Gun control was at the heart of Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson’s candidacy for U.S. Senate, which helps to explain why it didn’t take long for our friends at DDHQ to project that incumbent Sen. Marsha Blackburn will win re-election. The race was called shortly after the polls officially closed, and with about 10% of the returns in, Blackburn is leading Johnson 77-21. Those numbers will undoubtedly tighten up as votes from Memphis and Nashville come in, but they won’t be enough to send Johnson to D.C. 

Johnson captured the hearts and minds of Democrats around the country when she and two other Memphis-area legislators led protests for more gun control laws from the floor of the state House after the Covenant School Shootings last year. Johnson was hoping to use her newfound celebrity on the left as a springboard to the Senate, but even before the first returns came in there were clear signs that her campaign was struggling. 

Last week the New York Times ran a glowing profile of Johnson, but admitted in the headline that her campaign “appears destined to fail.” Instead of seeking victory, Johnson moved the goalposts for her campaign and said she was really thinking about “the importance of flipping the State House and the State Senate.”

Well, that’s not going to happen either. Though Democrats may pick up a couple of seats in both chambers, it looks like Republicans will keep control of the state House and Senate this year. And though Johnson won’t be heading to Washington, D.C., she will be returning to Nashville. 

Regardless of the Senate outcome, Ms. Johnson is guaranteed to remain in office: She is also running unopposed for her seat in the State Legislature. She was first elected in 2012 and represents part of Knoxville. 

Her position within the state party has also shaped her alliance with a number of first-time candidates, many of whom cite the aftermath of the 2023 school shooting as motivation for running.

Few are expected to flip Republican-held seats. But even contesting some of these seats is a signal of progress for the party, which has repeatedly failed to recruit any candidates or secure national support for those who do run.

There is one important lesson for Second Amendment advocates here, and that is the power of being present. Even if districts that are deep-blue, we need to be recruiting candidates that can run on a pro-2A platform. Ideally, in those Democratic strongholds we’d find pro-2A Democrats to run for office, but even having a Second Amendment-supporting Republican on the ballot in a race that’s almost guaranteed to go blue would help us bring our message to a portion of the electorate that’s rarely exposed to a pro-2A point of view. It’s certainly better than seeing anti-gun candidates run unopposed. 

As for Johnson’s campaign, now that the Democrat has flamed out will the media in Tennessee and beyond admit that, contrary to their months of messaging, it’s gun control advocates who are out-of-step with Tennessee voters? Will they acknowledge that that the restrictions they promote as common sense don’t make a lick of sense at all to most Tenneeseans? 

I’d be downright shocked if that happened. Instead, we’re likely to see them double down on their rhetoric and continue to paint the Republicans who control the legislature as uncaring monsters in the back pocket of the firearms industry who put campaign donations over the lives of children, even though that’s not a message that will lead Democrats to victory, at least in Tennessee. Just ask Gloria Johnson.