Jerri Green and Marsha Blackburn: A Study in Contrasts

While Grandma Marsha spends her campaign funds fearmongering about the Chinese making nonexistent purchases of TN farmland, and ginning up hate with lies against brown and black immigrants, Democratic candidate, Jerri Green, mother of three school-age boys, has a detailed and multifaceted plan for her first term as Governor of Tennessee. Including education, which is a top priority.

From Andy Spears:

Green has said she supports suspending the state’s voucher program - so, at a minimum, halting future growth - so state funds can be directed toward public schools. 

Her campaign also spells out the framework for a comprehensive Pre-K-12 education agenda.

Jerri Green will:

• Fully fund K-12 public education—not siphon dollars into unaccountable voucher schemes

• Raise teacher pay and restore respect to the profession

• Expand access to school counselors, nurses, and support staff

• Protect honest, inclusive education—not censorship and political theater

• Invest in universal pre-K, special education, and rural schools

• Launch Public Service Year Program for high school graduates

• Waive GED testing fees and take testing to all corners of the state

• Start a dedicated childcare and early education fund, to include investments in afterschool and summer care programming for households making less than $75K a year

• Ensure every public high school provides mental health screenings any parent can opt their child into

• Set up a Special Education Equity Fund to ensure no students fall through the cracks as the Trump Administration cuts critical services for students with disabilities and special needs

• Set up a “Teach Every Student” fellowship to encourage more teachers to go into special education

• Use all possible medicaid dollars within schools to make sure students have the supports they need

Marsha Blackburn, the Drug Industry, and TN’s #3 Ranking in Drug Deaths

  

After Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored the federal legislation that made it almost impossible for DEA to apprehend mail-order opioids, she received $120,000 from the drug industry. 

Link to the 60 Minutes story: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/

Marsha Blackburn Wants to Keep TN as #1 in Worst State to Live

Tennessee has an incarceration rate of 817 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country on earth. —Prison Policy Initiative

Republicans have maintained a supermajority in both TN legislative chambers since 2010, and they have controlled the Governor’s Office since 2011. Governor Bill Lee’s term will end this year, and a new governor will be elected in November. 

For the past eight of those sixteen years, Marsha Blackburn has occupied one of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats, and she has been a reliable rubber stamp for convicted felon and failed insurrectionist, Donald Trump. Now Blackburn, age 74, wants to retire to the soon-to-be-vacated Governor’s Mansion in the Fall, where she can continue Bill Lee’s efforts to make Tennessee the model state for MAGA extremism.  

And so she is amassing millions of out-of-state dollars in hopes of winning what could be a close primary. If she wins the primary, she is likely to face attorney and Memphis Councilwoman, Jerri Green, age 48. Never has there been a starker contrast between two U.S. Senate candidates. 

Yesterday Sen. Blackburn was on the Fox Propaganda Channel trying to push back on a question about Tennessee’s #1 ranking on CNBC’s recent analysis of Worst States to Live. Sorry, Marsha, but the facts are in:

Tennessee Republicans, led by Gov. Bill Lee, make no apologies for a rash of state laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a so-called “bathroom law” requiring transgender people to use the facilities designated for their sex at birth. The state also explicitly bars localities from adopting their own antidiscrimination ordinances. To underscore the point, Lee signed a resolution earlier this year designating June “Nuclear Family Month.”  

“The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world,” the resolution states. 

Its sponsors deliberately timed the observance to coincide with the month when Tennessee’s more than 300,000 LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride. 

Inclusiveness isn’t the only area where the Volunteer State falls short. Tennessee also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, according to FBI statistics. And it has the third-highest rate of drug deaths, according to the United Health Foundation. 

2026 Quality of Life score: 64 out of 290 points (Top States grade: F) 

Strength: Air Quality 

Weaknesses: Crime, Inclusiveness, Worker Protections 

Blackburn and Hagerty Among Senate’s Most Corrupt

 

TENNESSEAN: “Ethics complaint filed claiming 8 Senators ― including @MarshaBlackburn & @SenatorHagerty ― violated conflict of interest rules by supporting a provision allowing them to sue the government for millions…” (Finally they cover this story! 👏🏽) www.tennessean.com/story/news/p...

