Image Credit: Gloria Johnson for U.S. Senate
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, announced Tuesday her plans to run for U.S. Senate against Republican Marsha Blackburn.
Blackburn has held the seat since 2019 after being a state senator from 1999 to 2003 and then a U.S. Representative from 2003 to 2019.
Blackburn defeated former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen for the seat.
Blackburn and Johnson could face off next year. Johnson is best known as being the member of a group of three Tennessee representatives who faced expulsion hearings this spring. Both Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, were voted out by the House while Johnson narrowly missed being ousted by the body.
Johnson planned announcements in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis on Tuesday and she was scheduled to be joined by Jones, Pearson and state Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville.
Johnson made her announcement Tuesday morning in front of Central High School, where she was a teacher in 2018 when 15-year-old student Ryan McDonald was shot and killed by another student in the school cafeteria.
“I heard a lot of screaming and I looked out my window and there were kids running down the hill toward by classroom, screaming with terror on their faces,” Johnson recalled.
Johnson said she believes that is still happening and nothing has been done to resolve the issues that caused the shooting.
“This is the something that I decided to do,” Johnson said.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
3 Responses
My question for Gloria, a member of the House and one of the “Tennessee Trio” is…”Will you resign your elected position as a member of the Tennessee House of representatives, in order to run for U.S. Senate?” I hope the media will press her on a solid answer to this question. But alas, she is a liberal and we all know, they won’t be held accountable by the majority of ‘big media’. Hopefully, the Tennessee Conservative representatives will have a chance to ask her and hopefully, she’ll resign in order to run a losing campaign against Marsha Blackburn, where we all know she’ll lose big time. If Phil Bredesen can’t beat her, a woman whose claim to fame is being a part of a rebellion on the house floor does not stand a chance.
To vote for a candidate that is only known for getting kicked out of the State Legislature is to not care about Tennessee. Her running for the US Senate is an embarrassment and a disgrace.
Being an anti-gun liberal, Gloria Johnson can probably count on money from the Demon George Soros. With more and more Northerners and Californicators moving in, we should still take her challenge seriously.