Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Gloria Johnson was in Memphis over the Memorial Day weekend building her campaign in the state’s bluest county.

The four days of activities included a “Camp GloJo” to “train up our organizers to go knock doors and make those phone calls and just get out,” Johnson told The Daily Memphian.

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“People have been feeling like their vote doesn’t matter because they are still struggling. But also we are really drawing the lines of why that is happening and why Tennessee families are still struggling,” she said. “The folks who are supposed to represent them are not representing them. They are representing the billionaires and the special interests and the lobbyists.”

The Knoxville state Representative and special education teacher told supporters she is bolstered by a recent Vanderbilt University poll that shows her trailing Republican incumbent Marsha Blackburn overall but leading among women.

The twice-a-year statewide poll’s most recent survey of registered voters shows Blackburn with 51% to Johnson’s 40%. Johnson is the choice of 49% of women, though, compared to 43% for Blackburn.

“The fact that they are forcing pregnancy on 10-year olds … less than half of our counties have OB-GYNs,” Johnson told a group of a dozen Saturday, May 25, gathered in a back room of a South Main storefront. “What are we doing? We are really putting women’s and girls’ lives at risk.”

Johnson says the Republican supermajorities in the legislature are specifically what voters are reacting to.

“People are tired of the extremism in this state,” she said.

County Commission wrestles with property-tax rate as July 1 deadline looms

City Council budget blues

The Memphis City Council’s heavy wooden gavel proved more than ornamental this week. 

Three demonstrative smacks of the gavel punctuated what had promised to be an innocuous budget hearing Wednesday, May 22, displaying the tensions between council members and showcasing the skepticism some members feel about Mayor Paul Young’s proposed budget. 

But first. The backstory.

On Wednesday afternoon, the City Council heard a budget presentation from the city’s parks department. The parks budget is slated to get some of the new money under Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s 75-cent tax increase.

Council member Philip Spinosa asked the Young administration about those funds and a large substantial budget item for carpentry citywide. 

After a brief back-and-forth between Spinosa and members of the Young administration, the council member made a motion to amend the city’s budget. 

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Council Chairman JB Smiley Jr. seconded the motion. But budget chair Chase Carlisle, who controlled the meeting, would not entertain it. 

“The chair isn’t going to hear any motions,” Carlisle said with a smile. 

“I’m gonna make a motion then to humbly, override the chair,” Spinosa said. 

“So we’re not gonna do that,” Carlisle said. 

“The motion has been made and properly seconded ...,” Spinosa said. 

Carlisle banged the gavel three times. 

“You are out of order,” he said. 

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After further back and forth, Spinosa left the council committee room. He later came back and the two appeared to have made up. 

Later, Carlisle said the council would have ample time to make motions on the budget in the coming weeks. 

Council member Dr. Jeff Warren was able to joke about the dust-up saying, in the future, Spinosa should consider bringing his own gavel with him.

The episode followed Spinosa and other council members exhibiting skepticism of Young’s budget.

The council questioned interim city chief financial officer Walter Person about why it was necessary to pull about $12 million from the city’s rainy day fund when the city planned to fund bonuses with savings from vacancies. 

The city offered $1,500 bonuses as part of its final offer to workers represented by six different unions in impasse proceedings.

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The council voted in each of the six sets of impasse decisions last week to instead accept the unions’ final proposal for higher percentage pay raises than the 3% raises with bonuses the administration was offering.

Spinosa described the budget book the council had been given as “not real.” 

Blackburn, Johnson race heating up

Back on the statewide campaign trail, Johnson’s strategy is to reactivate 300,000 Democratic voters she said have not participated in recent elections.

She pledged to promote down-ballot local races across the state. The national Democratic Party has raised some money in Johnson’s bid, although she boasts that most of her fundraising so far has been from Tennessee donors while most of Blackburn’s has come from national donors.

But Tennessee is not considered a battleground state in the November races topped by the presidential general election.

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The Vanderbilt poll puts support of former President and all-but-official Republican nominee Donald Trump at 47% while President Joe Biden, the all-but-official Democratic nominee, came in at 29%.

Tennessee has been a red state in presidential general elections since 2000, when Republican George W. Bush beat Democratic nominee and former Tennessee Senator Al Gore.

A decade later, in 2010, Republicans became the majority party in the state Senate and state House.

Democrats have not won a statewide election since 2006 when Gov. Phil Bredesen won reelection. Blackburn beat Bredesen six years ago to win the Senate seat that Republican Bob Corker opted not to seek reelection to.

Most political observers and the makers of most national campaign maps rate Blackburn as likely to win a second six-year term.

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Johnson says that could change. But she also concedes the national party at this point is focused on defending Democratic Senate incumbents seeking reelection and maybe flipping Senate seats in Texas and Florida to keep the narrow Democratic majority in the Senate.

“But we no longer have a path. The reality is we’ve got to pick up a couple of seats,” she said. “You could spend $100 million in Texas and possibly not win it. You could spend over $100 million in Florida. But it only takes $20 million to win a Senate race in Tennessee. We’ve got five media markets for the most part in Tennessee. Texas has 17.”

Blackburn attended a “Courage Under Fire” banquet in Nashville on Friday, May 24, and posted pictures and comments on X.

That included a picture of Blackburn with Kansas City Chiefs football kicker Harrison Butker and a caption praising Butker as someone who “stands strong with his belief and does not cower to the woke mob.”

In a commencement speech earlier this month at Benedictine College, Butker said observances of “Pride Month” promote “deadly sins.”

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He also told the women Benedictine graduates: “It is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” according to an account from The New York Times. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

Blackburn has also referred to Trump’s ongoing campaign finance fraud trial as a “sham led by Joe Biden and his corrupt political allies.”

Even though they face primary opposition, Blackburn and Johnson are campaigning directly against each other.

Blackburn has opposition from Tres Wittum of Nashville in the August Republican primary. Johnson is one of several contenders in the August Democratic primary vying for the party’s nomination and the right to challenge Blackburn on the November general election ballot.

The Democratic primary race also includes environmental activist Marquita Bradshaw of Memphis who was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate four years ago in the statewide race Republican Bill Hagerty won.

Also in the August Democratic primary are Civil Miller-Watkins of Rossville and Lola Denise Brown of Nashville.