'Tennessee Three' Rep. Gloria Johnson wants to follow the rules, but she won't be silenced
As the 2024 legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly starts on Tuesday, observers are paying as much attention to the bills under consideration as to the rules of debate.
Rules in the regular and special sessions of 2023 prevented paper signs, caused the ejection of gun law reform advocates from committee rooms, and led to the expulsion of a couple of lawmakers who were part of the famed Tennessee Three. Jones and Pearson were ousted before being sent back by their local elected county commissions a few days later.
Johnson survived being expelled by one vote. But the incident elevated the trio’s profile, their fundraising and made them all political celebrities. Johnson launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate for the chance to face incumbent Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast (No. 387), Johnson spoke about the new session, her assertion that the Republican-dominated legislature is violating the minority party's right to speak, and why she is running for U.S. Senate.
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Gloria Johnson examined civility in the context of Tennessee lawmakers' actions
She also spent time criticizing what she considers false civility and accused GOP lawmakers of being uncivil in how they are treating their Democratic colleagues and in the legislation they are passing or refusing to consider.
In 2022, I wrote a column criticizing Johnson for her assertion that "democracy is dead" and her approach, for example, of using clown emojis to addressing her disagreements with the House leadership including Speaker Cameron Sexton.
She responded by writing a guest opinion column explaining why the democratic process is being suppressed in Tennessee.
Watch the video for our full conversation where she talks about the House rules, her beef with the establishment, how she goes about expressing her dissent, and how she would go about changing politics-as-usual in Nashville and Washington, D.C.
The Tennessee Voices video podcast launched in March 2020 to engage thinkers, leaders and doers across the state of Volunteers State in conversation about the issues of the day. The discussions promote, encourage and model civil discourse in alignment with The Tennessean's Civility Tennessee initiative.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters.. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gloria Johnson takes on Tennessee legislature and Marsha Blackburn
