Vanderbilt Belongs to Tennessee — Not Marsha Blackburn
Join this Message to Vanderbilt Leadership AND Marsha Blackburn
Dear Elected Officials:
Vanderbilt has served Tennessee families for generations. They treat our kids and help rural communities get the care they need. They train doctors, support veterans, and bring research dollars and good jobs to our state. But right now, politicians like Marsha Blackburn and Donald Trump are trying to tear it down. They’re pressuring Vanderbilt to walk away from programs that help students, veterans, and communities — all to score political points.
Let’s be honest: this isn’t about fixing real problems. It’s a distraction. Tennessee families are dealing with sky-high health costs, struggling schools, and rural hospitals shutting down. Coming after Vanderbilt won’t solve any of that.
If these attacks succeed we lose:
- Lifesaving care for sick kids across the South.
- Outreach that brings top doctors to rural towns.
- Educational support for veterans and first-generation students.
- Groundbreaking research and the jobs and funding that come with it.
If Vanderbilt is bullied into silence regular Tennesseans pay the price, not those in D.C. or on TV.
I’m asking you to speak up. Stand with Vanderbilt. Don’t let Blackburn and Trump drag one of Tennessee’s most important institutions through the mud just to play politics.
This isn’t about left or right. It’s about standing up for our communities, our hospitals, and our future.
Will you make a public statement opposing these attacks on Vanderbilt?
Will you make a stand to protect cancer research, education for veterans, training for doctors, live saving care for our families?
To the Leadership of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center:
Vanderbilt has been a cornerstone of Tennessee for over 150 years — healing the sick, educating future leaders, and conducting the kind of research that saves lives and drives our economy. That legacy doesn’t belong to any one administration, donor, or politician. It belongs to the people of Tennessee.
That’s why it’s devastating to watch two politicians — Republican Senator Blackburn and Donald Trump — attempt to bully you into erasing that legacy for the sake of their own power and headlines.
This isn’t about DEI. We understand that Blackburn and Trump need a villain — and Vanderbilt’s DEI work is just their latest target. Why?
Because it’s easier to attack institutions helping real people than it is to fix what’s broken. This is about distracting from their failure to make Tennessee more affordable, healthier, and more just. Blaming someone else to dodge responsibility is the oldest trick in the book — and communities across this state are paying the price.
The playbook is clear: attack DEI, ignite outrage, and bully places like Vanderbilt into turning their backs on the people who need them most.
If Republicans Blackburn and Trump succeed in bullying Vanderbilt into submission, Tennesseans will pay the price: cancer breakthroughs will stall, rural patients will lose care, and students will lose opportunity. All so two politicians can claim a win.
In Attacking Vanderbilt over DEI Marsha Blackburn isn't lowering health care costs, fixing rural hospitals, or funding schools. But she is hurting Tennesseans:
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Tennessee’s sickest children, who rely on Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital for care no other facility in the region can match.
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Rural patients, whose only access to top-tier care comes through VUMC outreach.
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students and veterans whose shot at education depends on the very programs now under fire.
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Researchers and health workers, whose work brings federal funding, jobs, and breakthroughs to the state — and whose future hangs in the balance.
If Vanderbilt gives in, it won’t end on your campus. It sets the stage for every hospital, every university, and every institution that values fairness, science, and truth to be bullied into silence. And the ones who will feel it most? Not the powerful — but working families, small towns, and young Tennesseans trying to rise.
Blackburn and Trump are looking for a trophy — something to post, spin, and weaponize. Don’t hand them Vanderbilt.
Because what’s at stake isn’t just funding — it’s whether cancer research continues, whether rural families get lifesaving care, and whether students and veterans still have a real shot at making a better future.