Thirty minutes after a committee of senators voted down Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal on Tuesday, East Ridge resident Trae Haggard was still upset.
Along with hundreds of other protesters, she had driven to the state Capitol in Nashville to demonstrate in favor of the legislation, which proposed using federal Medicaid dollars to buy health insurance for an estimated 280,000 low-income Tennesseans.
Like other protesters, Haggard cried when Senate Commerce Committee members voted 7-2 against the bill, halting it in the Senate.
Afterward, Haggard and a group of purple-shirted protesters headed down to a corridor and were standing near a coffee station when they saw Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, one of the seven senators to vote against the measure, appear to exit a men’s bathroom, then go back in.
After several minutes, one protester decided to enter the bathroom himself. Haggard got her phone ready so she could capture whatever transpired next on video.