This archive report was first published on 7 August 2020.
On August 6, 2020, Marquita Bradshaw made history by winning the Tennessee Senate Democratic primary, an upset victory that saw her brush aside a party-backed candidate who had significantly out-raised her.
Ms. Bradshaw, a political novice from South Memphis, won by roughly 9 percentage points, becoming the first Black woman to gain a major party's nomination for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee.
She faces a tough challenge against Republican nominee Bill Hagerty to claim the seat held by retiring Senator Lamar Alexander. Tennessee has not elected a Democratic senator since Al Gore, 30 years ago.
Ms. Bradshaw attributed her victory to a surge in small-dollar donations from across the state, which she said was driven by her platform that wove together issues of environmental and social justice.
“Working people showed that my viability was different,” she said in an interview. “I knew it was going to happen — I could see the momentum.”
Ms. Bradshaw finished ahead of four opponents, including James Mackler, an Army veteran backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who had raised over $2 million. In contrast, Ms. Bradshaw's campaign had raised only $8,400 by the end of March.
She said that her campaign's strategy of “relational organizing” would underpin her campaign ahead of the general election as well, and that she believed her candidacy had the opportunity to entice Republicans who were perhaps jaded by the party's rightward lurch in the Trump era.
