Jerri Green
Jerri Green | |
|---|---|
| File:Jerri-Green.jpg | |
| 8th Representative for Memphis City Council District 2 | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Franklin Colvett Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jerri Diane Mauldin January 22, 1978 Germantown, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
Jerri Mauldin Green is the current Interim Chief Public Defender for Shelby County, Tennessee.[1], the current representative for District 2 of the Memphis City Council[2] and is currently running for the Democratic Primary for the Tennessee Gubernatorial Election of 2026[3]
Early life and education
Jerri was born on January 22, 1978, to Rudy A. Mauldin and Deborah Spivey Mauldin. She grew up in the Hickory Hill neighborhood of Memphis. Her Parents Divorced when she was 2 years old and she was primarily raised by her mother and stepfather, Deborah Spivey Mosley and George P. Mosely. She attended White Station High School, and after graduation would go on to attend the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she would go on to graduate in 7 semesters with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science and English. She then attended Georgetown School of law, where she graduated with a Juris Doctorate.
Pre-political career
Jerri would go on to take a job at the Nashville Public Defender's Office out of law school before transferring to the Memphis Public Defender's Office to be with her Husband, Patrick David Green, who had just gotten a job with FedEx. She would go on to work at the Community Legal Center[4], a local nonprofit dedicated to providing legal representation to those who need it most in the Mid-South before beginning her first campaign just before the United States went on lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus.
Political career
Jerri would make her first run for office in the 2020 general election for Tennessee state house district 83 as the Democratic candidate against incumbent Republican Mark White, a district which, at the time, composed of a majority of East Memphis, Germantown, and parts of Collierville. She would make promises of 'common-sense' gun reform, increased educational funding, and higher investments into struggling communities across the state[5]
She would go on to lose with 46% of the vote.[6]
County Career
Shortly after her election loss, the mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee, Lee Harris would hire Jerri as his chief policy advisor. She would pioneer many programs and policies while employed at the county building, including the Shelby County free gun lock by mail program, the Shelby County free HIV test by mail program, an end to solitary confinement in County jails and prisons, increased refugee assistance and a living wage for all Shelby County employees.[7]
During this time, she would be named a Superwoman in Business by the Memphis Business Journal for her accomplishments at the county building.[8]
City Council campaign and career
In 2023, Jerri would run for the seat in District 2 of the Memphis City Council, where she would run on promises of gun reform, educational reform, and assistance to the many Memphians below the poverty line. She would go on to win the seat in a runoff election against Scott McCormick by a margin of 56 votes.[9]
As a City Councilwoman, Jerri has accomplished many things such as funding a program for transporting those under 18 to and from therapy sessions, free bus rides for all after the 2025 government shutdown, allocation of mental health leave days for MPD officers, new assistance programs for families in need of childcare, a 50% increase for funding for senior food-aid programs and the Memphis City Council FY26 grant program, which plans to invest $6.4 million into local nonprofits to revitalize the less fortunate of Memphis's neighborhoods.[10]
Gubernatorial campaign
Jerri announced her campaign for the Democratic primary for Governor of Tennessee in July of 2025.[11]
She is running on promises of gun reform, an end to all state school voucher funding, legalization of medical marijuana, increased investment in rural infrastructure, implementation of Tennessee Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and federal Medicaid/Medicare funds, removal of the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the streets of Tennessee's major cities, and an end to anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA+ laws within the state of Tennessee.[12][13]
The primary election is set to take place on Thursday, August 6, 2026, with the general set to take place on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.[14]
Personal life
Jerri is the mother to three children, Beau, Vivienne and Wilder, ages 15, 14 and 8 and she is married to Patrick Green, a former offensive lineman for the Vanderbilt Commodores who works at FedEx Express.
References
- ↑ https://www.shelbycountytn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/44307/MAYOR-LEE-HARRIS-APPOINTS-JERRI-GREEN-AS-INTERIM-CHIEF-PUBLIC-DEFENDER
- ↑ "District -2". The City of Memphis. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ Peterson, Joyce (2025-07-15). "Memphis Councilwoman Jerri Green announces run for governor". https://www.actionnews5.com. Retrieved 2026-01-31. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ Green, Jerri. "Jerri Green, Author at Tennessee Lookout". Tennessee Lookout. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ Green, Jerri (2020-12-04). "Commentary: Hungry Tennesseans deserve to have burden eased • Tennessee Lookout". Tennessee Lookout. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ "Tennessee State House - District 83 Election Results | The Tennessean". www.tennessean.com. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ "District -2". The City of Memphis. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ "2023 Super Women in Business: Shante Avant, Shunji Brown-Woods, Kathleen Forbes, Jerri Green, Carolyn Henry". Memphis Business Journal. 2023-05-01. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ Burgess, Katherine. "Green, Walker and Easter-Thomas win runoff races for Memphis City Council". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ Behind the Headlines | New Memphis City Council Members | Season 14 | Episode 36. Retrieved 2026-01-31 – via www.pbs.org.
- ↑ https://wreg.com/news/local/memphis-city-councilwoman-eyes-tn-governors-seat/
- ↑ Feinberg, Allie. "Democrat Jerri Green on why she wants to be Tennessee governor: 'I'm pragmatic'". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ Finton, Lucas. "Memphis City Councilwoman Jerri Green officially throws hat into Tennessee governor's race". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
- ↑ "Elections Calendar | Tennessee Secretary of State". sos.tn.gov. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
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