Republican US Senator Marsha Blackburn wins re-election in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republicans U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn won re-election on Tuesday, securing a victory in Republican-dominated Tennessee after largely avoiding her Democratic opponent.

Blackburn defeated State Rep. Gloria Johnsonwho became famous last year after she was almost driven from the Statehouse for her participation in a protest against gun control in the House of Representatives. Johnson had hoped that national attention to her gun control reform efforts and support for reproductive rights would appeal to Tennessee voters accustomed to electing Republicans to statewide office.

But Blackburn comfortably secured another victory despite having a much more subdued campaign compared to the grueling victory six years ago.

“It's very important to keep this American dream alive,” Blackburn said during her victory speech Tuesday. “This seat does not belong to any individual, but to the people of Tennessee.”

Blackburn added that Johnson had recently called for concessions, pointing out that her Democratic opponent six years ago – former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen – never did so.

“I appreciate her doing that,” Blackburn said.

Johnson will remain in state politics. The Democrat was unopposed when she ran separately for re-election to her representative seat in eastern Tennessee.

“Our journey doesn’t end here. Our fight for a better Tennessee continues,” Johnson wrote on social media. “Together, I know we will continue to fight for this state we call home.”

Blackburn was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, joined the Tea Party movement and appeared regularly on Fox News. She previously made a name for herself as a state lawmaker who led the revolt against a proposed income tax in Tennessee in the early 2000s.

Her 2018 Senate victory marked a shift to the right from Tennessee's GOP senators who had come before her and ushered in a more conservative wave of candidates seeking to ally with former President Donald Trump.

Trump endorsed Blackburn early in her re-election campaign, a coveted endorsement in a state where Trump defeated Democrat Joe Biden by 23 percentage points in 2020. Blackburn had initially announced that she would not vote to certify Biden's victory, but later changed her mind following the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Since then, she helped craft the GOP's policy platform for Trump and promoted his candidacy in a speech at the Republican National Convention. In one of her first television ads, she emphasized her opposition to transgender athletes in women's sports, a stance that is now part of that platform.

Blackburn raised eyebrows when she recorded a video message declaring the U.S. Supreme Court's Griswold decision – the landmark 1965 case that gave married couples the right to birth control – “unconstitutional” shortly after the court had repealed the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. To date, Blackburn has not clarified what she meant.

Blackburn also caused a stir in 2022 when she asked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing whether she could “define the word 'woman'” and criticized the participation of transgender women in women's sports.

Johnson, 62, has been a critic of Blackburn's policy positions, arguing that most Tennesseans want “sensible gun legislation” and better access to reproductive care.

While on the campaign trail, Johnson also shared her own story of needing an abortion to save her life, given that Tennessee has passed a sweeping abortion ban that provides only a handful of narrow exceptions. Johnson has stressed that she likely wouldn't have been able to make the same decision under the state's current ban.

Blackburn, 72, has opposed gun control measures throughout her political career. After repeatedly deflecting questions about whether she supported a nationwide abortion ban as part of her re-election bid, Blackburn told WTVF-TV last month that she opposes a federal ban as well as any “overreach by the federal government that would interfere with that decision.” “would say.

Before Roe v. Wade was repealed, she voted repeatedly to introduce a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks.

Blackburn's victory in 2018 marked the first time a woman was elected as a U.S. senator in Tennessee.