Rep. Johnson highlights women's rights, guns and education in Jackson during Senate run
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A Knoxville native, special education teacher of 27 years, and current state Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, 90th District, visited Jackson for the first time last Saturday since announcing her campaign for U.S. Senate in September.
Johnson gained nationwide prominence in 2023 while pushing for stricter gun regulations across the state, following Nashville's Covenant school shooting in March. Along with Reps. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville, the representatives were dubbed the "Tennessee Three" as they passionately advocated for gun control.
Referring to Tennessee as a "voter-suppressed state," Johnson believes increasing voter turnout is key to her defeat of incumbent U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee.
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When Blackburn was elected in 2018, voter turnout for Madison County totaled 55.98% according to data from the Secretary of State.
"The votes are there," Johnson said. "We just have to get the voters to the polls."
Johnson added that though it will be an "uphill battle," the party-affiliated statistics of voters could pave the way for a Democratic Senator in a conservative state.
A progressive platform
In addition to her push for gun control, Johnson is an advocate for women's bodily autonomy, healthcare expansion and increasing education funding.
Describing the state legislature as a "toxic environment," she says that days seldom go by without her hearing "something bigoted or racist."
"We have got to call it out every single time. We can't let those remarks go by," Johnson said. "And then they say that we're not civil. How can we be civil when your policies to the people of Tennessee are violent?"
In speaking about abortion and women's bodily autonomy, she spoke to incidents of "forced pregnancy" and the rigid state laws surrounding abortion.
"Forcing a 10-year-old to carry a pregnancy is outrageous, it's dangerous, and that's a violent policy," she said. "Allowing a violent rapist to choose the mother of his child and not allowing the victim of a violent rapist not to have their baby — more rights are given to a violent criminal than to a woman in Tennessee."
Blackburn, by contrast, has been a self-dubbed "champion of the pro-life movement" and has supported a number of abortion-regulating legislative efforts, according to her campaign site.
A proponent of lowering the cost of prescription drugs and capping the cost of insulin, Johnson has criticized Blackburn for the continued high price of such medicines.
"Senator Blackburn has introduced several bipartisan bills to lower the cost of prescription drugs, particularly for seniors, and she is continuing to fight to address the root causes of high drug prices," wrote Blackburn's campaign manager Abigail Sigler.
An educator of nearly three decades, Johnson spoke about her frustration with the highly disputed topics of the banning of books and the "whitewashing" of history in her view.
"Who in history that banned books ever faired well in the history books? No one. Absolutely no one," Johnson said. "And they're picking up these books and talking about what's in them and those books aren't in a single school in Tennessee. It's just nonsense and lies."
On the topic of education, Johnson presented the notion that the history of America should be taught in its entirety.
Blackburn has criticized the idea of teaching certain topics in schools like that of critical race theory as it "creates a false narrative of division that pits Americans against each other," according to her campaign page.
The Tennessee legislature banned in 2021 the teaching of CRT in public schools, though some opponents of CRT argue of its lingering influence in some curriculum.
November 5, 2024 is the Senate election and those not yet registered to vote can do so here.
"I'm going to every single county in Tennessee at least once, and I hope three times because I want to talk to people where they are and let them know who cares about them anyway, who want them to make a good living, a good wage with good benefits," Johnson said. "Who wants them to have access to healthcare, who wants them to have a great school for their kids so they can get the best education possible, and who wants them to be able to buy their prescriptions and feel safe in their schools and their communities."
Blackburn visited Jackson in July 2022 to announce the return of TSA to McKellar-Sipes Airport and, more recently, made visits in both May and August of this year. It is undetermined when she will return for another visit, but according to Sigler, she "looks forward to being back in Jackson in the coming months."
"It's not a pipe dream folks, we can do that if we make that the priority, and that will be my priority and that is why I'm running for U.S. Senate — because Tennesseans deserve better," Johnson said.
This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Rep. Gloria Johnson visits Jackson amid Senate run against Blackburn
