Pushing for Political Change in Tennessee with Gloria Johnson
Episode Summary Gloria Johnson, State Representative in House District 90, is a former educator who ran for office after seeing certain political issues not getting the attention they deserved. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, she describes...
Episode Summary
Gloria Johnson, State Representative in House District 90, is a former educator who ran for office after seeing certain political issues not getting the attention they deserved. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, she describes what that journey was like and how important it is to get involved politically if there’s an issue that’s important to you. Gloria also reveals her deep roots in Knoxville, and shares wonderful insights into why people love our city.
Highlights
00:00 Intro
00:19 Julia introduces Rep. Gloria Johnson, who describes her Knoxville roots and why her and her family were eager to return to Knoxville
03:31 How Gloria went from being an educator to running for a seat in the state legislature
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08:30 Julia and Gloria discuss why it’s important to speak out about political causes you care about
12:20 How children’s mental health affects the classroom
14:20 Gloria discusses the importance of teaching children how to think, not what to think
16:47 The big issues that Gloria is planning to push for this year in the state legislature
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22:21 Gloria and Julia discuss the importance of women running for political office
23:50 Gloria’s favorite memory of growing up in Knoxville
24:39 Gloria describes some of her favorite restaurants and spots in Knoxville
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Transcript:
Julia: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I am your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is one of the top performing state legislatures in Nashville, Tennessee, the Honorable Gloria Johnson who represents Knoxville, part of Knoxville city. So, Knoxville has gotten so big now there are several people. We’ll let her explain that to you. Gloria, welcome. Thank you for taking the time. And if you don’t mind to introduce yourself, and your connection to Knoxville and just tell us your whole story here and how you ended up where you are.
Gloria: [laugh]. I don’t know we have time for the whole story, but thanks for having me on. I’m excited about doing this and having this conversation. Yeah, well, I am Knoxville. My family has been here for generations, my father’s family, and after dad graduated law school, they live down in Fort Sanders and then they lived in Norwood.
But when dad graduated law school, instead of going into practicing law, he went into the FBI. And so, when you go into FBI, they start you out in a large city and then they move you to—you have to go after that to a top ten city. So, we moved to Denver—or my parents moved to Denver—after law school with the FBI, and I was born in Denver. And then Denver was the large city we went to. Then he got transferred to Los Angeles, and that was the top ten city he got sent to.
And you know, my dad is a Tennessee—he was a Tennessee boy, and so his goal was always to get back to the city. And so, we went from Los Angeles to San Diego. There was an opportunity to come back to the southeast in Jackson, Mississippi, so we came back to Jackson. But we got back to Knoxville when I was in the sixth grade. So, I’ve been here since the sixth grade and my family’s been here for generations and Knoxville is definitely who I am.
I lived in Denver briefly and I love that, but I always miss the people. The thing that is so different are just the people here. And so, I stayed in Denver for three years when I moved there back in 2001. And came back because my dad wasn’t doing well. He had a mass and mom needed help, so that’s why I came back, but I also came back because I knew I always would.
It’s just one of those things that you try moving away but you’re always drawn back to Knoxville. I know so many people who have done the exact same thing. So, I absolutely love it here. Grew up in West Knoxville, went to Farragut—Cedar Bluff and Farragut. But as soon as I—after college, I knew that I wanted to stay, you know, closer to that area, and so moved there and lived around downtown for several years before finally buying my house over by North Hills.
Julia: That’s fantastic. I have met so many people that own businesses in Knoxville that I’ve known for years and had no idea the history that they had connected to Knoxville. So, it’s really been a treat for all the people that I’ve known and got to know over the last 20 years to understand how deep-rooted you all really are in the Knoxville area. So, tell us about—so I know you are a teacher. Tell us about how that ended up, and then get into what made you want to run in a political setting. And you went there as a female in any party that it’s not one small feat in this area. So, how did you go from teacher to legislator? How did we get there?
Gloria: So, I love teaching more than anything. That is the greatest career. It’s one of those things. I’m a lucky human being in the fact that they say you know, get a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life and that’s certainly how I felt about teaching. The kids part, I’m not going to say it was easy.
