, the Democrat for that candidate coming up soon, and we're working to try to get David Kustoff on the show.

Heidi Kuhn, his Democratic opponent will be on soon.

Last but not least, we had Democratic Candidate for Governor, Jerri Green, on the show recently, and we've reached out to Marsha Blackburn's office.

All those past shows are available at wkno.org, YouTube, The Daily Memphian, or as a podcast, and all the upcoming shows we get done will be available there, as well.

But Chaz Molder, thank you very much for being here.

We appreciate it.

For you, and we're gonna bring a map up of the full district and where the new districts hit the Shelby County area, but characterize the 5th District, and your place in Columbia, and then all the way here to the river and Memphis.

- Right, well, Memphis was the direct target of this redistricting.

I mean, let's call it what it is.

I mean, they were very specific about it.

You can see the map here.

- Let me see.

Yeah, the yellow section there is five, just so people know that kind of wraps up, and that's the district you're running.

- That's right.

- Yes.

- It stems from the Mississippi River, and goes to the Duck River in my hometown of Columbia, Tennessee, and again, Memphis was the target of this.

It was a direct attack on Memphis, on the voters in Memphis, on the black voters in Memphis, and the Republican supermajority decided to come and try to break Memphis into three congressional districts to pick up a seat, and what Memphis has here is an opportunity to push back.

And that's what we're hearing on the ground in Memphis.

People here are mad, they are upset with the targeting that they were the subject of, and again, what we hear on a daily basis is that people are ready to push back at that.

I think that this is a very critical election, Eric.

Our democracy is getting tested every way we turn, and that includes here in Memphis, and in Tennessee with this late-in-the-game gerrymandering.

And my wife and I have three kids.

And what the Republican-led supermajority legislature did here was change the rules after the game had already begun, the very thing that we teach our kids not to do.

And that's what was done, Memphis being the target, and frankly, all of the counties that are subject of this, because this very sprawling district now makes it more difficult for effective congressional representation, when you're three hours away from each community.

- Yeah, but in the rural areas, and then although stretching again to where you are mayor at the end of your second term, those folks maybe are happy that there won't be a Democrat.

I mean, what did they say to you when you go, you've been in all the counties, what is it?

Seventeen counties, I think you told me you've been there all at least twice.

What do you hear from Republicans, from rural voters, that you have to counteract, or from your point of view, correct a misperception?

- Well, we hear from a lot of voters across the spectrum that are very upset with the current state of affairs.

We hear from a lot of Trump voters that will tell us, "Hey, look, we voted for him, but we didn't vote for this."

And when we say "this", we're talking about tariffs that are driving up costs.

We talk about a war in Iran that is cost over $45 billion so far, when we have hungry children here at home.

We have healthcare accessibility that continues to be diminished.

Just this morning, I learned about the fact that labor and delivery units in the city of Memphis are on the decline.

That's also something that just happened in Henry County.

Paris, Tennessee just lost its only labor and delivery unit.

So frankly, the issues in a lot of ways are very similar across this very gerrymandered district.

It requires someone who's gonna show up, and who can have the energy and enthusiasm to do the job, and that's what we're gonna do.

- One more from me before we go to Bill.

When you encounter people who voted for Trump, are there things that you agree with, with the Trump administration, decisions they've made that you say, "Hey, I agree with that and that and that?"

- Well, I think it's more so of what are the current problems today.

The fact that we have costs that are rising, the fact that our farmers are hurting, they're hurting not just because their input costs are higher than ever before, but the fact that we're entering into trade deals with foreign countries on the backs of our farmers here at home that are hurting our current farmers here, in the United States.

And so I think more what we hear about as we show up across the 17 counties is what they're facing today, and what we can do to help them tomorrow.

- Let me bring in Bill.

- You were in this race under the old boundaries, and it looked like it was you and the incumbent at that time, Andy Ogles, going down to the line on this.

The boundaries changed, and Andy Ogles got upset in the primary by Charlie Hatcher.

What do you think that that change says about this race by the new boundaries?

- Well, I think the reality is is Andy Ogles needed to be ousted from Congress, and we can be proud of that fact.

The reality also is those my opponent supports the same policies that Andy Ogles supported.

Charlie Hatcher says that he supports the war in Iran.

