Stronger representation.
Real accountability.
A Democratic Party ready to organize and deliver.
From Governor to County Commission, Democrats are competing for Anderson County.
On November 3, Anderson County voters will choose who leads Tennessee, who represents us in Washington and Nashville, and — for voters in District 8 — who represents our neighbors on the Anderson County Commission.
This year, Democrats aren't asking Anderson County to vote for a party label and call it a day. Our candidates are educators, attorneys, engineers, organizers, public servants, parents, veterans, and neighbors who have stepped forward because they believe government should make life better for the people it serves.
Some are running statewide. Some are running in districts that stretch across East Tennessee. Some live right down the road.
Meet the people asking for your vote — who they are, what brought them to this race, and what they want to do if you send them to work for you.
State and Federal General Election | Tuesday, November 3 2026
Early Voting for November General:
Wednesday, October 14 - Thursday, October 29
*Request an absentee ballot for the November Election by Saturday, October 24, 2026
Meet Your November Candidates
The candidates below are running in Democratic primary races that will help shape both who represents our region in Nashville and who helps guide the future of the Tennessee Democratic Party.
Primary winners will advance to the November General Election.
Governor
Jerri Green
Jerri Green is an attorney, public defender, Memphis City Council member, and longtime public servant running for Governor of Tennessee. Her campaign focuses on lowering costs for working families, expanding healthcare access, strengthening public schools, protecting personal freedoms, and making state government more responsive to the people it serves.
U.S. Senate
Marquita Bradshaw
Marquita Bradshaw is a longtime environmental justice organizer and community advocate running for the United States Senate. The 2020 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, she has spent decades organizing around environmental protection, workers’ rights, healthcare, economic opportunity, and the needs of communities too often left out of political decision-making.
U.S. House
Anna Golladay
Anna Golladay is a Chattanooga small-business owner, community advocate, and faith leader running for Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District. Her campaign focuses on affordability, stronger public schools, healthcare access, workers and families, reproductive freedom, and providing the district with accessible representation that shows up and listens.
State Senate
David Miller
David Miller is a retired educator and Anderson County School Board member with more than 35 years of experience in education and public service. He is running for Tennessee Senate District 5 with a focus on affordability, eliminating the grocery tax, protecting public schools, expanding healthcare access, and providing responsive representation.
State House 33
Anne Backus
Anne Backus is a retired Y-12 project manager and longtime Anderson County community volunteer running for Tennessee House District 33. After 33 years managing projects, budgets, and teams at Y-12, Anne is campaigning on public education, healthcare access, affordability, and making sure Anderson County residents have a responsive voice in Nashville.
State House 41
Jason Goodman
R. Jason Goodman is an electrical engineer, former TVA manager, and Wartburg resident running for Tennessee House District 41. His campaign focuses on strengthening rural public schools, improving healthcare access, investing in infrastructure and economic development, and addressing the everyday costs facing families across rural East Tennessee.
Commission District 8
Gina Grubb
Gina Grubb is a former Oak Ridge police officer, public school teacher, and longtime community servant running for Anderson County Commission District 8. Her campaign is built around five priorities — protection, stewardship, transparency, accountability, and community — with particular attention to public safety, constitutional rights, responsible spending, infrastructure, and open government.
State House 33
Steve Ducan
Steve Duncan is a retired social worker, parent, and Oak Ridge resident running for City Council. His career included working with children and families, people experiencing homelessness, and individuals facing mental health, addiction, trauma, and abuse. His campaign emphasizes responsible growth, strong public infrastructure, transparency, accessibility, and practical local government.
Governor
Jerri Green
Attorney & Public Servant
Jerri Green is a lifelong Tennessean, attorney, public servant, and mother of three running for Governor. Raised in Memphis, she attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Georgetown University Law Center before returning to Tennessee to begin her career as a juvenile public defender. Her career has also included leading the Community Legal Center, serving in Shelby County government, and representing District 2 on the Memphis City Council.
Throughout her career, Jerri has worked on issues including wages, healthcare access, public safety, housing, and services for children and families. She has described that work as part of a larger commitment to making government work for the people who rely on it.
As a candidate for Governor, Jerri is focused on supporting working families, strengthening public schools, expanding healthcare access, and protecting fundamental freedoms. Her platform includes ending Tennessee’s grocery tax, expanding Medicaid, supporting paid family leave and affordable childcare, and increasing investment in public education.
Facebook
Website: greenforgovernor.com
United States Senate
Marquita Bradshaw
Organizer & Community Advocate
Marquita Bradshaw is a tenth-generation South Memphis resident and longtime grassroots organizer running for the United States Senate. Building on her family’s history of labor and community advocacy, Marquita has spent years working on issues affecting working families and communities that are too often left out of major public decisions.
Her career has focused on environmental health, workers’ rights, economic opportunity, and public accountability. She currently serves as executive director of Sowing Justice, an environmental justice organization addressing issues including industrial pollution, fossil-fuel infrastructure, data-center development, and their effects on surrounding communities.
Marquita’s campaign focuses on affordable healthcare and housing, strong public schools, fair wages and economic opportunity, universal affordable broadband, voting rights, and environmental justice. She has made community participation and government accountability central to her approach, arguing that Tennesseans deserve a stronger voice in the decisions that affect their families and communities.
Facebook
Website: marquitabradshaw.com
United States House
Anna Golladay
Small-Business Owner & Faith Leader
Anna Golladay is a Chattanooga small-business owner, faith leader, and community advocate running to represent Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District. She owns Biased Apparel and leads Work of Place, a consulting practice that helps faith communities think about how their property and resources can strengthen the neighborhoods around them. Her background also includes church leadership and communications work.
