Democrat Marquita Bradshaw officially lost the U.S. Senate race to U.S. Sen.-Elect Bill Hagerty Tuesday by a landslide margin, but she said Tuesday that she refuses to accept the results.
Bradshaw also said she won’t address Hagerty as her new U.S. senator.
Bradshaw said this while addressing her supporters Tuesday night. This, after Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett posted election results on that department’s website.
“In true South Memphis style we fight for everything that we have to get. This is not a concession speech. It is on the principle of democracy that we will fight until every last vote is counted,” Bradshaw told her followers Tuesday.
“I have already made history, and that was not my intention. But what I will do is make sure that you know that your vote will be counted in this United States Senate race. Because I know the antics that they’ve done in the past, and it goes no farther than here. So, in true South Memphis style, we will fight and we will go find my votes at the bottom of the basement.”
Bradshaw offered no evidence to support her accusations.
Bradshaw, according to election results, got 35 percent of the vote to Hagerty’s 62 percent.
As The Tennessee Star reported in August, Bradshaw is an environmental activist and former AFL-CIO organizer. Bradshaw’s campaign website describes her as “a lifelong environmentalist and activist for social & economic justice who has proudly fought alongside the people of Tennessee.”
The website also lists her as a community organizer who volunteers for, among other groups, the AFL-CIO, the left-leaning Sierra Club Executive Committee, and the Tennessee African American Environmental Justice Network.
Bradshaw said Tuesday that she is not going away.
“Bill Hagerty is not my U.S. senator and we will count the last vote,” Bradshaw said.
“My name is Marquita Bradshaw, and I will be your next United States senator.”