Charlie Hatcher says he supports the tariffs that are being placed on our consumers and on our small businesses.

And those are policies that have gotten us into this mess, and so while my opponent has changed, while the map has changed, the issues are still the same.

And that's what we're running on to show up in these communities, and to let them know that we want to fix a broken system, and that right now, there's too much chaos and corruption in Congress, and what Charlie Hatcher's gonna do is be a part of that chaos and corruption.

He's already said he wanted Andy Ogle's endorsement, that he wanted to follow the same policies that Andy Ogles follows, and again, I happen to believe, Bill, that that's what's gotten us into this mess, and I wanna go to Washington to be a part of the solution, not an ongoing part of the problem.

- The primary campaign on the Democratic side by these new boundaries was also kind of a discussion about how much is too much pposition, how much opposition is not enough opposition to Trump and the Republicans.

Where do you stand in that?

- Well, I think what people are focused on here in Memphis, what people are focused on across the other 16 counties outside of Shelby County in this district is the fact that they are struggling, that costs continue to rise, that they don't have access to quality and affordable healthcare, they want safe communities, they wanna be able to just allow their children to grow up in a place to have access to quality education, and all of these things seem to be under attack.

And that's what we're hearing.

The beauty of showing up in these counties is that we're getting to listen.

And when you listen as a candidate, you can ultimately become a more effective member of Congress, because you have heard what your constituents' needs are, or what their concerns are, and you can go help them in Congress by providing the constituent services that they need, or that their local government might need.

- Do you have to have some modicum of Republican support, support from Republican voters, in addition to the majority of the Democratic voting block out there?

- I think there's no question that our campaign is building a broad coalition of support of Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

I'm the Mayor, the two-term Mayor of Columbia, Tennessee.

It's a community that voted for Donald Trump by 44 percentage points.

My first term, I defeated a two-term incumbent Republican with 60% of the vote.

So we have a track record of winning tough races, we have a track record of bringing over crossover votes to our side, because we have a track record of focusing on problems and finding solutions.

That's how I've conducted my eight years as Mayor, and I think that's why my mayor's experience really well positions me for this job.

- Going back to a variation on a question I asked you, and I've asked other candidates to the last Democratic national administration, Joe Biden, are there policies of the Biden administration you look back and say that shouldn't have happened?

- Well, look, I think at the end of the day, it's easy to go back and grade papers on prior administrations.

- I'm just trying to give people a sense of where you would stand.

You've been in this heavily Republican district, you wanna be this new district on a federal-level is gonna have a lot of Republicans in it.

So if they look back, some of those Republican constituents and say, "I didn't like this, this and this about Biden administration", are there ones that you agree with?

- Yeah, I mean, I think that where the Biden administration could have done better was having more secure borders.

I think that we do need secure borders as a part of the overall immigration comprehensive reform that this country needs, and the fact is is that secure borders are a necessary component of that.

And so if your question is what's something perhaps you would've done differently, I think that's an area where secure borders is really have been a concern.

- What do you think of the Trump administration?

A signature policy has been deportations, trying to get to, I think the number they've always been trying to get to is 2,000 deportations a day.

Would you vote to end that policy, and what kind of policy right now would you wanna see in terms of people who've come here illegally, and should they stay?

- Well, I think anytime you talk about quotas in law enforcement, that's a dangerous track to be on.

But I would also say that I don't believe that in this country, we should be tearing families apart.

I think what we've seen with some of the tactics employed by ICE have been very, very disturbing, where we have kids that are going to bed in their home with their parents, and are waking up and their parents have been torn away from them.

I don't believe that that is the proper approach to take.

I think in this country, we have a system of laws, we have due process that should be employed, and what we're seeing is a removal from those processes and procedures that I think we should make sure to stick to.

- Do you worry that for the Republicans or Trump voters in your district and this new district will take that, as well, "He's fine with illegal immigrants staying here"?

- No, I think what voters of this district will see is that I want to actually be a solution to the problem.

I want to be a voice of reason in the overall conversation.

I mean, right now, we have too many partisan divides, and we don't have enough people that are wanting to have conversation to actually create compromise.

Howard Baker once said, "The other side may be right."

