Evelina Kertay for Chattanooga City Council

Evelina Kertay is a local Chattanooga woman running for City Council District 9. Not only is she running, but she is an openly trans woman - and would be the first to be elected to Chattanooga City Council. 

I sat across my favorite table in Sleepyhead on Main+Dodds with Evelina Kertay on Wednesday. She complimented my magnolia tattoo and showed me her flame azalea. 

“It’s native to Appalachia, like me,” She smiled as she ran her finger over the tattoo. 

Evelina Kertay is currently running for City Council District 9, and I wanted to have coffee to get to know her and her platform a little better. 

On her website, she proclaims her platform focuses on: “All power to the people. Putting Chattanooga workers first”. 

And after speaking to her, I deeply believe in her. Her first experience with politics was the years she spent on the Mayor’s Youth Council. From there, she was a part of a political group at the University of Tennessee, which successfully introduced a Trans Rights bill to the state legislator. 

In 2020, she was a part of the Black Lives Matter protests and is now a protest medic. During this time, they crammed the City Council meeting with over 250 people; From this experience, she made the decision to jump into local politics. 

Kertay has 4 pillars of policy she is focusing on during this election. I asked her to define each and what they mean for her. 

Her labor policy focus, she states: “It is complicated with labor - there are  limits to what I can do. State Pre-Emption - a policy tool to restrict what local cities can do in regards to labor policy. Local cities cannot legally raise the minimum wage in TN; minimum wage, scheduling laws, preference in contracts. But the things we can do - place labor union reps on local boards (a lot are nominated by city council) restrictions on using policing at strikes, etc, I will focus on. I can also focus on policies that require supporting local city workers and getting them a living wage. Doing an audit against wage compression. Wages are raised at the lowest level, typically, although sometimes senior employees don’t necessarily get the raise. I can also focus on job protections in regards to large corporations coming in and hiring at a local level.” 

After labor, we moved into transportation, another key pillar. Kertay observed “Public transportation is deadly underfunded. CARTA asks for 8-10 million which is less than 10% of the city budget; we can increase that by 50% or more. From their internal data, it is mostly tax payer funded. We could move to a fairer free bus system. 

I’m also focused on more protected bike lanes and better sidewalks. We are not very disability accessible.:

Kertay is also passionate about access to food for our city. She’s interested in working towards a locally owned grocery store and supporting worker and consumer cooperatives. She’d also like to work with CARTA to make dedicated bus lines from food deserts to grocery stores. 

As for her housing policy, she says she’ll focus on two main sectors - renters and homeowners rights. She’s interested in supporting and bringing in the National Law Income Center Housing Tenants Bill of Rights and giving legal framework for a tenants union. As for homeowners, she supports many of Project CALEB’s policies and also public funding for a community land trust. 

Other issues that are important to her? LGBQT+ policy is very important as well as international solidarity and support of Palestine. 

With the election just around the corner, Kertay needs some help! She asks that you go out and vote, and if you have time, she’s canvassing on the dates below:

2/15/25 

2/23/25 

3/01/25

You can text or email her to register.

423-847-5647

evelinairenk@gmail.com 

Evelina Kertay is endorsed by the Chattanooga Democratic Socialist Party. 

Best of luck, Evelina.