A Tennessean by choice,
which he believes is
the more deliberate kind.
Teacher. Veteran. Neighbor. Running for Congress because someone had to.
"My father had a mantra. Life ain't fair. He's right. Life ain't fair. As a kid, I learned to take life on the chin because of his words. But I hear it differently now. Life ain't fair — but why can't we make it more fair tomorrow than it was today?"— Joshua Sales
A red county that Washington forgot.
Joshua grew up in Live Oak, California — in Sutter County, which has cast its presidential vote for the Republican nominee in every election since 1944. He didn't grow up in a blue state bubble. He grew up in a red county that Washington forgot, in a small town where the Dollar General was the newest building and community was what you made it because nobody was coming to make it for you.
When he moved to Tennessee he recognized something. The people of TN-7 aren't so different from the people he grew up around. The distance between them is just geography.
He joined the Army out of high school, training for EOD — Explosive Ordnance Disposal — before a medical setback earned him an honorable discharge. He doesn't talk about it much. He thinks it makes him someone who understands what it means to show up anyway.
He stayed. He built a life. He became a Tennessean.
After his service, Joshua made his way to Knoxville. He'll tell you it started because of a girl and ended because of the state itself. He fell in love with the Smoky Mountains, with summer nights on a friend's porch when the fireflies started moving across the yard. He learned that the Appalachian mountain range is older than bones.
He enrolled at Pellissippi State, made his way to UT where he met his wife Rebecca. He graduated Summa Cum Laude while working his way up from waiting tables to restaurant manager. He used the GI Bill, scholarships, and a full-time job — and still left school with student loan debt.
In 2021, they moved to Cheatham County. Then his mother passed away too young. He reimagined his life and became a teacher in her footsteps. He lives in Cheatham County with his wife Rebecca — the kind of place where the power goes out in the smallest of wind storms and the neighbors check on each other without being asked.
"Homeownership is almost impossible for young adults whether you are Republican or Democrat. Doctor bills are bankrupting families whether you're red or blue. The math doesn't work for people doing everything right. Gas, groceries, utilities — up more than 22% across the board since 2020 in this district while wages stayed flat. And that doesn't change if you voted for Harris or Trump."— Joshua Sales
He believes in the power of the right question asked at the right moment.
Joshua teaches AP English Language and Composition in Davidson County, working with students from underserved communities in North Nashville. He has sent students to Yale, MIT, and Dartmouth.
He keeps a Costco-sized box of Cheez-Its in his classroom for the kids who come in hungry, because watching a child try to learn on an empty stomach is not something Joshua Sales is willing to do.
He watches his kids in North Nashville deal with worse setbacks than he had and set a brighter future for themselves than he ever did. There's a passage that reads "the last shall be first and the first shall be last." In the classroom that looks like the kid everyone wrote off becoming the one who figures it all out.
"I believe this country is capable of that. I know that Tennessee is capable of that. We've just got to show up and do the work."
Someone had to.
Tennessee's new 7th Congressional District covers 8 counties — from the Nashville suburbs through the Kentucky border communities of Montgomery, Robertson, Sumner, and Trousdale. It is a district of farmers and veterans and nurses and electricians and truck drivers and teachers and people who have watched their grocery bills climb and their hospitals close.
Joshua is not here to pit left versus right. He's here to fight a system where the rules are written by an establishment class who will never have to live with the consequences. None of what he's fighting for was considered radical when Eisenhower, Nixon, or Reagan said it. It can and should be normal again.
He is accepting no Corporate PAC money. This is a grassroots campaign, funded by the people it intends to serve. Because when you take money from big business, it comes with strings attached.
The Open Door Tour — 50 town halls across all 8 counties of the district between April 24th and November 3rd, 2026 — is built on one conviction: everyone deserves a seat at the table. Not the people on the invite list. Not the people who already agree. Everyone.
"My father was right; life ain't fair. But it's not supposed to be rigged. And right now, it is. It's rigged for the people at the top — and everyone else is just trying to keep their head above the rising waters. I'm running for Congress to un-rig it. If you're tired of playing a game you can't win, I'm asking for your vote."— Joshua Sales · Sales for Congress 2026
The door is open.
It always will be.
Join the grassroots campaign to un-rig the system for the working people of TN-7.