The tea: You need to be more worried, Marsha Blackburn

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. That’s what the University of Memphis’ cheerleaders were chanting in a video United States Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn posted on Facebook on Saturday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

The video, posted with the caption “Tigers for Marsha Marsha Marsha!,†depicted U of M’s cheerleaders cheering on Blackburn as if they were cheering on the Tigers themselves. The video was removed at the university’s request because public institutions and subsidiaries of public institutions cannot endorse any political candidate on one side or the other.

It is funny to me how you can come to Memphis and post videos of yourself at Jerry’s Sno Cones in Cordova and also attend events in Collierville, even though you declined to participate in a debate with your opponent, Phil Bredesen, at Rhodes College. From where I’m sitting, Marsha, it looks like you’re picking and choosing whom you want to represent.

Both Bredesen and Blackburn were invited to debate at Rhodes College on Sept. 13, the only debate scheduled in West Tennessee, but she declined. If you want to be the elected representative for the state of Tennessee, then you need to show up for all of your constituents, even the ones who will never be on your side. If you become Tennessee’s next senator, then you are the senator for all of Tennessee, not just the areas that voted for you.

As Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal pointed out in his daily column “The 9:01,†Memphis has the largest number of Democrats and Republicans in the entire state of Tennessee. She may not have a chance at winning this county, but she could at least draw a crowd of supporters. I’ve seen your signs around Memphis, Marsha, so if you ask people to come, I’m sure they will.

RealClearPolitics has rated Bredesen and Blackburn as tied for November’s race, based on a culmination of all the polls they have collected from various sources between Aug. 9 and Sept. 15. CNN’s latest poll, conducted from Sept. 11 to 15, has Bredesen ahead by five points. Fox News’ latest poll, conducted from Sept. 8 to 11, has Blackburn ahead by three points. Regardless of the varying degrees of who is ahead based on different polls, Donald Trump received over 20 percent more of Tennessee’s vote share in 2016 than Hillary Clinton. To go from that to being virtually tied with your opponent should scare you. You need to be campaigning for all the votes, even the ones you don’t seem to want.

In 2002, Phil Bredesen won half the entire vote to secure his victory in that gubernatorial race, and in 2006, he carried every county in the state and received over half a million votes more than his opponent. He rode the anti-George Bush wave into the Tennessee governor’s mansion, and now, he just might ride the anti-Trump wave into the U.S. Senate. 

Marsha, if you want to be our next senator, then it’s time to show up for the citizens of Tennessee. If you want to convince people you should be sitting in the Senate chamber in January, then you need to at least show up when asked and explain why you should be the one to represent our state.

And that’s the tea on that.