Gloria Johnson, Tennessee Democrat Who Faced Expulsion, Wins U.S. Senate Primary



Gloria Johnson sitting at her desk in the House chamber, looking at her phone, with many lawmakers seated and standing behind her. She is wearing a pink and orange floral blazer.

State Representative Gloria Johnson at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville last year, as the House voted on her expulsion. Jon Cherry for The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane
Reporting from Nashville

Aug. 1, 2024
Updated 9:55 p.m. ET

Gloria Johnson, a Tennessee state representative who faced an expulsion vote last year for participating in a gun control protest on the Statehouse floor, won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Thursday, according to The Associated Press, and will challenge Marsha Blackburn, the Republican incumbent.

Ms. Johnson catapulted to national attention last April as one of the “Tennessee Three,” who led the protest at the State Capitol after a shooter killed three students and three staff members at a Nashville Christian school.

While the Republican supermajority expelled the other two representatives, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, both young Black Democrats, Ms. Johnson, who is white, avoided the same fate by one vote. Both men were soon reinstated, while Ms. Johnson, the only one of the three old enough to run for Senate, was encouraged to run against Ms. Blackburn.

Ms. Johnson easily won her primary on Thursday, The Associated Press said, beating Marquita Bradshaw, an environmental justice activist; Civil Miller-Watkins, a teacher; and Lola Denise Brown, a Democratic activist.

{snip}