Issue #106: Meet the Pedal Steel Player Running for Governor of Tennessee

A guy with long pink hair shredding on a pedal steel is basically what Don't Rock The Inbox is all about — Marissa even wrote about this particular pink-haired pedaler years ago on her blog Lockeland Springsteen. So when we heard said guy, Adam "Ditch" Kurtz, was planning a longshot run for governor of Tennessee, we knew we had to get him on the horn to learn a little more about how he was planning to seize control of the deep red southern state.

Kurtz, for the uninitiated, has been playing pedal steel and standard six-string with different bands around Nashville and beyond for years. I got to know his playing through his work with Joshua Ray Walker, but he's also played with Sunny Sweeney, Silverada, JP Harris and many more — including his own Buck Owens tribute band, Buck N Stuff. He's originally from Boston, but has lived in Nashville for over a decade, building up plenty of Music City and country bona fides along the way. Kurtz declared his candidacy as a Democrat for the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial election a couple months ago, a bold choice considering the incumbent, Republican Bill Lee, won reelection with nearly 65% of the vote (he's hit his term limit, and will not be running in 2026 barring some kind of Trumpian disregard for precedent!).

Tennessee and Texas, where I live, are similar in the sense that both are Republican strongholds in state elections that have some (in Texas' case, quite a few) progressive cities within them. Consider it your semiregular reminder that there aren't really red and blue states (even if I'm using that shorthand here): they only come in various shades of purple. It's going to be a serious challenge for Kurtz to get a foothold, to show Tennessee's purple side, but as in all things all he — and we — can do is try. And you don't even have to run for governor to do that!

NW: To start with the obvious, what prompted this foray into a pretty big political stage?

Kurtz: I think a lot of people, myself included, were very frustrated by the outcome of the last election. I felt like I was hearing all these people ask, "What can we do? What can we do?" It was this feeling of helplessness and desperation, the feeling that we can do things for the people — we can do good — but we're just not, and it's really frustrating. That we need to blow up the current system, that we need younger people who are willing to fight for what they believe in, and not just try to cower towards the center. So I was like, "Yeah, we need something like that for Tennessee. Wait — I think they're talking about me. Shoot, I think I'm the one."

I thought about it for a long time. I had a lot of sleepless nights, and finally I was like, "Well, I could just continue to toss and turn and do nothing and watch as others, who I don't necessarily think are the right candidates, do it. Or I could take my turn." Politics, I think, is not supposed to be career politicians. It's supposed to be anyone who has the mind to do it. Like, it's not my dream to enter into politics — even though I have a political science degree! — but we're supposed to have just people who represent us in office. So I'll take a turn. I don't want to do it for the rest of my life, but I'll do it, and then after I'm done doing it, hopefully someone else like-minded steps up. I also wanted to lead by example and try to inspire others to want to run for office.

NW: You're running as a Democrat — are you connected to the local Democratic party at all? How are you approaching the party politics side of things?

Kurtz: What I like to say is, I'm running as a Tennessee Democrat. It's my own way of saying it, because it puts Tennessee first. It doesn't make sense to me that the state Democratic Parties are tied to the national Democratic parties. Some of the underlying values are probably similar, but no one can tie me to what they're doing in Washington, because, first of all, I'm not even a politician. Yes, I've always voted Democrat, but I'm not, like, in the system as a Democrat.

But obviously I want to get out there, get more known, meet more people in the Democratic Party here, get accepted by them. I'm really, really best friends now with [Tennessee state representative] Gloria Johnson. I think she would agree that we're best friends, even though we haven't yet met in person. We had a really good phone call, and we're trying to find the time to get coffee. But, you know, I travel a lot, and she lives in Knoxville. I don't yet have, you know, the Tennessee Democratic party endorsement — but I'll get there.

NW: Does the fact that the odds are so steeply stacked against you alarm you at all?

