BEAU Hawk on the issues

Housing isn’t a luxury, it’s a right. Beau will fight to make housing affordable for the people who actually live and work in Knox County, not in the interest of developers and hedge funds pricing residents out. 

Beau knows the housing crisis in Knox County is a supply problem, plain and simple, and he knows how to balance the need for affordable housing with the challenges of growth. By reducing sprawl, protecting the rural character that makes Knox County home, Beau will take the abundance approach. We have everything we need, if we remove barriers, build smart, include varied price points, and most importantly, grow where infrastructure already exists. 

A renter himself, Beau knows renters deserve dignity, power, and more options, and he’ll work to stop corporate landlords from turning our communities into profit machines.

Beau believes every student deserves a real future whether it’s college, the military, or a skilled trade. He’ll fight to reinvest in public education, expand high school vocational programs, and take on the billionaires and special interests coming into Tennessee to privatize our schools. 

Beau believes in rebuilding the pipeline between schools and good-paying local jobs, and he knows we must treat educators with the respect they deserve, which includes giving them the resources they need. That’s the foundation for strong, local public schools. 

He supports fully funding our public schools and ending the crooked voucher schemes that drain resources and weaken the promise of high-quality public education for all.

Each year traffic gets worse and county politicians do nothing to address it. Knox County residents deserve to get to work and home without wasting hours stuck in traffic or paying for pothole damage to their vehicle because of our under-maintained roads. 

Beau is tired of Knox County’s reactive approach to growth and infrastructure investments – he will be proactive in addressing these issues. He supports bold investment in infrastructure, exploring public transportation options beyond city limits, and building smart, long-term transportation plans that adapt proactively and grow with our communities. 

You deserve a real community, and every community deserves safe roads and walkable neighborhoods where seniors, veterans, students, and working parents can move freely without always relying on a car to meet their everyday needs.

Knox County residents are working longer hours than ever, at higher productivity than ever. But wages are stagnant, housing costs and rents are outpacing income, and the middle-class, single-earner household is becoming a thing of the past. 

Beau will work to attract good-paying jobs that give working residents the same opportunity to build a life in Knox County that he was afforded. 

He supports a $18 minimum wage for all Knox County employees.

Fraud, theft, and abuse have run rampant for decades – misuse of county vehicles, weak financial controls, audits that sit on shelves, and elected offices operating with no real oversight. Residents cannot trust the people who’ve gotten us to this point to lead us out of it. 

Beau isn’t running to play politics like the good ole boys who’ve left Knox County under a cloud of corruption for decades. He’ll support an independent internal auditor reporting directly to the public, mandatory public release of audit responses and corrective plans, tighter vehicle, travel, and credit-card policies, and strengthening whistleblower protections for county employees. 

Beau will build a team that understands public service isn’t a perk, it’s a responsibility. He’ll bring in professionals from outside the political class, reflecting the values of this community and residents' diverse lived experiences.

When your life's on the line, you deserve to know an ambulance is just minutes away. Beau will work to ensure that first responders, law enforcement professionals, and emergency personnel have the resources and world-class training necessary to ensure the well-being and safety of all residents. 

Beau believes first responders and nurses should be able to live in the communities they work hard to serve every day. When neighbors serve neighbors, our entire community is stronger. 

A top priority for Beau is ensuring that all deputies and members of the Sheriff’s Department receive the full pension benefits they were promised and are never again subjected to the games that were played to rip them off. It’s the right thing to do for the men and women who put in the work and put their lives on the line.

As a labor leader and ironworker, Beau believes the backbone of Knox County isn’t the boardroom – it’s on the jobsite, the workshop floor, and the union hall. He knows the best way to raise wages, protect jobs, and ensure dignity on the job is through strong unions and worker power. Beau will lead efforts to repeal anti-union policies, expand collective bargaining, and bring good-paying, union jobs back to Knox County communities – work he’s been doing as president of the Central Labor Council. 

Unions mean higher wages, safer conditions, and greater dignity on the job. These are things all Knox Countians want, and deserve, and Beau is the leader who will prioritize improved circumstances for the hardworking residents who power our local economy. 

On projects contracted by the County, Beau will ensure companies – union or non-union – provide for responsible standards that work to provide more local jobs with good wages and safe work environments. Our tax dollars should go to jobs that respect our neighbors and grow the local economy.

We have parents being driven into poverty and out of the workforce by insane childcare costs. Children under 6 need the same level of public investment and support as those over 6 and entering our public schools. Beau will work with frontline childcare providers to attract serious investment in affordable childcare options. 

Beau supports expanding the successful and affordable KCS blended preschool program that gives parents another option for early learning — aiming to double the program’s size in his first term.

Beau believes it’s our responsibility to protect our green spaces and natural resources for future generations. He’ll fight to safeguard water access in our rivers and creeks, invest in rural conservation jobs, and fight for environmental justice in communities throughout the county – urban, suburban, and rural. 

As a lifelong East Tennessean and steward of our environment, Beau believes environmental justice and policy-making must include the people who live closest to the land: farmers, rural communities, our biking and hiking communities, and all those who enjoy the land we’ve been given. 

He’ll prioritize clean air and water, a stronger tree canopy, and vibrant parks and green spaces no matter your zip code.

While county fee office holders can’t serve more than two terms, it doesn’t stop them from playing musical chairs between offices – even coming back to an office they previously held – to make a multi-decade political career on the public dime. 

Beau supports passing term limits that limit individuals from serving in the same office for more than two terms, consecutive or nonconsecutive. He believes in tapping the wisdom of those who have served before as well as leading with a fierceness for new ideas, innovation, and constant improvement to better serve Knox County taxpayers.