About RICK
Rick Ewing didn't wake up one day and decide to run for office. He's been doing this work his entire adult life.
For more than thirty years, Rick has lived in District 59 and served the people around him. He co-founded an advocacy organization for families dealing with disability. He's served on boards fighting for seniors, students, and workers. He helped attract good jobs to Tennessee through the Governor's Workforce Development Board. He's spent two decades in healthcare technology, helping bring life-saving drugs to market.
The service came first. Running for office is the next step.
Rick is a 9th-generation Nashvillian. His family has called this city home since before Tennessee was a state.
In 1897, his great-great-grandfather Prince Albert Ewing, an emancipated slave and one of Nashville's first Black attorneys, was forced to pay a poll tax. The family still has the receipt he signed.
Rick's father was a surgeon trained at Meharry Medical College. His commitment to service help shape everything that followed. Rick's mother went back to school after losing her husband, earned her advanced degree, and spent fifty years serving Metro Nashville Public Schools as a teacher, principal, and district leader. His wife Sandy currently serves on the Nashville Metro Council, representing District 34.
In the Ewing family, service isn't something you talk about. It's something you do.
Rick's most important title is Dad.
When his son Richard was diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis, a rare genetic disorder, Rick went looking for an organization in Middle Tennessee that could help families like his connect with resources, fight for research funding, and support one another.
It didn't exist. So Rick co-founded one.
For twenty years, Rick has led the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance of Middle Tennessee and served on the national TSA committee that awards research grants worldwide. He's spent two decades navigating the gaps in Tennessee's healthcare and education systems, not as a policy observer, but as a parent fighting for his child.
This year, Richard ages out of Metro Nashville Public Schools. Rick has learned what every family in their situation eventually learns: when the school services end, the state offers almost nothing to replace them.
He's running to change that.
Rick has spent more than twenty years at Oracle as a Director of Customer Success in Health Sciences and Life Sciences.
His career in healthcare technology has taken him from Apple Computers to Vanderbilt Health Plans to Ernst & Young before joining Oracle, where he has helped pharmaceutical and clinical research companies bring life- saving treatments to market.
In 2020, Rick led Oracle's partnership with Pfizer on the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. He knows the healthcare system from the inside. He also knows it as a father who's been navigating it for two decades.
In 2023, Rick was selected for the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program. He is a graduate of Trinity College and played basketball at Yale University. He is a member of Leadership Nashville's Class of 2018.
Rick's record of community involvement is long because the work has been constant:
Disability and Healthcare: Co-founder, Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance of Middle Tennessee. National TSA research grants committee member. Twenty years of advocacy for disability services, research funding, and family support systems.
Seniors: Board member, FiftyForward. Board member, Our Place Nashville. Advocating for senior services, social connection, and aging-in-place support.
Education: Board member, Nashville State Community College Foundation. Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management Alumni Board. University School of Nashville Alumni Board.
Workforce and Economic Development: Member, Governor's Workforce Development Board. Advocate for technology sector diversity in Nashville. Board member, Rutherford County Technology Council.
Healthcare and Community Institutions: Capital campaign committee, Meharry Medical College. Former board member, Goodwill of Middle Tennessee. Former Secretary, Nashville Opera board.
Why Rick is Running
Rick has spent thirty years building coalitions, serving on boards, and fighting for families who get overlooked.
He's done the advocacy work. He's sat in the rooms where decisions get made. And he's watched a supermajority legislature ignore the needs of Tennesseans, underfund critical programs, and leave families like his to figure it out alone.
And when Tennessee's legislature had the chance to call a special session, they didn't use it to address healthcare, education, or the cost of living. They used it to redraw congressional districts and eliminate the state's last majority-Black congressional district. That tells you everything you need to know about where their priorities are.
Advocacy only gets you so far when the people making decisions won't listen.
District 59 is an open seat. Rick isn't willing to sit on the sidelines while Tennessee's families and values continue to be ignored. He's running to take the fight to the legislature.
At a Glance
- 9th-generation Nashvillian. Family roots predate Tennessee statehood.
- Father: Meharry Medical College surgeon (Class of 1962). Mother: 50 years in Metro Nashville Public Schools.
- Wife Sandy Ewing serves on Nashville Metro Council (District 34). Father of two: Richard and Maddie.
- 30+ years living in District 59.
- Trinity College graduate. Yale University basketball.
- Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program (2023).
- Leadership Nashville, Class of 2018.
- 20+ years at Oracle in healthcare technology. Led Oracle's COVID-19 vaccine partnership with Pfizer (2020).
- Co-founder, Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance of Middle Tennessee (20 years of disability advocacy).
- Member, Governor's Workforce Development Board.
Board service: FiftyForward, Nashville State Community College Foundation, Meharry Medical College capital campaign committee, Our Place Nashville, Nashville Opera, Goodwill of Middle Tennessee.
About House District 59
House District 59 is a long and diverse area that stretches the southern border of Davidson county from Bellevue to Cane Ridge. The district includes neighborhoods like Belle Meade, Forest Hills, Oak Hill, West Meade, Bellevue, Cane Ridge and surrounding neighborhoods. The district sits entirely within Davidson County and is one of Tennessee's most competitive state legislative seats.
Outgoing Representative Caleb Hemmer, a Democrat who won the seat in 2022, announced in late 2025 that he would not seek a third term. The August 6 Democratic primary will determine which candidate carries the seat into the November general election.
How to Vote
Democratic Primary Election Day: Thursday, August 6, 2026
Early Voting: July 17 through August 1, 2026
Voter Registration Deadline: July 7, 2026
Tennessee does not require voters to register by party. You choose which primary ballot to vote on when you arrive.
Register to vote or check your registration: GoVoteTN.gov
Find your polling place and see what's on your ballot: Nashville Election Commission
Request an absentee ballot: Requests accepted May 8 through July 27, 2026. Learn more.
Davidson County Election Commission: 1281 Murfreesboro Pike, Third Floor, Nashville, TN 37217 Phone: 615-862-8800