Democrat announces run in 6th Congressional District

Justin Kanew, a past contestant on the TV show “Amazing Race” who moved to Tennessee last year, tells The Tennessean he’s running for the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the 2018 7^th Congressional District election.

Kanew said he feels driven to step up in the ongoing battle over health care to fight the alternative proposal pushed by President Donald Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s a cruel bill and we need as many people as possible in Congress that are are willing to fight against something like this,” he said of Republicans’ alternative health care plan. “This is exactly the kind of thing that shows there are people putting corporations and the wealthy ahead of the people of Tennessee.”

…Kanew, 38, has lived in Tennessee just one year. His family moved from Los Angeles to the College Grove area of Williamson County, an area he calls a “special place with special people.”

Kanew, who hosts a politics podcast, currently works independently after writing and producing at the comedy entertainment production company National Lampoon’s.

To some, Kanew is better known as a contestant in Seasons 15 and 18 of the TV show “The Amazing Race” — the reality CBS series in which two teams race against each other finding clues as they travel foreign countries.