October 24th, 2024
By: Mayor Glenn Jacobs
Over the past decade, former President Donald Trump and the tea party movement have transformed the Republican Party. In the post-Reagan era, the GOP became overly focused on Wall Street profits and foreign wars, losing touch with the very people who once comprised its base.
But through all those years in the wilderness for the GOP writ large, a consistent conservative voice advocated for Tennesseans – first in Nashville, then in Washington, D.C., Marsha Blackburn was a conservative fighter before it was cool.
As a state senator she took on both the radical left and members of her own party when they tried to institute a state income tax. The pressure was high, but Blackburn stood strong for Tennessee. Much of the economic prosperity we enjoy today is due to our status as one of only a handful of states without an income tax.
She has always been a steadfast ally to the anti-abortion-rights movement, gun owners and family-values conservatives everywhere. Blackburn was never content to simply vote the right way. She was also a tireless advocate for the conservative cause, preaching our message on talk radio and cable news long before it was in vogue.
And for the past six years, she has served our state honorably in the U.S. Senate. In keeping with her career theme of going first where no other conservative has dared to go, Blackburn asked future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing to provide a definition for the word ‘woman.’ Jackson responded, “I’m not a biologist.” In July, Blackburn was among a group of U.S. senators who confronted and chased then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to answer for her agency’s failure to protect Trump after the assassination attempt on him July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. She leads the way in seeking truth and demanding answers for the American people.
Members of the radical left in Tennessee are working harder than ever to take Blackburn down. She is not facing someone like former Gov. Phil Bredesen this cycle. Her challenger, state Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, is the most radical liberal ever nominated statewide by the Tennessee Democratic Party.
And this November, the stakes could not be higher.
Many Americans are struggling to afford necessities as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, continue to sink our economy with their radical socialist policies. Our open southern border lets cartels smuggle migrants and drugs into our country because Biden and Harris would rather be politically correct than prioritize the safety of Americans. Our national security is undermined by Democrats’ efforts to weaken and woke-ify the military. Our children’s and their children’s ability to dream the American dream is on the line.
We need Donald Trump in the White House, and we need conservative fighters like Marsha Blackburn in the Senate to right the ship.
Glenn Jacobs is the mayor of Knox County.