Fall matchup set between 'Tennessee Three' Democrat Gloria Johnson and GOP US Sen. Marsha Blackburn

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a top Republican ally of former President Donald Trump, will square off this fall in Tennessee against Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson, whose progressive profile rose nationally when her GOP colleagues tried to boot her from office over a gun control protest on the chamber floor.

Both women fended off primary challenges Thursday, setting up a distinctly different general election than Blackburn faced when she first won her office in 2018 while she was in the U.S. House.

Blackburn won six years ago by beating Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen by almost 11 percentage points, toppling a well-liked moderate candidate who had hoped to have crossover appeal with even some Republican voters and who even ultimately supported Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious nomination to the Supreme Court. Tennessee has now only elected GOP statewide candidates for nearly two decades, picking further-right candidates who align with Trump instead of the conservative dealmakers of its past.

Blackburn again is touting an endorsement by Trump, who beat President Joe Biden by 23 percentage points in Tennessee in 2020. She helped craft the GOP’s policy platform for Trump this year and touted his candidacy in her Republican National Convention speech. One of her first TV ads highlighted her opposition to transgender athletes in women’s sports, now part of that GOP platform.