NBC News: “Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson, one of the three Democrats reprimanded this year for leading a protest against gun violence on the state House floor, has launched a bid for the U.S. Senate in her deep-red home state.
Johnson made the announcement outside a Knoxville school where one student fatally shot another when she was a teacher in 2008 to argue that “nothing has been done” since.
“We’ve got to do better, we can do better and Tennesseans deserve better. We have got to do something, and well, this is the something I decided to do,” Johnson said about her Senate bid.
She went onto criticize Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, whom Johnson hopes to face if she wins the Democratic primary next year, accusing her of standing in the way of progress.
“We need to make sure that every family has access to affordable health care, every kid has a great school in every district, it shouldn’t matter where you live, everyone should have a great school. We need to raise wages so people earn a living wage, and we need to increase our union involvement because that’s what built the middle class,” she added.
Johnson gained prominence in the state after she and two other colleagues took to the state House floor with a bullhorn to criticize what they perceived as legislative inaction after a mass shooting at a Nashville school in March. Republicans blasted the three for using a bullhorn and for speaking when not formally recognized — one top Republican compared the protest to an attempted “insurrection” — leading to votes to expel the three lawmakers.”