Right now we have the two political parties that don't even speak to each other, and I think we have a two-party system for a reason, and we have to figure out ways to come together for the betterment of our communities.

- One more for me, you mentioned the Iran War.

If you were to win this office, would you vote to end funding for the Iran war?

- I believe that Congress has a constitutional duty to authorize war, and that has not yet occurred, and I do not believe that there has been a plan articulated by the administration as to not only what fully brought us in this war, but how we're going to get out of the war.

I'm old enough to remember mistakes that have been made during my lifetime on oversea wars that have been costly, and that have cost American lives, and abroad, and so I think that at the end of the day, we need more of a plan articulated to the American public on what exactly we're doing, and what is our exit strategy, and we've not seen that to this point.

- And I can remember the Iraq war, the Afghanistan War, all those fights and all those, there was always this pressure to continue to vote to fund the troops, 'cause we had to support the troops.

In some ways, the one lever that a Democratic Congress would have would be to not fund the ongoing war.

So where would you be in that vote?

- Well, I'm never gonna be a part of a vote that's not going to ensure that our military has the resources that they need to make sure that they're safe.

If we're gonna send our men and women into enemy territory, where their lives are at stake, then I'm gonna make sure that they have the resources that they need, and so there's a distinction there.

I'm opposed to the war, but I also do not want to allow politics to get into the way of the lives of our military men and women.

- About halfway through show.

Bill.

- You have connections to Memphis.

You're a graduate of the Cecil C. Humphreys University of Memphis School of Law.

Talk a little bit about your identity with the city, and kind of coming back here as a candidate to kind of get a real up-close look at our politics.

- Well, when this gerrymandering occurred, I was really upset at what they did to Memphis, I was upset at the fact that they were changing the rules after the game had already begun, but there was a silver lining, Bill, and the silver lining was that I had an opportunity to be a voice for the city of Memphis.

As you mentioned, I lived here, my wife and I started out here, my first day of law school at the University of Memphis, she began her first day as a teacher, a first grade teacher with the Shelby County School System at the time, and so we know this city well, and to know this city is to love this city.

We have spent so much time in Memphis, not because we've had to, but because we've wanted to.

And to be able to come back to Memphis and to spend time in churches, and community centers, and parks, and interact with people here, certainly, we've had a lot of connection here that have helped us get to this point, but we've made so many new friends, and learned so much about the soul of this city that just inspires me every day to wake up to go fight as hard as I can to be a champion for this city, because Memphis deserves a champion.

And Memphis, again, was the target of this gerrymandering, and so what we're providing the Memphis voters an opportunity to have the final say, and to let the politicians know that politicians don't get to pick their voters.

Voters should be the ones picking the politicians.

- So if you're elected to this seat, you have district offices that you will set up.

Will there be an office in Memphis?

- Absolutely.

I am 100% committed to making sure that we have a Memphis office presence, Memphis staff presence.

Memphis is going to get the constituent services that they deserve.

I think Memphis has a history of having good constituent services from congressional representation, and we wanna build on that and do even more.

And you do that by having a presence here, by showing up, and not just with staff that's present, but I'm going to be present.

I'm going to be a champion for Memphis, I'm gonna be excited to brag about the fact that Memphis is in my congressional district, and that's not gonna just be by words.

It's gonna be by actions, and I think one of the reasons folks have lost trust in the system is because a lot of politicians say a lot of words, but they don't back that up with actions, and we are going to back our words up with actions to allow the power of government to do good things for the people who live here.

- You had several Memphians in the primary race.

It was a competitive, hard-fought primary race.

Are they going to be backing you, or are you talking with them?

- We've had several conversations, and you're right, it was a competitive primary race.

I mean, that was one of the things that the legislature did here was try to entrench the Republican candidate, and make it more difficult for the Democratic candidate.

And so we took nothing for granted in the primary, we knew that Memphis was a key component of this district, and particularly of the primary electorate, and so we spent a lot of time here, and I'm actually real proud of what we accomplished here in a very short amount of time.

I mean, this district changed in May, and the election was in August.

And so our team pivoted quickly to show up, to let Memphis know that we were gonna be a voice for them, and a champion for them, and I think what you saw is the beginning of that and an opportunity to capitalize that fully in November.

- You actually got drawn out of the district, correct?

- That's right.