[image or embed]

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 15, 2025 at 7:21 AM

Marsha Blackburn Lies on the U.S. Senate Floor

Marsha Blackburn has been known to offer up some whoppers on the Fox propaganda channel, but now she has been spotted lying outrageously on the Senate floor.  We’re talking Trump-class lying.

In this clip, she blatantly lies when she says that extension of the ACA health care tax credits will cost "450 billion hard-earned dollars every single year.” 

Rather than $450 billion per year, as Lying Marsha claims, extending the enhanced tax credits will cost $350 billion over 10 years—with 3.6 million additional Americans who will be able to afford health care, thanks to the credits.  

Here are the facts, brought to you by the Congressional Budget Office and summarized at Congress.gov—you know, where Marsha has an office. 

What Might Happen If the Enhanced Subsidies Are Extended?

CBO and JCT provided budgetary and coverage estimates under a permanent extension of the enhanced PTC.21 They estimated that direct spending would increase by nearly $296 billion (on net) over the FY2026-FY2035 budget window and that revenues would decrease (on net) by more than $54 billion over the same window. Taken together, the permanent extension would add approximately $350 billion to the budget deficit for that time period. 

In addition, CBO and JCT estimated that, under a permanent extension, "the number of people with health insurance would increase by 3.6 million in 2030 and by 3.8 million in 2035."22 CBO also projected that gross benchmark premiums would decrease 7.6%, on average, each year over the 2026-2035 period.

 

Sen. Blackburn Continues to Lie to and Deceive TN Voters

The paragraph below is from the most recent weekly propaganda sheet, the Blackburn Report.  Below that is my response.

Attorney General William Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report. The Attorney General told me he believed the Special Counsel’s investigation was exhaustive. We now know the President did not collude with the Russians, and the Attorney General did not recommend any obstruction charges. Yet I remain concerned about the politicized culture among a select group of FBI and Justice Department employees. Tennesseans have told me time and again they want to see these government agencies held fully accountable for their actions, and I support the Attorney General’s efforts to investigate further and restore public confidence within these institutions.

 

Senator Blackburn:

Your most recent Blackburn Report is disturbing for its levels of deception, propaganda, and lies. As you know, the Mueller Report examined the question of criminal conspiracy, rather than collusion (which is not a chargeable offense, even if it rises to the level of being impeachable).  So to suggest that the Report concludes there was no collusion is a flagrant misrepresentation of the facts, which is designed to mislead Tennessee voters.

Secondly, the corrupt Attorney General Barr's failure to recommend criminal charges of obstruction says nothing about the dozen examples of obstruction that Mueller details in the Report.  Both Mueller and Barr are following Justice Department guidelines in not indicting a sitting President, so to suggest that Barr's refusal to recommend charges exonerates Trump is deceptive and misleading propaganda.  In fact, the Mueller Report states explicitly that it does NOT exonerate Trump. 

Finally, and most importantly, your disgusting newsletter does not even mention the fact that Mueller established without doubt a detailed record of Russia's malicious tampering with the 2016 election.  It is obvious that, instead of working to make sure our elections are fair, both you and Trump would rather blame the FBI for pointing out that a foreign adversary helped to assure Trump's illegitimate presidency.  It is obvious, too, that the Republican Party would rather see the same result in 2020 by any means necessary, even if it requires the help of the murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin.

Sincerely,

Jim Horn

Update:  The NYTimes reports today that hundreds of legal authorities agree that Trump would be facing obstruction charges if he were not President.

Tennessee Children (and Adults) Beware of Blackburn Lies

Marsha Blackburn's weekly "Blackburn Report" offers clear signs that Tennessee's new U. S. Senator will send current awareness levels in the state to a new low.  From the example below, it's obvious that Marsha plans to use Trump-level lies to scare and misinform her poor constituents into supporting the malignant agenda of her billionaire political patrons.  

THE “GREEN NEW DEAL” IS SOCIALIST TRIPE
From banning beef cattle to raising gas prices to killing countless Tennessee jobs, the “Green New Deal” would drag our state’s economy into the red if it ever became law. This week, I penned a column on the dangers of this socialist plan for Tennessee’s most productive industries like agriculture, energy, and logistics. I hope Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asks the Senate to vote on the Green New Deal as soon as possible. I will proudly be the first senator in line to vote against this ludicrous plan. When it is defeated, I will celebrate with my family by enjoying some juicy, delicious burgers.