But How Do We Vote?
Rev. Dr. Andre E. Johnson, Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries
Hello, I am Rev. Dr. Andre E. Johnson, Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee. Each Sunday, I, along with the clergy and clergy organizations that constitute the African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee—which is a 501(c)4 advocacy organization of Black clergy across this state—will be sharing a weekly update called “Facts and Faith in Five.”
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. The independent news outlet Common Dreams suggests that this bill will “inflict devastating cuts on Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, clean energy initiatives, and other programs to help finance another round of tax breaks for the rich—an unparalleled upward transfer of wealth that’s expected to have cascading effects across the United States for years to come.”
According to the nonprofit health policy organization KFF, with the passage of this bill, they estimate that changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance funding will result in approximately 2% of Tennesseans, or 68,000 people, losing access to their federally subsidized insurance. The U.S. House Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee puts this number even higher at 170,000 losing coverage.
The reduction in Medicaid spending will impact all Tennesseans, especially those in rural areas. KFF estimates that the law will reduce federal Medicaid funding in rural regions by $155 billion over 10 years, including a decrease of approximately $2.24 billion in rural Tennessee.
This bill will also cause Tennesseans to lose about 20% of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In 2022, nearly 700,000 Tennesseans received roughly $1.4 billion in SNAP funds, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. About half of those in Tennessee who qualify for the federal assistance are children.
The passage of this bill and its subsequent signing into law should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Conservatives campaigned on this and many other issues, to the extent that they drafted a 900-page document outlining their plans. Does anyone remember Project 2025? Last year, the non-partisan foundation Democracy Forward released The People’s Guide to Project 2025 to help us understand what was included in the project. They wrote:
What we discovered was a systemic, ruthless plan to undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans, remove critical protections and dismantle programs for communities across the nation, and prioritize special interests and ideological extremism over people. From attacking overtime pay, student loans, and reproductive rights, to allowing more discrimination, pollution, and price gouging, those behind Project 2025 are preparing to go to incredible lengths to create a country only for some, not for all of us.
So, you might be wondering, how is the implementation of the Project 2025 proposals progressing? According to the Project 2025 Tracker website, conservatives are now 46% of the way toward their targeted goal. In other words, in just seven months, they have completed nearly half of their policy initiatives. Many of the policies now in place, including, reducing federal incentives for states to expand Medicaid coverage, imposing Medicaid work requirements, implementing stricter work requirements on SNAP, rolling back student loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans, increasing ICE funding, ending the “federal mandate” and subsidies for electric vehicles, among others, are all a part of this so-called big, beautiful bill being signed into law.
Although passing this bill may have a negative impact on many people, it is essential to acknowledge that a significant portion of the American public opposes many of its policies. For me, this is not surprising. Recently, at the Center for the Study of Rhetoric, Race, and Religion’s Summer Symposium, I presented on some of the voting results in what many would consider conservative states in the 2024 presidential election. States such as Florida, Montana, Missouri, and Alaska all voted for Trump in overwhelming margins.
However, when it came to individual amendments and initiatives that were on the ballot, such as the right to reproductive choice, legalizing recreational marijuana, increasing the minimum wage, and requiring sick leave, a substantial majority of the people in these “conservative” states voted to approve them. Moreover, a poll released just two weeks before the election showed that Project 2025 was unpopular, even with conservatives.
So, the question remains: why do we vote for people who support unpopular policies and pass them when they have the power to do so? The answer to that is complex, but I want to focus on two main points. First, the so-called “progressive” policies are popular. When given the chance, people usually vote for them. So, at least for me, the real issue is not new messaging but new ways of educating people about who they vote for and why it matters. In short, it is important who holds the positions of power and who’s in charge.
Secondly, we must accept that in 2024, candidates who ran on policies that, according to polls, we said we did not want, ultimately won. Those policies were unpopular then, as they are now. Still, we voted for them, and now some of us are surprised they are doing what they said they would do.
But the good news is that we are at a crucial moment where we can take back our power by actively supporting candidates who share our values and beliefs. This is our chance to create meaningful change that aligns with our hopes for a better future. It’s essential that when we vote, we do so in a manner that genuinely reflects our aspirations and desires for our communities and society as a whole. If we don’t thoughtfully engage in this process, we risk repeating past mistakes—falling into a cycle of disappointment and frustration. So, let’s take proactive steps to ensure that our voting choices reflect our core values, helping us break free from this cycle and build a brighter future together.