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Here’s what Blackburn and Johnson’s ads say about their priorities in U.S. Senate standoff

Courtesy of Marsha Blackburn and Gloria Johnson's campaigns
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, left, and her challenger state representative Gloria Johnson, right.
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Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn for one of Tennessee’s two U.S. Senate seats.

The ads the candidates have released so far reflect their priorities — with Johnson making her case on Tennessee issues, and Blackburn campaigning on her national record.

Many of Johnson’s ads emphasize her career as a teacher, not a politician.

She frames herself as a champion of the everyday Tennessean, talking about issues like healthcare costs, reproductive rights and education.

The spots feel local, with one tying back to the Covenant School shooting and her role as a member of the so-called Tennessee Three.

“When my friends and I believed mothers and fathers who’d lost children at Covenant deserved a voice and we fought for it, they expelled them,” Johnson said in one of her ads.

More: Johnson, one of the so-called Tennessee 3, will face Blackburn in U.S. Senate race

By contrast, Blackburn’s ads mainly focus on issues with a national scope — touting her record since taking office in 2019 as the first woman to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.

One is about how tough she is on China.

(It’s worth noting: Chinese-owned land is a tiny fraction of all foreign-owned land in the U.S and an NPR investigation didn’t find any in Tennessee.)

Another ad, narrated by a former pro wrestler and current mayor of Knox County, praises her toughness on border security.

Even though control of the U.S. Senate is up for grabs this November, this race probably won’t decide that balance of power. No Democrat has won a statewide race in Tennessee since 2006.

Paige Pfleger, Criminal Justice Reporter

Paige Pfleger covers criminal justice for WPLN News. She has investigated guns and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, and her investigation into domestic violence and firearms dispossession won a regional Edward R. Murrow award and was a finalist for an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and a Livingston Award. She previously covered criminal justice and addiction in Ohio and was named the state's reporter of the year by the Associated Press. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI's The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of The Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in DC.

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