Jacob Francy, '26
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Tennessee’s State Representative of District 90 and current 2024 U.S. Senate candidate, Gloria Johnson, generously called in to answer my questions on our new program, Talking Tennessee. We covered topics such as her own history as a teacher and politician, current social issues, and the latest news in our home state of Tennessee.
When I asked Rep. Johnson about her past, she went into true detail about how she got her start in politics; it wasn’t a lengthy one. As an educator, she was never truly involved in that field, but as many people in the early 2000s began to pay more attention, she decided to get her feet wet in the action. After signing up to volunteer for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, she took on the job as Chairwoman of the Knox County Democrats. From there, Johnson knew she could make a real difference. A couple of years later, she won a seat in the Tennessee state legislature. Compared to some politicians who spend their entire lives in public office, she was brand new, but that seemed to have worked in Tennessee’s favor as a new perspective was certainly needed.
I then addressed the elephant in the room: What happened at the Capitol when the State House reconvened after the Covenant School shooting? Johnson told me that she didn’t plan on doing anything out of the ordinary besides, obviously, sharing her strong support for Covenant and common sense gun reform. But, alongside Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), she joined in a chant inside the chamber started by gun control protestors, which embodied mostly high schoolers. She and the other two congressmen (nicknamed the Tennessee Three), were then targeted by the Republican majority in the State House and were voted on to be expelled from office. Both Jones and Pearson, millennials and minorities, were expelled but later re-elected by their districts in a special election. Johnson, a 61-year-old white woman, however, was kept on by just one vote. I asked her why she was the only one of the three to be expelled, and she quickly responded, “Because I’m white!” We went into the role racial bias has played in local governing and how close to home it actually is to us. Johnson recounted multiple incidents of Republican state congressmen using hateful and discriminatory language towards other congressmen of color. These are the people we vote for; should we not be aware of this?
I then wanted to focus on her campaign for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Marsha Blackburn. Johnson accused Sen. Blackburn of voting “against Tennesseeans every day.” She described how Blackburn has been living in D.C. her whole life, taking in money for her votes. The biggest difference between the two, which seemed to stand out, was Johnson’s strong position on expanding Medicaid, which Sen. Blackburn has opposed multiple times. Expanding Medicaid, according to Johnson’s campaign, would give more Tennesseans access to healthcare.
We ended the interview on an encouraging note. She has been a figure to the youth of Tennessee, and more broadly, America. Johnson encouraged young people to get involved early, citing her own experience of joining in too late in life. The message was clear: the earlier you get involved, the earlier change happens.
Visit Rep. Johnson’s campaign website here for more information!
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