Marquita Bradshaw, a Memphis Democrat and environmental justice advocate, is running for U.S. Senate in the Tuesday, Nov. 3 Tennessee general election.

Bradshaw faces Republican Bill Hagerty and eight independent candidates: Andrew Gerena, Catherine Barcel Whitson, David Sutman Jr., James William Macon III, Jeremy Dean Hearn, Robert Jones, Tharon Chandler and Yoshi D. Matthews, according to BallotReady election data.

On her campaign website, Bradshaw said her priorities include affordable healthcare and housing, strong public schools, universal broadband, voting rights, fair electoral districts, climate resilience, environmental justice and greater economic opportunity.

Candidate information

  • Party: Democratic
  • Born: Jan. 12, 1974, in Memphis
  • Education: Bachelor's degree in journalism, University of Memphis, 2019
  • Residence: South Memphis. Bradshaw describes herself on her campaign website as a tenth-generation South Memphis resident.
  • Notable: Bradshaw was the first African American woman to win a major political party nomination in any statewide race in Tennessee, according to Wikipedia, when she won the 2020 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Experience and public service

Bradshaw founded Sowing Justice in December 2020, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on increasing civic engagement in communities near pollution sources. She serves as its executive director.

Before that, she was a co-founder of Youth Terminating Pollution and served as volunteer project director of the Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee, according to Wikipedia. She also chaired the Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter's environmental justice committee.

Bradshaw worked as a recruiter for the AFL-CIO from 2007 to 2009 and as an administrative aide at Public Partnership from 2016 to 2023, according to BallotReady profile data.

This is Bradshaw's third Senate bid. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020, winning the Democratic primary but losing the general election to Hagerty by 27 percentage points, the Nashville Banner reported. She ran again in 2024 but lost the Democratic primary to Gloria Johnson.

On the issues

The following positions are drawn from Bradshaw's campaign website and her responses to a Knox News voter guide questionnaire.

Energy and environment: Bradshaw said she supports the Green New Deal. She said on her campaign website that she wants to require corporations to have environmental, social and governance plans to remediate waste and decrease environmental harm. In her Knox News questionnaire response, she said a transition away from fossil fuels is necessary because "when gas goes up, everything goes up, especially the things working people need." She also called for a national moratorium on data centers "until we understand exactly how much energy, how much water and how much pollution …" they require, she said.

Healthcare: Bradshaw said on her campaign website she is fighting for legislation to prevent medical bankruptcies. She said she wants mental, dental, vision, reproductive health and addiction services included in healthcare legislation, adding that Tennesseans "are having to choose between paying for their medical needs or their mortgages in many cases."

Economy and wages: Bradshaw said she supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and providing incentives and investments to small and medium-sized business owners, according to her campaign website.

Education: Bradshaw said she supports funding universal pre-K, building toward free technical, community, HBCU and public college education, and relieving student debt, according to her campaign website.

Guns and public safety: Bradshaw said she supports universal background checks, extreme risk or red flag laws, gun safety education and licensing requirements, and disarming domestic abusers, according to her campaign website. She also said she supports community policing and restorative justice.

Endorsements

Bradshaw has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, according to BallotReady profile data.

Candidate positions were drawn from Bradshaw's campaign website and her responses to published questionnaires. The Franklin Beacon did not interview the candidate for this profile.