Marquita Bradshaw, an environmental justice lawyer who ran her House of Representatives campaign on a budget budget, won a rebellious victory in the state’s Democratic primary on Thursday, fielding a candidate with party- support with her side on.
Ms. Bradshaw, a political novice who grew up in South Memphis, won by about 9 percentage points to become the first Black woman to receive a nomination from a major party for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee.
She opposes an up-and-coming climb against Republican nominee Bill Hagerty to demand the seat of retired Senator Lamar Alexander. Tennessee has not elected a Democratic senator since Al Gore, 30 years ago.
In an interview on Friday, Ms. Bradshaw covered her status as an underdog.
“Working people showed that my livelihood was different,” she said. “I knew it was going to happen – I could see the momentum.”
Ms Bradshaw defeated four opponents, including James Mackler, an Army veteran backed by the Democratic Senate Campaign Commission who, according to allegations at the Federal Election Commission, had raised more than $ 2 million. The latest available announcements showed that Ms. Bradshaw had raised only $ 800 at the end of March.
But she said that in the last weeks of the race her campaign saw an increase in donations of small dollars from across the state, which she largely attributed to a platform that weaved issues of environment and social justice – problems, she said, that too many Tennesseans have to deal with day-to-day and that too few lawmakers are addressing at the moment.
On the campaign track, Ms. wrote and spoke. Bradshaw often talks about environmental racism, drawing on her experience growing up at a Superfund site.
“People here know how important it is for an environmental justice vote in the U.S. Senate,” she said. “It’s about the importance of creating a fair transition away from pollution. The health and lives of people are on the line. ”
Mrs Bradshaw rejected the idea that Tennessee was a decisive red state. As an organizer, she said, she was intimately aware of how many people in the state simply did not vote – more, she said, than when active Republican and Democratic voters combined.
She said the ‘relational organization’ strategy that could enable her to identify new voters in the primary would also support her campaign for the general election.
The Tennessee Democratic Party is also of the opinion that the candidacy of Ms. Bradshaw has the chance to lure Republicans who may have been on the right wing of the party during the Trump era.
‘I always hear people say,’ I did not leave the Republican Party – the Republican Party left me. “And those are the other voters we are going to go to,” said Mary Mancini, the president of the state party.
She said the Tennessee Republican Senate primary, in which Mr. Hagerty dealt with his opponent, Manny Sethi, an orthopedic surgeon, had “reflected some of the most divisive campaigns in Tennessee history.”
“The GOP and Tennessee candidates have become so extreme that they are alienating more Tennesseans every day,” she added. “We have an incredible opportunity to convince voters that there is a better option for you – that you have a real choice here.”
And when it comes to the party’s basic voters, Ms. Mancini that there was already palpable enthusiasm about the historic nature of the nomination of Ms. Bradshaw. “What we saw yesterday was that Tennessee Democrats were clearly looking to increase women’s votes of color,” including race runner-up Robin Kimbrough, she said. “This is an important time in Tennessee history.”
Ms. Bradshaw appeared to recall that fact on Thursday night when she delivered her victory speech.
“When we practiced this race, many told us we had no place here,” she said. “And hard-working Tennesseans said otherwise last night.”
The Sunrise Movement, an influential group of progressive climate activists, celebrated the victory of Mrs. Bradshaw in a tweet and praised their platform. “It’s 2020 and great things are happening,” the organization said.
Still, for all the enthusiasm that Ms. Bradshaw may have originated under the liberal base of the state, Tennessee remains one of the reddest states in the country, noted Tom Ingram, former chief of staff to Mr. Alexander. Mr. Hagerty defeated a full field by campaigning almost exclusively for the encouragement of President Trump.
“This is still Trump land,” Mr. Ingram said.
Matt Stevens contributed reporting.
