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

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

Bradshaw said on her campaign website that 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
  • Office sought: U.S. Senate, Tennessee
  • Election date: Nov. 3, 2026
  • Born: Jan. 12, 1974, Memphis
  • Education: Bachelor's degree in journalism, University of Memphis (2019)
  • Residence: South Memphis (tenth-generation resident, according to her campaign)

Experience and public service

Bradshaw was the first African American woman to win a major political party nomination in any statewide race in Tennessee, according to Wikipedia. She won the 2020 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate but lost the general election to Hagerty by 27 percentage points, according to the Nashville Banner. She ran again in 2024 but lost the Democratic primary to Gloria Johnson.

She founded Sowing Justice in December 2020, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on civic engagement in communities affected by pollution. She serves as its executive director, according to BallotReady profile data.

Her earlier advocacy work included co-founding Youth Terminating Pollution and serving as environmental justice committee chair for the Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter, according to Wikipedia. She also volunteered as project director for the Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee Concerned Citizens Committee. She worked as a recruiter for the AFL-CIO from 2007 to 2009, according to BallotReady.

On the issues

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

Environment and energy: Bradshaw said she supports the Green New Deal. She called for requiring corporations to have environmental, social and governance plans to rapidly remediate their waste and decrease environmental harm, according to her campaign website.

In the Knox News questionnaire, she said, "We have to move toward cleaner, greener energy for a transition to break our dependency on fossil fuel." She also called for a national moratorium on data centers until their energy, water and pollution impacts are understood, saying costs are being passed to everyday working people.

Healthcare: Bradshaw said on her campaign website she would fight to ensure Tennesseans do not go bankrupt from medical care. She called for including mental, dental, vision, comprehensive reproductive health and addiction wrap-around services in healthcare legislation.

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

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

Guns and public safety: Bradshaw said she supports universal background checks, extreme risk/red flag laws, gun safety education and licensing requirements, and disarming domestic abusers, according to her campaign website.

Endorsements

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

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