Joseph Hudak
ROLLING STONE
Tue, September 24, 2024
Willie Nelson, Margo Price. - Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival
Willie Nelson and Margo Price encouraged their fans in Texas and Tennessee to register to vote and cast a ballot in favor of the states’ respective Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. In Texas, Colin Allred is trying to unseat Republican Ted Cruz, while Gloria Johnson — one of the Tennessee Three — is challenging Republican Marsha Blackburn.
In a video filmed around a table on Nelson’s tour bus, the Farm Aid board members endorse Allred and Johnson in a short speech. “I know we’re all talking about the presidential race, and that’s important, but Margo and I want to talk about our Texas and Tennessee voters,” Nelson says, reading from a sheet of paper.
“Colin Allred is running against Ted Cruz in Texas and I know firsthand that Colin will represent all Texans,” Nelson says, “no matter their race, who they worship, or who they love.”
“And I know Gloria will do something about the gun problem this country faces,” Price says of Johnson, who, with Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, famously protested on the Tennessee statehouse floor the inaction by their Republican peers to pass gun reform in the wake of the 2023 Covenant school shooting in Nashville.
In all, there are 33 U.S. Senate seats in contention this November. The voter registration deadline in Texas and Tennessee is Oct. 7. Nelson says to make a voting plan and “bring three friends to the polls and vote for Colin Allred.” Price, meanwhile, uses a different tactic. Pointing out that Tennessee has the lowest voter turnout in the nation, she admonishes, “Friends don’t sleep with people that don’t vote.”
Along with being a Tennessee state representative, Johnson is a former special education teacher who has spoken out in favor of gun reform, reproductive rights, and racial equality. When asked by reporters why her Tennessee Three colleagues, Pearson and Jones, who are Black, were expelled from the House following their protest and she was not, Johnson replied, “I’ll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
In Texas, Allred is a college football star who played four seasons with the Tennessee Titans and left the NFL in 2011 to pursue a law career. He held positions in the White House Counsel’s office under the Obama administration, and at the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. Recent polls show Allred neck and neck with Cruz.
Tue, September 24, 2024
Willie Nelson, Margo Price. - Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival
Willie Nelson and Margo Price encouraged their fans in Texas and Tennessee to register to vote and cast a ballot in favor of the states’ respective Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. In Texas, Colin Allred is trying to unseat Republican Ted Cruz, while Gloria Johnson — one of the Tennessee Three — is challenging Republican Marsha Blackburn.
In a video filmed around a table on Nelson’s tour bus, the Farm Aid board members endorse Allred and Johnson in a short speech. “I know we’re all talking about the presidential race, and that’s important, but Margo and I want to talk about our Texas and Tennessee voters,” Nelson says, reading from a sheet of paper.
“Colin Allred is running against Ted Cruz in Texas and I know firsthand that Colin will represent all Texans,” Nelson says, “no matter their race, who they worship, or who they love.”
“And I know Gloria will do something about the gun problem this country faces,” Price says of Johnson, who, with Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, famously protested on the Tennessee statehouse floor the inaction by their Republican peers to pass gun reform in the wake of the 2023 Covenant school shooting in Nashville.
In all, there are 33 U.S. Senate seats in contention this November. The voter registration deadline in Texas and Tennessee is Oct. 7. Nelson says to make a voting plan and “bring three friends to the polls and vote for Colin Allred.” Price, meanwhile, uses a different tactic. Pointing out that Tennessee has the lowest voter turnout in the nation, she admonishes, “Friends don’t sleep with people that don’t vote.”
Along with being a Tennessee state representative, Johnson is a former special education teacher who has spoken out in favor of gun reform, reproductive rights, and racial equality. When asked by reporters why her Tennessee Three colleagues, Pearson and Jones, who are Black, were expelled from the House following their protest and she was not, Johnson replied, “I’ll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
In Texas, Allred is a college football star who played four seasons with the Tennessee Titans and left the NFL in 2011 to pursue a law career. He held positions in the White House Counsel’s office under the Obama administration, and at the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. Recent polls show Allred neck and neck with Cruz.
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