Yes, Charlie Hatcher and I both actually got drawn out of our respective districts, and again, it's the result of what is a late-in-the-game gerrymandering that should not have been in effect in 2026.

- Right.

And we should point out that by federal law, you can run for the congressional seat, not just in this situation, but that was the case before this.

- That's right.

And not only did they divide Memphis into three, but they also divided my home community into two, where I have been the mayor of eight years.

There's a line drawn straight through my home county of Murray County that puts one side of my county in the ninth, one side on the fifth.

And so many communities are the biggest loser in this gerrymandering, the rural communities that are gonna be further removed from their congressional representative.

The direct target, of course, was Memphis, and we want Memphis to know that they have an opportunity to push back, and we know that they are, 'cause we're hearing it on the ground, but frankly, all 17 counties here were the biggest losers in this overall gerrymandering situation.

- I'll say if you joined us late, we have reached out to Charlie Hatcher, Chaz Molder's Republican opponent.

Hope to get him on the show soon.

That's all moving towards November 3rd, when the election happens, we've had other candidates on, and other candidates coming up on, you can get all those at wkno.org, Daily Memphian, or YouTube.

Let me come to an issue that's very front and center in Memphis, but it's also a really big national issue, which is data centers.

Do we need a moratorium on data centers, and if you were to win this, if it came up in the Congress, would you vote to have some sort of moratorium on new data centers?

- Yeah, well, I think that I'll bring a perspective to this.

Being a mayor of a community, I think this is something that falls naturally for me to have a keen understanding on.

I supported the City of Memphis's, the City Council's proposed moratorium on data centers.

I believe that these data centers are impactful on our environment, on our infrastructure, and equally as important on our workforce.

And I think we need to make sure instead of just passing these with blanket approvals, and not really having a full understanding of what the ultimate impact might be, we need to take a pause, let people come together, let there be public input.

I think that's the biggest thing here is we don't have enough public input on these centers that are having such an impact.

So let's pause, let's put a process in place through our local zoning ordinances that municipalities have, and let's have an understanding with the public involvement on really what this should look like, but I do support the temporary moratorium that City Council here in Memphis has put on.

In fact, I'm bringing a similar moratorium for the city of Columbia, and I think let's take a pause, let's take a look, and then go from there.

- I was looking at your opponent's website, Charlie Hatcher, pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Trump.

We've talked about, I think, your take on Trump, but guns.

I mean, should there be changes at the federal level since this is a federal office you're running for?

And obviously over the last decade or more in Tennessee, many, many gun laws that have been removed, the restrictions have been removed, permitting has been removed, would you want at the federal level to try to put back some of those restrictions on gun ownership?

- Well, look, I'm an outdoorsman.

I'm looking forward to dove season starting in tomorrow, September 1st.

And so understand that responsible gun ownership is a key component of making sure that the Second Amendment is not infringed upon.

And so from my perspective, I think that we need to make sure that we're not allowing illegal weapons to get into the hands of people who have them illegally, and build from that, but at the end of the day, I think what we continue to hear on the campaign trail are issues that people are facing on a daily basis, again, that costs are rising, that we are having trouble getting healthcare access, and we wanna make sure that we're providing a pathway for our kids to have successful education, and go on, and graduate, and do good things in the world.

- Again, I'm reading from Charlie Hatcher's site, pro-life.

It's about four years as we sit here, and you mentioned taping this on August 31st, so it's gonna be some days or a week before this runs, so I should have mentioned that at the top to people if there are issues that have come up, and we haven't broached them with Chaz Molder, it's just because of the timing.

But are there pro-life, we're about four years from the Supreme Court, I think it's four years, overturning Roe v. Wade.

Would you vote to go back to Roe v. Wade if that was in front of you as a US Congressman?

- Well, I am a father of two little girls.

I'm a husband of 20 years.

And I believe that what has happened, particularly in the state of Tennessee with respect to women's reproductive health and rights has gone too far.

In the state of Tennessee, there are no exceptions.

It could be the health of the mother, or it could be through a rape, and that woman is forced to go through with her pregnancy, and I believe that that takes things too far.

I don't pretend to be an expert here, but I do know that I love my two girls, and that if something happened to them, where their life was at stake, I would want them to have protections and the ability to make a decision with their doctors and theirselves in the room together.

