The Two Tales of One County

If you drive just ten or fifteen minutes outside the Memphis city limits into our small county towns and suburbs—into Germantown, Bartlett, Collierville, or Lakeland—you enter a completely different reality. You find clean streets, functional infrastructure, safe neighborhoods, and local governments that understand fiscal accountability. Life there is a different story altogether.

Then, you cross back over the line into the heart of Memphis.

You are instantly greeted by potholes the size of the Grand Canyon, leaking school buildings where our children dodge roaches and rodents, and an inescapable sense of managed decay. For decades, the political establishment has told us that this structural rot is just a sad, unchangeable fact of urban life. They have taught an entire generation to tolerate mediocrity, and now, our children are growing up embracing it as the baseline standard of reality.

But this decay isn't an accident of geography. It is the direct product of a political system. And right now, the face of that system is Mickell Lowery.

When you look at Mickell Lowery’s campaign, you are looking at the ultimate continuation of the downtown establishment. His family name is woven into the very fabric of the political machine that has governed Memphis throughout its multi-decade decline. The machine wants you to believe that his ascension to the County Mayor’s office is a foregone conclusion. They want you to think it’s inevitable.

Ask yourself the hard question: Is a vote to keep things exactly the way they are today really what you want?

Our local elections are routinely decided by a tiny fraction of the population. The machine counts on the other 84% of Shelby County staying home, tuning out, and surrendering their power. They rely on your apathy. Things are the way they are today simply because we, as a community, have allowed less than 16% of our citizens to dictate how the rest of us are forced to live.

Mickell Lowery’s path to victory depends entirely on the silence of the majority. If the status quo stays home, the establishment wins by default, the cans get kicked down the road for another four years, and the structural misalignment of our $1.9 billion school budget remains completely unchecked.

To the Suburbs: Memphis Can Be the Anchor, Not the Weight

To our neighbors living in the surrounding county towns: this election is your fight, too. For years, county leadership has treated the mayor’s office like an isolated island, completely failing to meet consistently or collaborate with suburban mayors and local chambers of commerce. They have allowed Memphis to become a financial and social weight around the neck of the entire region.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Under true executive statesmanship, Memphis can be the anchor to a world-class community. Imagine a Shelby County where the suburbs and the inner city sit at the exact same table. Imagine a balanced county budget that stops misusing state appropriations and puts money back into fixing our infrastructure and funding law enforcement.

Memphis has the largest cargo airport in the world, a booming river port, and a cultural heritage that cannot be replicated. It should be a beautiful weekend getaway just 10 minutes from your suburban doorstep—a vibrant, safe haven filled with world-class attractions, incredible places to eat, places to party, and a thriving economy that lifts the property values of the entire county.

Shatter the Status Quo

We do not have to keep digging up the same old political bones, placing them back in positions of power, and acting shocked when nothing changes. John DeBerry is running for County Mayor because he doesn't owe the establishment a single dime. He is a statesman who looks to the next generation, not a career politician looking out for his buddies and insular cronyism. He has a 26-year track record of balancing state budgets and working across party lines to find real, adult solutions to structural chaos.

The illusion of the establishment's inevitability ends the moment the silent majority speaks. Early voting begins July 17th, and the general election is August 6th. Do not sit this one out. Do not let 16% of the county decide your future. Step up, put skin in the game, and let's build a bridge to a unified, safe, and prosperous Shelby County.