Anna is running on a message of what she calls “care over cruelty, courage over silence.” Her campaign emphasizes representation that is accessible to the people of the district and independent of corporate PAC money.
Her priorities include better wages and protections for workers, stronger rural communities, healthcare access, public education, reproductive and LGBTQ+ freedoms, protection of Tennessee’s land and water, and accountable government. In Oak Ridge, she has also emphasized continued federal investment in scientific research alongside environmental responsibility and cleanup.
Facebook
Website: annagolladay.com
State Senate District 5
David Miller
Educator, School Board Member
David Miller is a retired educator and current Anderson County School Board member running for Tennessee Senate District 5. He points to more than 35 years in education, public service, and community leadership as the foundation of his campaign. In his materials, he describes public service as a through-line in his life and presents himself as someone shaped by both professional experience and longstanding civic involvement.
He is running because, as he puts it, these are troubled times and he felt he needed to do what he could to help make change. He frames the campaign as an extension of a life already centered on service, and he also points to community involvement through organizations like Rotary, the Dictionary Project, and English as a Second Language teaching. His responses suggest a candidacy grounded less in political branding than in duty, steadiness, and a desire to be useful.
His campaign emphasizes affordability, public education, healthcare access, and visible constituent service. David’s submitted priorities include ending the grocery tax, improving housing affordability, protecting public schools, and strengthening healthcare access, especially in underserved areas. He presents himself as a candidate focused on being clearly on the side of working people and responsive to the district he would represent.
Facebook
Website: davidmillerfortennessee.com
State House District 33
Anne Backus
Retired Y-12 Project Manager & Community Volunteer
Anne Backus is a retired Y-12 project manager and longtime Anderson County community volunteer running for Tennessee House District 33. After earning a degree in industrial engineering, Anne moved to Anderson County and spent 33 years at Y-12 managing projects, budgets, and teams while raising three daughters. Backus for TN 33
Since retiring, Anne has remained active in the community through youth tutoring, church service, the Oak Ridge chapter of PFLAG, the Anderson County NAACP, and her work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate in Anderson County Juvenile Court.
Anne’s campaign focuses on strengthening public education, expanding access to affordable healthcare, improving affordability for working families, and giving Anderson County residents a stronger voice in Nashville. She opposes expanding private-school voucher programs and supports eliminating the sales tax on groceries, addressing affordable housing, and ensuring working Tennesseans can earn a living wage.
Facebook
Website: backusfortn33.com
House District 41
Ralph Goodman
Engineer, Former TVA Manager & Community Volunteer
Ralph Goodman is an electrical engineer, former TVA manager, and Morgan County resident running for Tennessee House District 41. Born and raised in Wartburg, he graduated from Tennessee Tech and spent 32 years with TVA in engineering and operations roles before continuing work as an independent electrical engineering contractor. He points to both his professional background and his long connection to Morgan County as shaping how he approaches public service.
He is running because he wants to make Tennessee a better place to live and believes change will not happen unless qualified candidates step forward. In his materials, Ralph connects that decision to concerns about healthcare access, reproductive freedom, tax fairness, and the direction of state government. He also highlights local involvement through the Morgan County Democrats, trail work on the Cumberland Trail, volunteer service at Frozen Head State Park, church leadership, and recovery ministry.
His campaign emphasizes healthcare access, support for rural public schools, and economic development in the district. Ralph’s stated priorities include expanding Medicaid, pushing back on school vouchers, improving Highway 62, and reducing regressive tax burdens. He presents himself as a candidate focused on practical improvements that would strengthen quality of life in rural Tennessee.
County Commission District 8
Gina Grubb
Former Police Officer & Public School Teacher
Gina Grubb has called Oak Ridge home since childhood and has spent much of her working life in public service. Her career has included work as an emergency dispatcher, patrol officer, school resource officer, business manager, and public school teacher, giving her experience in both law enforcement and education. She has spent 27 years in public service.
Gina is running for Anderson County Commission District 8 on a platform built around five priorities: protection, stewardship, transparency, accountability, and community. She believes county government should provide strong public services while protecting the constitutional rights of the people it serves.
Her priorities include supporting law enforcement and emergency services, maintaining safe and accessible public infrastructure, carefully stewarding taxpayer dollars, protecting privacy and free expression, and making county government more open and accountable. Gina has also committed to keeping District 8 residents informed about the decisions coming before the Commission and making constituent communication a regular part of the job.
Facebook
Website: ggrubb.com
Oak Ridge City Council Endorsed
Steve Duncan
Engineer, Former TVA Manager & Community Volunteer
Steve Duncan is a retired social worker, parent, Oak Ridge resident, and eighth-generation Tennessean running for Oak Ridge City Council. His career in social work included working with Head Start children and families, people experiencing homelessness, and individuals dealing with mental-health challenges, addiction, trauma, and abuse. He also spent time as a stay-at-home and homeschooling parent.
That background shapes Steve’s approach to public service. He believes local government should invest in its people and public infrastructure, keep services accessible and transparent, and make sure residents have a meaningful voice in the decisions affecting their community.
Steve has emphasized working through difficult problems alongside people who may not always agree and finding practical solutions rather than treating disagreement as an obstacle to getting things done. He is a first-time candidate for Oak Ridge City Council, one of four seats voters will fill in the city’s nonpartisan November election.
I especially like the Jason version now. We were previously filling the space with positions we did not have directly from his campaign; this version doesn't do that. The same is true for Steve. Their sections are a little less issue-heavy than Jerri's or Anna's because that's what the available campaign material supports, and I think that makes the entire page more trustworthy rather than less polished.
People deserve representation that is willing to show up, speak plainly, and answer to the public. They deserve leaders who will bring real community experience, real urgency, and real accountability to the table — not just titles, talking points, or political comfort. That is what democracy should demand.