State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) will make stops in three major cities across the state Tuesday, and could announce her anticipated long shot U.S. Senate bid against Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), according to sources who spoke with The Tennessee Star.
Johnson is expected to make announcements at 9 a.m. ET in Knoxville, 12:00 p.m. CT in Nashville, and 6:30 p.m. CT in Memphis.
The state representative, who was nearly expelled from the Tennessee General Assembly for her role in leading a gun control riot at the State Capitol in the wake of The Covenant School shooting, has been teasing a run against Blackburn for months.
“I’m taking a serious look at the race and having conversations with folks that are hungry for better leadership in Washington,” she told Politico when rumors surfaced in July. “Honestly, Tennesseans deserve someone who will stand up to corrupt special interests, fight for lower costs so that every family can build a good life and that’s not Marsha Blackburn.”
“There’s a movement afoot in Tennessee, it’s very clear,” she said. “There has been a change in thinking.”
Johnson formed an exploratory committee for her potential run last month.
Blackburn’s campaign told The Star that Johnson isn’t right for the job.
“Senator Blackburn looks forward to making her case of why Tennesseans should re-elect her as their Senator. She has a record of serving Tennessee families and championing conservative values,” Abigail Sigler, a Blackburn campaign spokesman, said in July. “Marquita Bradshaw and Gloria Johnson are liberal Democrats who are out of step with the people of Tennessee and are aligned with Joe Biden’s failed policies that are making their lives tougher every single day.”
Bradshaw, an environmentalist and activist, ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 against Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), defeating four other primary candidates but losing in the general election. She garnered only 35.5 percent of the vote in the Volunteer State.
She has already declared her intention to run in the Democrat primary for Blackburn’s seat.
In her last Senate election bid in 2018, Blackburn, a first-time candidate for that office, cruised to a relatively easy victory against former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), winning 54 percent of the vote to Bredesen’s 43 percent.
Previously, Blackburn served eight terms as a congresswoman in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “State Rep. Gloria Johnson” by Gloria Johnson and “US Capitol Plaza” is by Mark Fischer CC2.0.
she looks like she hit the brakes of her car hard and her face slide forward and never went back normal
Gloria Johnson and her communications team aka WBIR, WATE, WVLT, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, ESPN, The Weather Channel, Knox News, Compass etc…. are cued up and ready to serve their own self interests. Johnson has never accomplished anything. Unless of course you consider “assisting” in the decline of public education an accomplishment.
Johnson is a Democrat idiot!
I’ve been told she can run for both the senate against Blackburn and the state house. I’m hoping she chooses the senate and doesn’t run for house. I’d like nothing better than to see her lose.
George Soros probably promised to fund her campaign. I don’t think the DNC will put campaign money in a hopeless campaign.
TENNESSEE IS A RED STATE
TRUMP COUNTRY
what a joke.
sure, go ahead, run. waste your time.
i guess those two other clowns will be her cheerleaders
The announcement solidifies my vote, it is Senator Blackburn all the way. She has done a great job for the state. Johnson has done nothing for the area other than dribble the party line from Joe Biden. The only thing Johnson has stated with accuracy is the country is looking for leadership from Washington DC. They (we) are referring to the often confused Joe Biden and the word salad disaster called Kamala. We have a true leader in Senator Blackburn, let’s keep her in the US Senate.