I worked with teenage emotionally disturbed students who, you know, that had special needs. And usually it was behavioral, not academic but more behavioral. That’s the majority of my 27 years in education. And just, you know, I learned so much about these families, how these kids get to this point, you know, what systems in our government and everything else that has led to them being in the situations that they are, and you know, knowing lots of ways that we could improve those situations. And so, it was always something that was on my mind.
But until there were all the attacks on teachers and the attacks on public education, where they’re [removing 00:04:57] a teacher sitting at the table, I’m mean, no one consults teachers anymore when they’re making policy on education. Teachers are making less today than they did ten years ago based on the cost of living. So, this is outrageous. And so, that is what got me into it. Then and a combination of another thing.
I got involved with the Obama campaign and learned a whole lot about organizing and all of that, and one of his big issues, of course, was health care. That was big for me because I had a sister and her brother-in-law, who own their own business, and struggle because it was a small business, getting health care is difficult. She had a long-term illness that required multiple brain surgeries, and ultimately, they were kicked off their insurance while my two nephews were fighting in Afghanistan. They lost their home and their business—
Julia: Oh, my God.
Gloria: Because of health bills. And she needed another brain surgery. And those two things, you know, made me run. Because there was a situation of a special election here back in 2011, and listening to the three candidates that were running on the other side, there was no discussion of health care. There was none.
And that was a huge discussion nationwide. And everybody’s like, “Gloria, if you don’t get in that race, no one’s going to be talking about health care.” So, I knew the numbers were impossible, but I got into the race, just so I could talk about health care.
Julia: How did that first race end up? I honestly don’t remember, I was coming out of Nashville as you were trying to come into Nashville. So, I was coming out of a seat and I did not keep up with that one.
Gloria: Well, it was a special election when Jamie Woodson went to SCORE, and it—
Julia: That’s right.
Gloria: Yes.
Julia: I’d completely forgotten what how that was—that feels like a lifetime ago.
Gloria: It was a li—it was 2011.
Julia: Yeah [laugh].
Gloria: Special election. It was a short timer and I had already—you know, we had just been watching and I was at a debate with a bunch of college students and the three people running were just trying to [outright 00:07:09] themselves. It’s like if they kept going, they were going to fall off the stage. And I know that didn’t all feel exactly the way they were saying. And I was just like, “Somebody’s got to do something.”
And then the state party contacted me, and they said, “Gloria, we’re not going to have a conversation if you don’t get in the race, and there’s only two-and-a-half months left.” And I did it. And it was a 75/25 district, I think. We moved the district about seven points in two-and-a-half months. Never expected to win.
It was about bringing a different conversation to the race. And I believe that everyone, every voter deserves a choice. I think every race should be challenged. I think voters deserve a choice. And they also deserve a good, thorough, in deep conversation about the issues. They owe that to the people voting for them.
Julia: That is something that I think is the new conversation—not to change topics about a whole different subject but it’s kind of related—that you’re starting to see Gen Z talk about a lot, especially on the ne—on TikTok. And a lot of people don’t like TikTok. You don’t have to, but billions of people are on TikTok every single day looking for new ideas and new conversations. And what I am seeing in the younger generation—I mean, I’m 40, so I’m an elder millennial. So, there are two generations after me now, which makes me feel interesting—
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: —but the next generation, the Gen Z generation, all they can talk about is options. It’s not necessarily that they aren’t willing to have a conversation about what they believe versus what you believe, but they want the option to talk to both or multiple. And not throwing your hat in the ring is taking something off the table. And that in and of itself, as a female in the political arena, in the Knoxville market, in the southeast as a whole, is a feat in and of itself. So, it’s like, “Hey, look, I’m from here, my family’s from here. I moved away a little bit. I’m back. I was a teacher for something I loved, and now we have a real issue and I’m going to leave this thing that I love to contribute back to my community, at least give an option.” I think that’s huge. And I think that as we progress into the next decade, that’s going to be—every race will be challenged. Every conversation will be on the table.
