Senate Concession Speech - Nov. 5, 2024

Names may be spelled incorrectly.

Hi everybody. Thank you so, so much. I appreciate you all being here. I mean, my heart is so full because I know how hard so many in this state worked. We still have a lot of work to do, there’s no question about that. We wanted to see a different outcome, but one thing that I can say, as far as me and my team go, we know that we worked as hard this campaign as we possibly could, and I had the best team I think you could ever assemble. And I appreciate them so much, and I appreciate the volunteers, and the people who gave up their time, gave up their dollars, all of these things because they believe that Tennesseans are better than what it appears from our elected officials. We are—I will continue this fight, to elect leaders that care about the human dignity of every single person in this state. That seems to me like a low bar, but at this point we don’t have leaders that respect the human dignity of all Tennesseans.

We don’t all have to agree, that’s not ever going to happen. But we can at least respect the human dignity of women in this state and allow women to be equal. Protecting our kids in their schools and protecting our communities from gun violence, to make sure that we don’t have a $7.25 minimum wage in this state. It is not acceptable. And then we expand Medicaid so we’re not losing hospitals, and folks don’t have an hour to an hour and a half to get the care that they need in Tennessee.

These are policy choices from the super majority and from Republicans that are making it hard for some families even to survive, when we need to be making sure that Tennessee’s hardworking families are able to thrive. We will continue fighting for all of these stakes, there is no question; there is a lot at stake. And the work does not stop.

I am so proud to continue to serve House District 90. I knew when I started that I wanted to serve the people of Tennessee, the people whose voices aren’t already heard. Those who feel lost and left behind, and unseen, and unheard. And giving voice to those people is probably the most important thing that I do. Because I’ve been told so many times going across this state, “Thank you for standing up for me. Thank you for seeing me. I feel safer in this state because at least I know some folks care about who I am.” And it’s so important, you all, that we are passing laws that don’t single people out and hate. Pit one group against the other and demonize groups of citizens, whether it be for the color of their skin, or where they are from, or who they love, or how they worship. I believe most Tennesseans are better than that. And I will tell you that I called Marsha Blackburn and congratulated her for her win, and I asked her if we could please have some conversations and talk about ways that we can stop the hate in this state. And that we can change our conversation, so we are not demonizing people who don’t look or love or worship like us.

It was such an honor to go across the state and have people just open their arms to us. We had people that let us stay in their homes, we didn’t have to spend money on hotels because supporters would house us everywhere we went. We had thousands of volunteers like I have never seen before. 67,000 donors, donations to our campaign. 67,000 donations and donors. And I’m so proud that more than 70% of our fundraising came from Tennessee. My opponent couldn’t say that. Only 22% of Marsha Blackburn’s money came from Tennessee. And so I’m so proud that Tennesseans got involved, got engaged, and donated because they care about this state and they want to see better for communities. And I promise you we will fight for that.

But I’ve got to thank some people because it’s just remarkable to me—I know how big a lift it is to run a state-wide campaign, and before I ever ran, Stacey Abrams told me, she said, “You’ve got to go everywhere, and you have got to go where they don’t expect you to go.” So we committed to going to all 95 counties, and that is a lot. But those people were so grateful that we can, and they opened their homes, they showed up to our events, and they helped fundraisers, and we just cannot thank folks enough.

But this is just the beginning. We know we’re not going to win Tennessee back in one cycle, but this is an uphill battle. And I can promise you, we don’t know yet how many, but we’re going to flip some state House seats. We are going to get to work on making sure that we chip away at that super majority until every voice in Tennessee is heard.

