NASHVILLE — State Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, formally announced Tuesday she is challenging U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., saying she is in the race “because Tennesseans deserve better.”
“Marsha has failed us in her five years in office,” Johnson said in a news release. “She’s voted against everything from pandemic relief to ensuring equal pay for women.”
Johnson gained national recognition earlier this year when she and two other Democratic representatives protested Tennessee gun laws on the House floor following a mass shooting at a private Nashville school. They came to be known as the Tennessee Three.
Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis were expelled by House Republicans and were later appointed and then elected to return to the Capitol. GOP efforts to expel Johnson failed by one vote.