Gloria: Yeah. And it’s really interesting where Knoxville is so far ahead in some ways, but so far behind in others. When I went to Denver when I taught there, one of the most interesting things was they really treated teachers as professionals. I’ve never seen teachers get treated so well. And I’m not—you know, it’s just and it’s little things. It doesn’t cost money to treat teachers well.
When we had in-services or professional days or something like that, we’d go to some business center where other folks met and we had an adult-sized table, I didn’t have to put my 37-inch inseam into some kindergarten chairs for eight hours, you know? And they served as, you know, nice lunches and not anything, you know, exorbitant or anything like that, but treating you like any professional in any business. And it makes such a difference about how you feel about—when I got there, I felt like, “Man, these teachers are so on top of their game,” but it’s because they required continued education to get the salary bump every year. Your bump came from how many hours you took, graduate hours you took. And so, the first year I got there, I took 20 hours because they paid for a lot of it, and that bumped my salary up $12,000 by taking 20 hours.
And they allowed you and they encouraged you to do that. So, I was working with teachers who had not gone a year without at least having one class. And here, you know, you there’s nothing, there’s no benefit to continuing. And I think we’re doing a disservice in education and especially in Tennessee now, where they don’t even want to recognize graduate degrees and master’s degrees, you know, doctorates, that sort of thing. And we should not just—one of the goals you see on every website for schools is, “We want our kids to be lifelong learners.”
It doesn’t say they want teachers to be lifelong learners, though. It’s just, we need to be smarter and more intentional about what we do in education. And I think we can do that. But one thing that Colorado did terribly was special education. They broke a lot of rules and did not acknowledge—when I went there, I taught at a school that was about three miles from Columbine. And they had no program for mental health. And so, I literally wrote a grant using our program from Knoxville, and they loved it and they put it into practice.
Julia: That’s fantastic.
Gloria: And my school was one of the two schools that the kids who couldn’t—some kids just couldn’t go back to Columbine, and so I was one of the two schools where those kids came, and we were able to get help and support. I had a psychologist in my classroom, you know, every day. So, it was—they were open to new and great ideas, and that was a Knoxville idea that really brought Colorado forward, at least in Jefferson County.
Julia: I think mental health for kids now has been—we talk about it a lot.
Gloria: [laugh]. Yeah.
Julia: A big hot topic to talk about. Action is lacking. But I really feel like the conversation is shifting at least. So, as you know, Knoxville is 20 years behind some of the biggest cities in the world, so if we can start talking about it more, maybe we can bump that timeline up to only a decade behind, which [laugh] I would not be upset about [laugh].
Gloria: It’s so important because I think about the structure of the classroom, the intervention classroom that I taught would be beneficial to any class all regular ed kids. It would be beneficial to those teachers because it makes your classroom so much more manageable. Because part of what you do is build trust between the classroom. And kids have so much problem with trust these days. And so, spending some time in the first two weeks of school on team-building and trust-building activities would make a huge difference in the rest of the year as far as discipline and all of those things go.
And every kid needs it. And it benefits the entire classroom, how much information you can get to your kids, and how much time you’re spending on discipline. Because it will—I would maybe send a kid to the office three times out of the year and I had the worst kids two steps away from juvenile. But the behavior management system is so good and it’s all about making them responsible for the teamwork and the trust in the group.
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Julia: I think something that we struggle with as a society as a whole—not just Knoxville but as a whole—is the conversation that we want children to grow up to be independent thinkers and want them to be creative and we want them to understand that they have power, but then we sent him to school eight to ten hours a day and say, “Nope, do as you’re told. You don’t need to know this information. We just need you to stay here and be quiet and do this.” [laugh]. And I think that it’s a stark contrast to what we want for them.
Gloria: And a lot of that is, you know, would come through if you use some of the activities and some of the mindsets in my classroom because it was a lot of thinking outside of the box a lot of problem-solving. We did a lot of problem-solving activities, which are great soft skills that all of our kids need and we see that they’re lacking in those skills. And I have seen a shift in teachers being more consciously considering, you know, asking probing questions and doing more problem-solve activities and critical thinking. But yes, within the legislature, they’re trying to take away all the time for those things to happen.