But here’s some folks that I want to thank. The original team, which was Sarah. Sarah’s my deputy campaign manager, she’s been with me since 2016, and she works as hard as anyone I know, and I appreciate it so much. And Jacob, who’s been with my fundraising team forever. Lauren, who, bless her heart, was my scheduler. I can’t tell you—I mean, I could not do that job, I’ll just say that right now. When you’re scheduling 95 counties, and there’s this festival in East Tennessee and there’s this festival in West Tennessee, it’s not an easy task. But and Megan and Jaylen. Megan’s on the finance team, Jaylen was the first person that was sort of my body man and drove. But, you know, when I was thinking about laws I might change, one of them is the rental car law that you have to be 25 to drive a rental car. So Jaylen, when we decided to rent a van for the rest of the tour, he was too young to drive, but became an amazing field organizer. And just, I can’t tell you how many people would call me up about my staff and just say, “Oh, so and so was so great.” And I just went down to the office to talk to so and so because they’re doing such a great job and it makes me so proud to know that wherever I am, I know the folks in our offices are being good to folks and making people happy and being able to get them going and get them busy. So, I appreciate that so much.

And my campaign manager, Sara Shouk, who I have known since he was 12 volunteering at the state party. I’m pretty sure it was 12. And then we have Megan, she traveled for a while and also does finance. And then Jason Wiseman came a little bit later and he became the driver when we had to have somebody over 25. But Jason has been great, he really cares about politics, he’s new to Tennessee, and he’s loved his experience of getting ready to drive all over—driving all around and knowing everything about Tennessee now, and a lot of really cool spots, because we did find a lot of those. I also found where the best fried okra, and Trent found out where the best frog legs were. But, you know, it’s tough because Jason was there at 8 a.m. when I don’t love the mornings. He was like, “Hey Gloria, how you doin’?” And I felt like going, “Grr.” But, you know, after you get in the car and you get going, you have your coffee, it’s all good. Our finance team, Chip Forrester was the National Finance Chair. Rose Querta, finance director, Val Ontenez, Sara Baer, Katie Pinland and Katie Magsman, Jacob Clanrock, and Addie Williams just were always there for everything fundraising, pushing me to do call time, because I don’t know if you all know how candidates love to try to avoid call time. But it’s always a push for that.

My political team, McKayla, who you met, she came up before Chip. She’s done a great job going across the state and talking to people, bringing in the groups we needed to talk to, just making sure that we’re doing that outreach to everybody, because you want people to know that you want to talk to them, and you want to reach out to them. But Jack Vaughn came on a little later, and Chazzie Bailey, Joseph he is here, Dara Hall from Memphis, she’s here tonight, so fun to see the Memphis team.

And our Comms team, it was led by Meredith Brasher and Angel Monroe, who is here. And Trent, of course, who did the photography and video. Cam Ferry. Field Team, started with Callie, she’s the field director and we have Nicole, Jaylin is on field team now, and Ruby is in Memphis, that’s where she worked. And then our amazing field staff. Some of you probably met with them if you were doing any door knocking or phone calls. Kate, Fatima, Tyler, Tiffany, Adam, Jenna, Hillary, Lydia, Brooke, Yusuf, Maya, Alex, Gage, Evan, Loretia, and Indui. So, so much thanks to them.

The party, the state part coordinating campaign team, which was Ron Hordova, Andrea Remus, and Noah Stewart. Our consulting team, which was Colin Rehero, from Conexion, Anna Graber was our pollster. Adnan Muslem, who did our mail. Govrie Coleman and Regan Jackson at Battle Ax. Chrissie Heyer from Mission Water, Matt Palms from—did research. And Kelsey Garden did our compliance, and you guys, 67,000 donations means those donations had to be cleared and make sure they were legit—didn’t come from somewhere out of the country, so compliance is really something in a federal election.

I had to say all their names because you guys, it’s been 14 long months, and everybody’s worked so hard. And we did not get there, that’s for sure. But thank you all so much for your part, we are going to continue this fight. It’s not going to stop. We are not going to stop until we have a blue state that recognizes and cares about the human dignity of every single person. Until we have a multiracial, multigenerational, multipartisan coalition that cares about Tennessee and cares about electing leaders that care about Tennessee. Not the billionaires, not the lobbyists, and not the wealthy and well-connected. So, let’s roll on, let’s keep going, we’re going to get some good legislation out there and we’re going to talk to all the rural counties we can. We’ve got a job to do, Tennessee, I’m fighting with you, and let’s go on and let’s see some wins for the blue team tonight.