NASHVILLE – Pursuing Medicaid expansion in Tennessee was among the most popular ideas for reviving state Democrats’ prospects during the party’s annual fundraiser Friday night.
Organizers said more than 500 elected officials, supporters and contributors attended the party’s annual Jackson Day fundraiser in Nashville.
The event was headlined by Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She said the failure of Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal to extend health care to 280,000 low income people was an example of the failure of GOP politics in the state.
“Their party is so strangled by the tea party extremists, that even their Republican governor has not been able to get that done,” she said before the event.
During her speech she criticized Republican Tennessee Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black – whose mention was roundly booed by the crowd – for joining what she called the “farcical” House committee to investigate Planned Parenthood.