- Were the rules and understanding of Roe v. Wade about where you'd wanna be?

- Yeah, I think that that was a place that this country knew for decades, I believe that was the precedent and the law of the land, and I think what we see more and more as an activist judiciary from the United States Supreme Court level all the way down even to local courts, where courts are legislating, and that's not how our system of government is designed.

- About five minutes, Bill.

- What do you think of the Memphis Safe Task Force?

- I think that in a lot of ways it's gone too far, I think that National Guard is not trained to be a law enforcement agency.

I think we need to invest in our local law enforcement agencies to be best equipped to keep our community safe.

I obviously want to have a safe community.

Being a mayor of a community, it's what's on my mind more than anything else is making sure our community's safe, but what we also need is congressional oversight here.

Let's be transparent about what this task force is doing.

It seems to me we have a lot more questions than we have answers on this issue.

Are there search warrants being upheld?

What exactly is going on with respect to crime?

Are the crime numbers going down because of the task force, or were they already going down?

So I think having a congressional oversight here, having an opportunity for the public to understand what's happening is paramount, and right now, we don't seem to have enough transparency on the task force itself.

- While you've been here, you've been here for some of the 901 Day festivities in the city, which is a big priority for Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis.

What do you think about how he has handled this as a fellow mayor?

Because his position has been fairly nuanced on this.

- Yeah, I think, as a mayor, I understand that you look at issues a little differently perhaps as you would as a congressional candidate, or as a member of Congress.

I've enjoyed my time here this weekend celebrating 901 Day, which has been more of a week-long fest, and there's more to come, but I think what Mayor Young has tried to take a position is obviously he wants his community to be safe, and that's his first priority.

I think he understands that there are some partnership opportunities from state and federal agencies that can be helpful as long as there are safeguards that don't go too far, and I think that's what Mayor Young has really tried to do is to make sure that the City of Memphis is not involved, the police department is not involved in operations that go beyond what would be proper from a legal and a constitutional basis.

- The Mayor has said, "The city does not have an immigration problem."

As someone who's running to represent a district that includes Memphis, do you think we have one?

- Well, I think that if you're here illegally, and if you're committing a crime, I do not believe that there's place for you here.

However, I think that if you're here legally, and you're a productive member of society, and you are gainfully employed, let's figure out a pathway for you to be able to stay.

And I think if we start from that position, and also start understanding that we've got to be able to find compromise on the immigration issue in this country, and finding compromise means electing people who don't wanna be part of the chaos and corruption, but who wanna be a part of fixing a broken system.

And that's what my objective here is, that's how I've operated as mayor, and that's the approach that I'm gonna take to Congress, and that comes with respect to immigration issues, Bill, but also other issues that are very important in the day, particularly with respect to healthcare, which is very important here in the city of Memphis, but also the fact that costs continue to rise.

And Charlie Hatcher says that "Tariffs should be a tool in the toolbox when it comes to costs."

I don't believe that to be the case.

I think tariffs are the reason that costs are continuing to go up, and are hurting our families here at home.

And so I want to be a part of the solution, not an ongoing part of the problem.

- Just a couple things to run through, and I ran through most of these questions with Brent Taylor, Republican candidate for a different district a couple weeks ago, but would you, if you were in Congress, vote to finish the ballroom?

If federal funding looks like it's gonna be required to get the White House ballroom done, would you vote against that?

- Look, I think this is just the latest example of the chaos and corruption that we have in Washington, DC.

We're building a ballroom at a time when we have families struggling, kids are going to bed hungry, and so my position on that would be let's not continue to waste taxpayer dollars on a ballroom, but invest them in our community.

- Should Epstein files be released?

- Yes.

- And did Joe Biden win the 2020 election?

- Yes.

- Okay.

We are out of time.

Chaz Molder, thank you very much for being here.

Bill, thank you.

Again, if you missed any of the episode, we've got the full episode online at wkno.org, YouTube or The Daily Memphian.

Chaz Molder is running for House District 5, one of the three districts that subdivide Memphis right now.

We have his opponent, and an ask out to him to get him on soon, so we hope we are able to do that.

Election day, November 3rd, early voting starts October 14th.

Thanks very much, and we'll see you next week.

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