Out Of The Blue-- The REAL Blue-- Marquita Bradshaw

Tennessee is one of the reddest states in the union. Every statewide elected official is a Republican. The state Senate consists of 28 Republicans and 5 Democrats and the state House has 73 Republicans and 26 Dems. Of the 9 members of Congress, there are 7 Republicans, a Democrat representing strongly blue Memphis and a reactionary Blue Dog so far right in Nashville that the Republicans aren't bothering to even run anyone against him. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary 1,517,402 (61.1%) to 867,110 (34.9%), winning 92 of the state's 95 counties.

Tennessee is the most recent state to cross the 100,000 confirmed COVID cases mark. Thursday, the state reported 2,252 new cases, the 5th worst in the country, behind California, Florida, Texas and Georgia and yesterday the state added another 2,432 new cases, bringing the state total to 118,782 (17,393 cases per Tennessean). Gov, Bill Lee is an anti-mask ideologue and seems determined that thousands of Tennesseans die needlessly. 42 more deaths were reported Thursday and another 20 yesterday, bringing the state total to a rapidly increasing 1,206. How many Tennesseans will have to die before voters there abandon Trump and Lee and knee-jerk, death-cult conservatism?

Thursday's primaries included a complete shock in the Democratic Senate race. Despite Schumer's handpicked candidate, James Mackler, having raised $2,112,630, the results clearly showed that Tennessee Democrats are moving away from wealthy white establishment conservatives. (In 2018 another open red Senate seat saw Schumer push Mackler out of the primary so another wealthy white establishment conservative, Phil Bredesen could waltz into the nomination. Bredensen spent $19,271,700, only to be defeated by the odious far right extremist Marsha Blackburn, who spent about $3 million less than Bredesen. The DSCC spent just over a million helping Bredesen but the Schumer-controlled Majority Forward PAC spent $10 million, most of it ineffectively smearing Blackburn, their biggest expense of the 2018 cycle. She beat him 54.7% to 43.9%. Mackler then started a scammy PAC, Believe in Service, that benefitted no one but himself:

Thursday, Mackler came in a distant third, two African-American women beating him decisively. The more progressive of the two, and the most under-financed, Marquita Bradshaw, won the nomination and will face far right Bill Hagerty-- Trump's candidate-- in November after his own bitterly vicious and divisive Republican Party primary.

Her platform helps explain why: I support Medicare for All.

As your Senator, I will fight to ensure Tennesseans going bankrupt from seeking needed Medical Care is a thing of the past. Having experienced that in my own life, I know what it's like to have to suffer through our current system.

Medicare For All is a good place to start, and I commit to you I will only advocate for legislation that is patient-centered.

I want our system of healthcare to be guided by the health outcomes and experience of patients, not insurance company profits. Fundamentally changing our healthcare system in Tennessee means:

• Fighting for legislation that guarantees when you go to the doctor, you will not leave with a bill that will bankrupt your family.
• Simplifying our system of healthcare in this country. Working families in Tennessee don't have time to worry about copays, deductibles, insurance premiums, and the never-ending list of things that keep you from getting care.
• Including mental, dental, vision, comprehensive reproductive health and addiction wrap-around services help into every conversation and legislation about healthcare. Tennesseeans are having to choose between paying for their medical needs or their mortgages in many cases. This is not right. I will fight for you & your family as hard as I do my own.

I Support the Right to A Fully Funded High-Quality Public Education

Our society demands that we teach our students lifelong learning and skills that will translate to a modern economy. I am a lifelong proponent of funding our education system the same as we do our military in order to promote generations of meaningful success regardless of background or location in Tennessee.

We need meaningful ingenuity on how we teach and treat our children, Pre-K - 12 and beyond, to ensure Tennessee is the leader in the coming generations. To ensure everyone not only meets but exceeds their right to a quality education we must:

• Relieve current student debt and reinstate protections from predatory for-profit student debt companies and colleges. We cannot invest in our youth if they are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars by the time they graduate. A Tennessee economy with that built into it is not sustainable.
• Provide funding available to under-resourced and low performing local education authorities to implement appropriate wrap-around services to set students up for success
• Provide quality childcare and school wrap-around services that support working families in economically depressed communities.
• Fund universal pre-K education giving children the foundation to be lifelong learners.
• Build towards a free technical, community, HBCU, and public college education;  expand grants and work-study options in areas of focus so students can complete their studies debt-free and gain skills in their field of choice.
• Provide education and job training programs to re-skill workers

I Support the Green New Deal

I Support A Living Wage And Workers' Rights

I Support Community Policing, Restorative Justice And Signed The Justice Guarantee Pledge

I Support Universal Background Checks

Very clear-- very much a set of Democratic Party values, not the values of the corporatist neo-libs who have taken over the party establishment and who make the boundaries between the GOP and the Democratic Party fuzzy. She also supports DACA, LGBTQ rights, automatic voter registration, overturning the Citizens United decision and outlawing gerrymandering.

A single mom, a Berniecrat, a community advocate for environmental justice, she's exactly the kind of woman Schumer doesn't want anywhere near the Senate. She joins Paula Jean Swearengin as one of the two challengers for Senate seats endorsed by Blue America-- but not Chuck Schumer-- for the general election. You want fundamental change? That's what clicking on that thermometer on the right will help give us a chance at in November.