Gloria Johnson Isn't Coming For Your Grill, Burger, Or Lightbulbs. She's Coming For Idiot Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

A Johnson win could considerably raise US Senate's average IQ.

Yesterday marked one year since Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson announced she would run against Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R), one of the three stupidest people in the US Senate. (Regular Wonkette readers can easily name the other two: Republicans Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Ron Johnson, who comes from Wisconsin.)

Gloria Johnson Would Like To ‘Tennessee Three’-Step Marsha Blackburn Right Out Of US Senate

Blackburn’s bigotry is so vile that Taylor Swift was moved to endorse Democrat Phil Bredesen’s 2018 challenge to Blackburn. Blackburn regularly spouts nonsense, like her weird claim that Democratic women are “Stepford wives” who won’t let women be wives and mothers, which is kind of not what that book/movie was about. Blackburn has also explained that Tennesseans won’t mind losing a few rights, because Supreme court decisions like 1965’s Griswold v. Connecticut “confuse” Tennesseans.

Johnson, you’ll recall, became famous last year as a member of the “Tennessee Three,” who were targeted for expulsion by the Republican supermajority in the state Legislature for the unpardonable crime of speaking up against gun violence — in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Nashville, just 15 minutes away from the state Capitol. If you have any memory cells still functioning in these Hell Years, you’ll also recall that the other two renegade supporters of not letting kids be shot, Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, were expelled, but were returned to the House by voters the second it was legally permissible, while Johnson, who is a white woman instead of a young Black man, survived the expulsion attempt by a single vote.

Forgive Them Lord They ... Oh Wait. They Do. Tennessee House Lets Its Racist Freak Flag Fly.

Right after announcing her Senate run last year, Johnson tweeted, “I've spent my life standing up to bullies, and Marsha Blackburn is the biggest bully I know. Now I'm running to replace her.” Just to stay in character, Blackburn reacted to the announcement that she had a challenger with a load of angry word salad, calling Johnson a “radical socialist” who’s as “woke as they come,” and warning Johnson would be a “puppet for Joe Biden, the Squad, and Chuck Schumer,” and are you scared yet?

Johnson and Blackburn each won their parties’ respective primaries on August 1, and Johnson is hoping that the wave of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign will give her a boost, even in red, red Tennessee. As Yr Wonkette noted in June, a Vanderbilt University poll found that among Tennessee women at least, Johnson had a solid lead of 49 to 43 percent. Unfortunately, because of an oversight in the drafting of the 19th Amendment, Tennessee men still have the franchise, so the poll’s overall result had Blackburn ahead at 51 to 40 over Johnson.

And while it may not be reflected in polls, Johnson told our Evan Hurst that when she meets Republicans at campaign events — a not-uncommon occurrence — they tell her they’re supporting her because of two issues: guns and the Dobbs decision. Anecdotal evidence and all that, but even in putative red states, women (and men, as in this gift-linked story from the Washington Post) are PISSED. And as the outpouring of support for the Tennessee Three last year demonstrated, a lot of Tennesseans are getting good and fed up with one-party rule in the state.

Will Kamala-mentum and widespread loathing for All Things Trumpy, coupled with a focused effort to get out the Democratic vote to break the GOP supermajority in the Lege, be enough to finally elect Tennessee’s first Democratic senator since that Albert Gore Jr. fellow was reelected in 1990? Nobody knows, but as Johnson told Evan in June,

[She] believes it’s possible, and she also believes that even if she only managed to come really, really close, it would scare the everloving shit out of elected MAGA Republicans.

So hell yes, go support Gloria Johnson, and if you can afford it, other Democrats in tight races too! Electing Kamala Harris would be terrific, but she can only make real progress if we can also hold the Senate and flip the House. OK, you Stepford Spouses, you have your programming. Get out there and let’s win a trifecta, OK?

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Taylor Swift Gives Marsha Blackburn Swift Kick In The Ass

Gloria Johnson Is Smart, Cool, Talks About Abortion Out Loud. Doth Tennessee Dare Make This Non-Lunatic A Senator?

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[NPR / Nashville Banner / Gloria Johnson For US Senate]

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