Beacon Center of Tennessee

08/11/2026

Thank you to our friends at the National Taxpayers Union for inviting Justin to speak at your event on Thursday. We hope y’all enjoyed Nashville and look forward to working with you to fight for Tennessee taxpayers!

08/05/2026

The May 2026 Beacon Poll revealed that 51% of voters either did not think Tennessee had any nuclear power generation or were not sure the state had any active nuclear plants at all.

In another question, the majority could not guess what share of its power is nuclear. When the correct answer, “40% or more,” appeared as a choice, only 4% of voters picked it. It was the least popular option on the list. Just over half of the respondents were not sure at all.

In his commentary for TennSight, Taylor Barkley argues that nuclear energy is the quiet workhorse that has powered Tennessee all along, and that we should clear the way to build more of it.

By Taylor Barkley

08/04/2026

🎒📚 Backpacks packed. Lunches made. And for thousands of Tennessee families this year, a school choice that's actually theirs, thanks to the Education Freedom Scholarship.

Happy first week of school!

08/04/2026

🚨 PORK ALERT 🚨

In a half-hearted effort to address decades of mismanagement and poor student performance, the state’s largest school district, Memphis-Shelby County Schools, released a six-page accountability plan earlier this year.

But that’s nothing compared to the Comptroller, who recently released over 660 pages of a scathing audit detailing the district’s financial missteps.

It doesn’t take a math major to see that one of these is more detailed and meaningful than the other.

In a half-hearted effort to address decades of mismanagement and poor student performance, the state’s largest school district, Memphis-Shelby County Schools,

07/30/2026

While Nashville's iconic local businesses fight to survive, Tennessee has quietly handed out $758 million in FastTrack corporate grants to 570 companies.

Our message is simple: Tennessee is already a great state for business. Low taxes, no income tax, limited regulation. We don't need to bribe companies to come here. And when politicians gamble with taxpayer money and companies go belly up, you can't get that money back.

Fox 17's Dennis Ferrier dug into the numbers. Worth a watch. 📺

As some of Nashville's best-known local businesses struggle to surv...

07/29/2026

As Tennesseans, we love our state—but many of us are feeling the squeeze.

💡 Utility costs are up.
🏠 Housing costs are up.
💸 A growing number of Tennesseans are worried about making rent.

At Beacon, we don't just talk about policy. We listen to the people it affects. Through quarterly polling and focus groups, we're tracking the real challenges facing Tennessee families. The results are published free at TennSight.com, because what we see, you should see too.

Justin lays it all out in the Tennessean. The problems are real, but so are the solutions. Read more at the link below. https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2026/07/29/what-tennessee-voters-are-saying/91073129007/

A new poll reveals Tennesseans are struggling with rising costs and feel ignored by government leaders.

07/22/2026

DID YOU KNOW...

Each quarter, to expand on the findings in our Beacon Poll, we conduct statewide focus groups and publish excerpts from them on TennSight.com.

In the May 2026 focus groups, we asked participants about the infrastructure where they live and work. It’s no secret that Tennessee is rapidly growing. Do you believe your community has the infrastructure to keep up? See what your fellow Tennesseans have to say.

07/21/2026

Richard Hershey wanted to distribute religious leaflets on a public sidewalk outside of a public arena hosting a Christian rock concert. He wasn’t breaking any law, but five police officers arrived and threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave. Fearing arrest and imprisonment, Mr. Hershey left and hasn’t returned since.

Mr. Hershey sued the officers for violating his First Amendment rights. But the court used a legal doctrine called qualified immunity to let the officers off the hook.

Represented by our friends at Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Beacon filed a brief supporting Mr. Hershey’s request that the Supreme Court hear his case. Our brief urges the Court to eliminate qualified immunity—a doctrine that leaves Americans without a real way to hold officials accountable when the government violates their rights.

It is a fundamental tenet of America that government serves the people and not the other way around. When government officials violate the people’s fundamental constitutional rights, Americans deserve the ability to hold those officials accountable.

Read more here 👉

When government officials violate the people’s fundamental constitutional rights, Americans deserve the ability to hold those officials accountable.