Open Primaries President John Opdycke spoke with Chloe Akers–Founder and CEO of The Best of Tennessee, a nonprofit focused on educating voters about the importance of participating in primary elections, about her efforts to “restore complexity” to Tennessee politics.

Akers just wrote a new piece in The Tennessean encouraging Tennessee voters to get out and vote in the primaries, despite efforts by partisan hacks to intimidate people.

Chloe is a leader who believes strongly that the vast majority of Tennessee voters want smart solutions to the complex issues facing the state. Several years ago, together with a broad group of Tennessee leaders, she launched The Liminal Plan, an organization designed to promote policy solutions to divisive issues. However, she soon realized that no amount of issue advocacy would move the needle without changing the incentives policymakers face. As long as most political competition occurs in the primaries and only a small proportion of the overall electorate votes in them, elected leaders will largely cater to the priorities of activists and ideologues rather than the concerns of Tennessee voters. Building on what The Liminal Plan started, the organization grew into Best of Tennessee.

A fifth-generation East Tennessean, Chloe is deeply committed to issues of representation and fairness. She uses the skills she honed as a trial lawyer, taking a diligent, patient, and detail-oriented approach to finding rational solutions to complex challenges.