Tennessee gun-control advocate wins Senate primary, will face Marsha Blackburn in November

Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson skyrocketed to national prominence as member of the ' Tennessee Three ', weathering an ouster vote by Republican lawmakers in the wake of a Nashville school shooting and gun control protest.

On Thursday, Johnson won the Tennessee Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate and will now take on Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in November.

Johnson clinched the Democratic nomination over Memphis advocate Marquita Bradshaw, Lola Denise Brown and Civil Miller-Watkins.

The Associated Press called the race for Johnson shortly after polls closed, even as votes had yet to be tallied in Tennessee's major metro areas.

Gloria Johnson's rise to prominence

Johnson's profile rose to a national platform last year after Tennessee Republican lawmakers tried and failed to expel her from the state House over her role in a gun reform protest following a deadly Nashville school shooting. The political spotlight also helped Johnson strike gold on the fundraising trail, pulling in $5 million through the primary.

Johnson, a retired teacher, was first elected to the Tennessee House in 2012 but later lost her seat by a slim margin. She sought and won office again in 2017. In 2022, Republicans drew her into a Democratic colleague's district in a new redistricting effort. The retired teacher moved and won election a new seat.

Alongside her Senate bid, she is simultaneously running for reelection in House District 90 in Knox County. Johnson is unopposed in the race.

Gloria Johnson vs. Marsha Blackburn

Unseating a Republican incumbent in Tennessee will be an uphill battle, despite Johnson's fundraising prowess, but Johnson in July said it was "doable." She'll enter the general election with nearly $2 million on hand.

"In 2018 Marsha Blackburn won by 200,000 votes," Johnson said. "We know there are 300,000 Democratic voters who haven't voted in the last few cycles. We get those folks to the polls, we win this race."

Johnson has already been campaigning against Blackburn for months, with most of the Knoxville Democrat's primary campaign focused on her GOP challenger over Bradshaw.

Blackburn is seeking a second six-year term as Tennessee's senior U.S. Senator and has strong name recognition and popularity among Republicans in deep-red Tennessee. She easily defeated little-known GOP challenger Tres Wittum in the Republican primary Thursday.

Blackburn was first elected to office in 2018, beating out former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen. Bredesen carried 43.9% of the vote and only three Tennessee counties.

Prior to that, no Democrat had cracked 40% of the vote in a statewide contest since 2006. Bredesen remains the last Democrat to win a statewide election when he won all 95 counties in his 2006 gubernatorial reelection campaign.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee gun-control advocate wins Senate primary, will face Marsha Blackburn in November