You know, they think there’s this idea that teachers are indoctrinating. Look, it’s the same teachers they had years ago and they were not indoctrinated. It’s all made up. But the reality is, we teach kids how to think, not what to think. We never tell them, “This is right or this is wrong.”
You know, you lay out all the different things and you decide which one you think is best. I always did during the presidential election, I would—there’s a world’s smallest political quiz and then there’s a little more in-depth political quiz for which candidate do you align with. And so, we would always go through the questions and the kids would always decide. And it was always funny because it was usually somebody that they really didn’t pick, you know, that they didn’t think about. And sometimes it was some obscure candidate even I hadn’t heard of [laugh] because there’s a lot of them on there. The big quiz had all of them.
But I would have them do some in-depth research, you know, and write about that candidate. And if you are going to, if you are going to design a logo or a sign for that candidate, what would it look like? You know, those kinds of things. It just got them to think. And it may not have been somebody they would have voted for, but it made them think civically, you know, and it made them think about why did I align with this candidate, and you know, what issues are important to me, and you know, what should a president been doing?
Julia: What a great segue to my next question because you have a, you know—and again, we’re going back to what you just said—you are an advocate for challenge every seat, you get challenged every year. I’ve never not known you to have a challenger. And good for you, you keep pulling out those W’s and that is tough to do, that is tough to do anywhere. So, you consistently are running a campaign. I don’t think you’ve had one year unchallenged.
And as you continue to go and you are solidifying that power base—that’s what I call it; your power base is Knoxville—people in Knoxville continuously choose you. And once you put yourself out there and you keep doing that is that is an amazing step forward. What are the topics that you’re going to be taking to Nashville this year, this coming up legislative year that are important to you? Because I think that civic-mindedness for kids, just putting that kind of conversation out there at any age is really important. But I think as we age, we tend to curb our open-mindedness to conversation because of what our experiences are versus what’s going on around us as well. So, what are you taking in Nashville that your constituency is bringing to you to take this year? What are your hot-button issues?
Gloria: Yeah. Well, there you know, there’s so many things, and it’s hard to narrow it down to one. And there’s so many things—I still am going to push for Medicaid expansion. I’m still going to push for adequately funding public ed and teacher pay, those things. Never going to stop making sure that our schools get better and better.
But also, you know, to me, making sure that people have good jobs with good wages and benefits. I mean, we need to be lifting people out of poverty and not letting them drop back into it. And part of that is making sure that everybody earns a wage so that they can support their family and not have to decide between groceries and medicine, you know, that they can get both of those things. And one thing that I brought because I had at one time, within one year, I had three friends pregnant with triplets.
Julia: Oh, my God. How does that happen, statistically [laugh]?
Gloria: One was a police officer, one was a firefighter, and one owns her own business. And so, having triplets automatically means a C-section, and that automatically means six weeks off. That’s if, you know, a lot of times they come early, they’re small, there’s NICU time, all of those things. And how does somebody who’s a police officer or a firefighter, they don’t have six weeks off, you know? That just doesn’t exist.
And so, in talking to so many people and looking around the country at how paid family leave can work, I brought a paid family leave bill every year since 2018 and I’m going to keep doing it. Because the reality is the program that we picked—I work with a group called A Better Balance because they help, all around the country, they’ve worked with people on paid family leave—and so I chose the most conservative plan because this is Tennessee. It doesn’t require any—this doesn’t cost the state a penny and it doesn’t cost the business a penny. It’s employee-driven, it’s kind of like insurance. I put in the cost of a cup of coffee a week, that’s about 3 to $4, and then when they’ve been there a year’s time, if you’ve been there a year’s time, when you have—either you want to have a baby, or your child has an illness, you have your own long-term illness, or say you have a parent who’s ailing and you need to stay with them, you’ll have 12 weeks paid leave for that time that you put in.
Julia: So, is it kind of like a program where I can pay into it, kind of like a medical savings program?
Gloria: Well, everybody pays in, you would pay and your 3 to $4, whatever the comptroller’s office or, you know, whatever they decided what that amount needs to be for all of Tennessee—and even sole proprietorships you know, anybody and [that’s working 00:21:40] getting a paycheck can be a part of this plan. So, I just think it’s important that if we’re going to prioritize families if we’re going to force people have families before they’re ready, we should be able to take care of them.
