In an interview with Townhall this week, Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn reiterated her support for former President Donald Trump and called for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to drop out of the 2024 race.
“When you look at all the polling that is out there, you saw the results in Iowa, you see the polling in New Hampshire, we have polling in just about every state and Donald Trump has such a commanding lead. It is time for us to unify the [Republican] Party, it is time for us to get behind President Donald Trump and support his reelection efforts,” Blackburn said.
“We have to make certain that we get this country back on the right track,” she added. Blackburn’s remarks come ahead of the New Hampshire primary, days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race.
Previously, Blackburn nudged Haley to drop out of the race on X (formerly Twitter).
Good on @RonDeSantis for allowing us to unify. Your turn, @NikkiHaley.
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) January 21, 2024
The @GOP must unite around @realDonaldTrump to defeat Joe Biden.
Blackburn began representing her state in the U.S. Senate in 2019. She is up for reelection this November.
“I am focused on the issues that Tennesseeans care about, that they talk about, that they want to see action on. I have had a solid record of working to fight inflation, working to secure the southern border, working to protect women and children, and to push back on Big Tech and the way they censor people, censor all of us online,” Blackburn explained.
One issue plaguing Tennessee, like many other states, is the border crisis. Since President Joe Biden assumed office, sheriffs in the state have reported that drug trafficking has escalated, Blackburn said. Additionally, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported that calls and tips to the agency’s human trafficking hotline have grown more than 400 percent in recent years.
“We are also hearing from some of our hospitals about the impact on emergency rooms and urgent care centers and how resources are being taxed there,” she said.
This year, Blackburn running against Democrat state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat, who was part of the “Tennessee Three” in the Republican-led expulsion effort over her role in a gun control protest on the House floor.
“She [Johnson] and the others in the Democrat Party are so far to the left. They’re out of step with where Tennesseans are on issues when it comes to government control, government overreach, government controlling your life from the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night. They are big government proponents,” she explained.
“What Tennesseans want to see is less government control over their life, they want lower taxes…they want more individual freedom…they want to make certain that they have the ability to live, to work, to rear their children as they know what is best for their families.”