{"id":2008326,"date":"2023-08-22T16:07:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/member-of-tennessee-three-takes-step-toward-challenging-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T16:07:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:07:50","slug":"member-of-tennessee-three-takes-step-toward-challenging-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/member-of-tennessee-three-takes-step-toward-challenging-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Tennessee Three&#8217; member moves closer to challenging GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmember-of-tennessee-three-takes-step-toward-challenging-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2008326&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Democrat Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson Explores Potential Run for U.S. Senate Seat in\u200d 2024<\/h2>\n<p>Democrat \u200bTennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson, who gained national recognition for her\u2064 participation in a protest on the House floor of \u2064the state Capitol earlier\u200d this spring, is now considering a run for the state&#8217;s\u2064 U.S.\u200c Senate seat in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Johnson, 61, recently filed the \u200dpaperwork (<a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/pdf\/176\/202308049596497176\/202308049596497176.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>) to register \u2064a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/member-of-tennessee-three-takes-step-toward-challenging-gop-sen-marsha-blackburn\/\" title=\"'Tennessee Three' member moves closer to challenging GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn.\">federal campaign exploratory committee<\/a>. This step is often taken \u2064before an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-gop-senate-hopeful-raises-1m-in-first-30-days\/\" title=\"Ohio GOP Senate hopeful raises M+ in first 30 days\">official campaign launch<\/a> and allows potential candidates to raise funds for travel \u2063and polling without officially declaring their candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>According to her federal election committee \u200dpaperwork, Ms. Johnson is specifically exploring\u200b a Senate run in 2024, which would put her in direct competition with Sen. Marsha \u2063Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who\u200c has\u200c already filed her own paperwork\u200c (<a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/pdf\/491\/202307059582431491\/202307059582431491.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>) for a second term.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;Tennessee\u2063 has a Senator that stands with bullies, I have\u2064 a reputation for standing up\u200c to bullies,\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Ms. Johnson said in\u2064 a\u2064 recent statement, while avoiding naming Ms. Blackburn directly. \u201cI\u2019m taking a serious look at this race and\u200b having great\u200b conversations with folks who are hungry for better leadership \u200bin Washington.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>Lawmaker Played Role in &#8216;Tennessee\u200c Three&#8217; Incident<\/h2>\n<p>Ms. Johnson\u2062 has been a vocal\u2062 critic \u200bof Ms. Blackburn and other top Tennessee Republican leaders during her time in office. Her\u200d consideration of a \u200bSenate run comes after she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ga-republicans-launch-stop-stacey-effort-ahead-of-possible-abrams-2022-announcement\/\" title=\"GA Republicans Launch \u2018Stop Stacey\u2019 Effort Ahead Of Possible Abrams 2022 Announcement\">gained national attention<\/a> for her involvement in a\u200c protest incident on \u2063the\u2063 floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives earlier \u2062this\u200d year. In March, Ms. Johnson, along with two other Democratic state lawmakers, broke decorum rules by\u200b rushing to \u200bthe floor without recognition and leading protesters in the House\u200c gallery in chants advocating for gun control.<\/p>\n<p>The gun \u200bcontrol\u2062 protest took place just\u200d days after \u200ba tragic \u2062incident at\u200c the Covenant private Christian school, \u200bwhere an individual, who police alleged identified as transgender, killed six people,\u200d including three children.<\/p>\n<p>Following the protest, the Republican majority in the\u200c state House introduced resolutions to remove Ms. Johnson and the other two lawmakers involved, Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Rep.\u2062 Justin Pearson of Memphis. While \u200cMr. Jones and Mr. Pearson were successfully expelled, the expulsion vote against Ms. Johnson failed by one vote.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the three\u2062 Democratic lawmakers\u2063 dubbed them the &#8220;Tennessee\u200c Three.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden even weighed in \u200don the controversy, characterizing the actions\u200b of \u200cthe lawmakers as\u2064 a &#8220;peaceful protest&#8221; and criticizing the Republican-led expulsion\u2064 effort. He subsequently invited the three Tennessee Democrats\u200c to the White House,\u200b where they discussed various gun control proposals.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the \u200dexpulsion vote, Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson continued\u200c to serve in the Tennessee state House on an\u200b interim basis and were recently reinstated \u2062in local special \u2063elections.<\/p>\n<h2>Republicans Hold Advantage in Tennessee Politics<\/h2>\n<p>While\u200b Ms. Johnson&#8217;s recent actions have raised her profile, she faces an uphill battle in Tennessee, a state that has\u2062 consistently voted \u200cRepublican in recent years. In fact, the state has not elected a Democrat to a\u2064 statewide \u2063office since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Blackburn won her first Senate race in 2018,\u200c defeating former Gov.\u2064 Phil \u2064Bredesen by \u2064a significant margin.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to\u2064 Ms. Johnson, Democratic community organizer \u2064Marquita Bradshaw has also \u200cannounced\u200d plans to run for\u200b Ms. Blackburn\u2019s seat in 2024. Ms. Bradshaw won the Democratic Senate primary in 2020 but lost to Republican U.S. \u2063Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in the general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrat TN State Rep. Gloria Johnson, known for her protest on the House floor, may run for TN&#8217;s U.S. Senate seat in 2024. The 61-year-old filed paperwork to establish a federal campaign exploratory committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1759,"featured_media":2008327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2008326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1759"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}