As Benefits Losses Continue, Candidates Consider Who Can Have Access

This fall, we sent out a community survey to ask what issues mattered most to you in this election cycle. This is the latest in our community-focused series.

With enrollment steadily declining since last year’s SNAP pause and the introduction of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, voters are concerned about which benefits will be available to some of the state’s most vulnerable individuals ahead of November’s election.

In July 2025, around 696,791 people in Tennessee received SNAP benefits. By August 2026, that number dropped to 610,774 remaining enrollees, according to Tennessee Justice Center reporting.

Although numbers are declining, Anna Grace Dastugue, Tennessee Justice Center’s Director of Nutrition Policy, told the Banner it isn’t because the cost of living has decreased. 

Instead, unemployment is increasing. Gas and grocery prices are rising, too. The need for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits is growing even more urgent.

“Families are still economically disadvantaged and need SNAP,” she said.

When the federal legislative session begins in January, legislators will set payment error rates, which measure how much the state pays out for various benefits. The measurement is calculated based on a sample of SNAP cases in each state. 

Dastugue said federal changes to HR-1 altered SNAP’s funding structure, and states now pay the benefit amount. Before, states didn’t have to pay benefit costs. Now, that share could increase by up to 15 percent.

Determining this number isn’t easy, Dastugue said, especially when fluctuating incomes, child support, household expenses and job instability come into play.

“According to that accuracy or inaccuracy, the state has to pay for it,” she said.

In early October, many residents lost access to Medicaid coverage, including refugees without a green card and immigrants on Temporary Protected Status. Earlier this year, many families struggled to pay for insurance as marketplace enrollment costs soared and healthcare subsidies expired. And with new HR-1 work requirements, Medicaid eligibility will change further.

Dastugue said these changes will create new challenges for veterans, individuals experiencing displacement, parents of children aged 14-18, and seniors.

“On paper, meeting a work requirement sounds really simple,” she said. “But the kicker is that if you have lower levels of literacy, a constantly changing financial situation, [or] household members who are in and out of the picture … it [becomes more] complicated.

“When you add additional things that someone needs to submit in order to prove they’re eligible for SNAP, it just increases the number of hoops that someone has to jump through in order to get their benefits.”

Key races

Typically, benefits are a bipartisan issue as benefit challenges affect a range of individuals from various backgrounds. But, in some cases, legislators’ approaches can create a rift between parties.

In the gubernatorial race, Sen. Marsha Blackburn has recently supported the GOP-backed “Keep SNAP Funded Act,” which sought to provide appropriation funds for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and uninterrupted SNAP benefits during any period when no legislation has been enacted to provide continuing or full-year appropriations. 

She has also advocated for rural health innovations and helped cement the Rural Health Transformation Program, which awarded Tennessee $206 million to uplift and create new pathways for rural healthcare across the state. 

Notably, Blackburn did not support the “Lower Health Care Costs Act,” which would have expanded eligibility for and increased the amount of premium tax credits, when the U.S. Senate voted on the bill in December 2025. 

In her questionnaire for the Banner, Democratic candidate Jerri Green said she would work to expand Medicaid to help more of the state’s working families and mitigate rural hospital closures. Tennessee is one of the few states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid coverage. Green also hopes to tackle rural maternal health and lower healthcare costs for rural families.

If elected, independent candidate Lauren Pinkston wants to use the new Summer EBT funding program to connect SNAP-eligible families to farmers and implement educational opportunities to learn more about local and affordable food options.

“Feeding kids and supporting Tennessee agriculture at the same time should be a bipartisan no-brainer,” Pinkston wrote in her candidate questionnaire for the Banner.

While David Hatley, another independent candidate, hasn’t said much about the loss of SNAP and Medicaid benefits, he has said he would improve rural healthcare if elected. 

Hatley spoke to WSMV and said he wants to keep rural hospitals open and reduce the time rural residents have to travel to the nearest hospital in an emergency by establishing ER clinics in each community.

In the race for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic candidate Victoria Broderick generally supports Medicare for all and ensuring all Tennesseans have access to affordable healthcare. 

Her rival, Scott DesJarlais, has repeatedly expressed concern over who receives which benefits. In October 2025, he sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Homeland Security advocating stricter oversight of the SNAP program, claiming that eleven recipient categories could allow undocumented immigrants to receive SNAP benefits. The categories included trafficking victims, refugees and asylees, and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status.

In the 7th District, Republican incumbent Matt Van Epps is campaigning against Darden Copeland. During his run for the seat in 2025, Van Epps spoke about many hot-button issues, including the government shutdown, the resulting SNAP pause and extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Earlier in the conversation, Van Epps said he would have voted for the “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

He also pointed to the need for full-price transparency in healthcare and said he was concerned about the loss in SNAP benefits. 

“We need to fund SNAP,” he said. “Those are families [and] kids that should not be suffering because Democrats are being theatrical about this process.” 

When asked whether the state should step in to reallocate funds to help feed those affected by the loss of SNAP benefits, Van Epps disagreed and said Democrats needed to reopen the government so it can “continue serving its people.”

In his candidate questionnaire for the Banner, Copeland said the state should expand, preserve and strengthen Medicaid and keep the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies in place. 

In 2025, in response to a question about how the federal government should address Medicaid and SNAP benefits cuts, Copeland told the Banner: “Congress should focus on the 10 percent of benefits lost to waste [and] fraud, not cut the 90 percent that truly reach needy families.”

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