Kurtz: Well, it's not really alarming, because it's well-known. Our current governor, I think, received 64% of the vote last election as an incumbent. The odds are stacked against a Democrat in a bright red state like Tennessee. But even worse would be to not try to challenge, and not try to put up your best fight and give people an option.

The odds are stacked against us, but times are different. Times are crazy. The election is in 490 days, and there's a lot that can happen between now and then. I think what we just saw in New York [the mayoral primary victory of Zohran Mamdani] is encouraging, and shows that people are ready for something new. I think if you say the word politician, most people kind of bristle and are like, "Oh, you mean, corrupt, self-centered, evil people." It has a pretty negative connotation. So, let's give them an alternative who's not a politician. Let's give them an alternative who's someone like them, who you know is from the community, and has worked paycheck to paycheck, or, in my case, gig to gig. Someone who actually knows what life is like for an average Tennessean. Don't focus on "Democrat" or "Republican." Focus on what we can do to make your life better.

NW: For sure. I loved that line on your website — "I’m a musician, so I literally listen for a living." My only worry would be that people might not understand how much listening musicians do, that it's as much a part of making music as playing.

Kurtz: I'll do a video to clarify. I will be honest, there are certain musicians who definitely don't listen. I've been recording situations where somebody's like, "This is what I'm gonna play." I'm like, "Well, I don't know what I'm gonna play yet, so how do you know that's what you're gonna play? We're gonna play together. What are you doing?"

NW: If you had to distill your top three priorities, what would they be?

Kurtz: Definitely public education, number one. I like saying that I want the Tennessee public school systems to be the number one in the country, because having any other goal is crazy. I don't know all the answers right now, of course, but the idea is to focus a lot on public education. I feel like a lot of issues that the state deals with kind of stem from that.

And affordability — making sure that we do everything we can to make life more affordable. What can the state government do that it's not doing now to help? What are we doing that's working? What are we doing that's not working? What are other states doing that's working? We can see what other people are doing to really help the people who need it the most — the working people, the musicians, everyone who's struggling to get by these days. I want to raise the minimum wage. I want to raise teacher pay, support unions, keep rents low, get more affordable housing — all these things that are not groundbreaking, but for some reason we're not doing. I'm gonna legalize weed and tax it and put that money towards public schools.

NW: What are the next steps for your campaign?

Kurtz: I need to get the word out. I want people to know that there's someone actually standing up and volunteering to do this, coming out of Nashville with a kind of non-traditional energy. I'm trying to keep it fun. I'm making silly videos — fun, but also informative. My goal right now is to meet more people and to also really start getting policy ideas, more concrete courses of action that we could actually do. Tennessee is actually better than we initially thought at free lunches and free breakfast for children in school systems, but I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement. I have to start doing more background research on the state of things, and also on what the current governor and the current Republican leadership are doing that is not good — which is most of the things. It's a lot of cruelty. Just getting out and telling people, "Hey, you. Everyone's upset with leadership and how they kind of seem out of touch and rude and cruel and mean and like they're taking stuff away from you. There is an alternative. We can actually try to get someone in there who wants to help you instead of exploiting you."

NW: Is there anything else you want people to know about what you're working on?

Kurtz: I don't care who you voted for last time. Let's not worry about who you voted for in the national election. Let's just focus on what we can do to make things better. It's a good avenue for anybody who has pent up energy that they don't know what to do with. Like, let's do actual change. The idea that we could get a Democratic governor of Tennessee might seem absurd — but why not try? Let's not give up already. Now seems to be the time. I'll also encourage other people to run in Tennessee and throughout the country — like, you can do it. We need people to run statewide. Let's try to seize the momentum — Cuomo is as entrenched a politician as we have, and Mamdani beat him resoundingly.

It might seem hopeless, but you know, the times they are a-changing — to use a phrase I came up with. I feel like maybe traditional assumptions can be broken, and we could do something crazy and wild and inspiring here in Tennessee. So follow along, help spread the word. We'll even play some country music.

Learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved at ditch4governor.com.