First-time political candidates are often spurred into action by personal experiences.

Three new Democratic candidates on the ballot this fall in Tennessee are making the personal political through advocacy and action. Here’s what to know about Shaundelle Brooks, Allie Phillips and Luis Mata.

Shaundelle Brooks

Courtesy of Shaundelle Brooks

Shaundelle Brooks and her children with a photo of her son, Akilah DaSilva.

On Wednesday, Shaundelle Brooks officially announced her long-rumored bid for the Tennessee House of Representatives. She’s running to represent District 60 in Old Hickory, where Democrat Darren Jernigan is not seeking reelection.

Gun violence is her number one campaign issue.

In 2018, Brooks’ son Akilah DaSilva was killed during the Waffle House shooting, which left 4 people dead. Since then, she’s become a passionate advocate for gun reform and a regular at the Capitol. Brooks says that sharing her son’s story helps her keep his legacy alive.

“He wanted to live,” she said in an exclusive sit down with WPLN, “He wanted to live. He was such a cool kid. I miss him dearly.”

After Akilah’s death in 2018, Brooks’ eldest son was shot in the head and seriously injured while leaving a music venue. Her daughter was present at another shooting. And last March, her youngest son was in class just down the street during the Covenant School shooting, which left six people, including three children dead.

Brooks knew she needed to do something.

“For five, six years I’ve been going up to the Capitol, begging and pleading and trying to, bring change,” she said, “And, it hasn’t happened. So I just decided that I have to be the change that I need to see.”

Brooks is not the only one who feels that way.

Allie Phillips

Courtesy of Allie Phillips

Allie Phillips with her family

Allie Phillips made national headlines after she was forced to travel out of state for a medically necessary abortion.

In November 2022, she found out that her unborn daughter, Miley Rose, had several fatal birth defects that made her “incompatible with life,” according to her doctors. Although carrying the pregnancy to term would endanger her health, her life was not yet in imminent danger, and so under Tennessee’s strict anti-abortion laws she could not get an abortion.

“I didn’t really want to play the guessing game with my life and health,” she said in an interview with WPLN, “About a week and a half later, we arrived to a clinic in New York City. And I found out that she had already passed at some point since that last ultrasound, so I went in for an emergency abortion.”

Now, Phillips is running for Tennessee House of Representatives in District 75, which is in Clarksville.

She decided to run for office after a meeting with Republican incumbent Jeff Burkhart last June. She said she shared her story and asked him to consider supporting Miley’s Law, an amendment to Tennessee’s abortion ban that would have made exceptions for parents with fetal anomalies.

“He stated that if his daughter went through what I went through, he would advise her that he thinks she should continue the pregnancy, even if it was putting her life at risk,” she said, “It just kind of solidified for me that they don’t care about people. They just they care about their pro-life movement.”

Phillips says that Tennessee Democrats have singled out her district in Montgomery County as one of the “top three most flippable” in the state, with a nearly even number of registered Republican and Democratic voters.

“We are the gateway to the Blue South. So the Democratic Party, the state party is watching me very carefully. So absolutely no pressure at all for a first-time candidate,” she said.

In addition to abortion rights, Phillips said she’s focused on education and the rising cost of living in Middle Tennessee.

Luis Mata

Another first-time candidate looking to flip a Republican district is Luis Mata, a community organizer with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. Mata is running for state House District 49 on a platform focused on cost of living issues, education and healthcare access. He noted that rising housing prices in Middle Tennessee have pushed people farther away from Nashville’s downtown urban core.

“District 49 is in the Laverne, Smyrna, North Rutherford County area. In recent years we have seen a growing diversity, demographics changing. In that district, it’s a lot of people have been priced out of Nashville,” he explained in an interview with WPLN.

Mata thinks those demographic changes will work in his favor against incumbent Republican Mike Sparks, who has held the seat since 2010. If elected, Mata would become Tennessee’s youngest lawmaker, and the first Latino elected to state office. He was born in Mexico and came to Tennessee with his mother as a child.

“I became a citizen. And I recognize the tremendous privilege that that comes with, the privilege that so many people have literally died for. I recognized how time and time again, all Tennesseans have been failed by the current leadership,” he said.

“I looked at that and I said, you know, why not now? And why not me?”

The Democratic primaries will be held on August 1, 2024.

Update: This article has been changed to reflect that Tim Jester had joined the District 60 Democratic primary and later withdrew.