Julia: Yes. Because we’ve both—I’ve been in Nashville—I understand. I understand. If you only could have one thing, one bill, and you know what, you know how it is, you’re going to present your ten and you’re going to get maybe a half of one. So, if you only had one, what would be the bill for 2023-2024 that you wouldn’t do nothing but that bill?
Gloria: Always—until we get smart, Medicaid expansion. I mean, it would change the life of every Tennessean. Because when people have access to affordable care, guess what that means? Mental health is health care. And so, everyone has access to that mental health care.
When you look at the states who expanded like Michigan, those great study out of Michigan, what they wanted to look at was how did it help people in Michigan when they expanded Medicaid? Was it effective? Did it work? And what they found, they looked at low-income people, it raised them up. They were able to get loans because they didn’t have to worry about not having health care or not having affordable health care.
They were able to get insurance, improve their health. They were able to, they save enough money to have loans, they bought new cars, which got them better jobs, they didn’t have to be on a bus line. It was an enormous boon to their economy. And so, the 10% at this point that there were required to pay after the federal taxes coming back to your state, easy peasy. They said it overwhelmingly paid that much.
Plus, it will pay in perpetuity because it will always do that. And that’s what they found. And then in Ohio, what they found was everyone they were able to insure on Medicaid expansion—which is most people in addition to those who already had insurance—of those with opiate issues, they were able to treat 96%. We only treat 13% in Tennessee.
Julia: We do have that problem in Tennessee.
Gloria: We do have that problem. And we’ve lost, you know, 13 rural hospitals because of Medicaid expansion because that’s our poor community, they don’t have that money, the hospitals aren’t getting their typical reimbursement. Everybody should have insurance now. And what so many don’t understand, it is this leadership that is keeping that from happening. And you know, something you said before which I think is so important, talking about women and women running for office, I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have Medicaid expansion.
Julia: I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have a whole different state.
Gloria: Yeah. We would.
Julia: [laugh].
Gloria: I was the first woman in House District 13. I’m wondering, were you the first woman in your district or no?
Julia: No, actually, there was a lady—oh my gosh, and everybody knew her name and I never met her, she passed away. So, she was the mentor to my predecessor. And then she had passed away and then I had taken that seat. Now, we were the only two women that have ever held that seat. And I don’t believe—I actually don’t believe Loudoun County, the other half of my seat, had ever been held by a female. So, I was the first female in Loudoun County to hold a statewide position. And as I can recall, the last so far [laugh], in a decade.
Gloria: Kind of shocking to me that your county beat Knox County, though. I mean, really. Just wow.
Julia: You never know [laugh]. You never know. All right, we have four-and-a-half minutes. So, shifting that, we wish you the absolute best of luck in Nashville. We really hope that you get something that you want one.
I know your constituents where they may be in the minority still want to see you succeed and they elected to you to do that, so we do wish you the best of luck. But let’s reel this in to be more Knoxville-oriented and less Nashville at the moment because I’ve got so many questions for you. Because you’re from here and your family’s from here and you’re going to remember so many cool things. So, what is your best memory as a child in Knoxville as a whole? Like, like any memory, like, other than the World Fair; that doesn’t count because everybody says that one [laugh].
Gloria: I wasn’t a child in the World’s Fair. But I was in school at UT in education and so I got a gig doing tours for school groups that came from all over the country.
Julia: [laugh]. That’s awesome.
Gloria: I had to carry this tall thing with a little flag on the end with our number so all the kids could follow along. And it was so [laugh] much fun.
Julia: Try that today. 30-something kids with a flag. They’re not—you’re done. You’re out.
Gloria: You’re going to have to get a rope and a leash [laugh].
Julia: “My dad’s bonafide.” I don’t know if you remember that scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou? where she tied all of her kids—
Gloria: Oh, yeah [laugh].
Julia: —to one rope. She was like, “My dad’s bonafide.” That’s all I can remember of the rope of the kids. Anyway, so okay. Best remembered restaurant versus now favorite restaurant.
Gloria: Okay. So, I have to—let’s see, I have to go back to places that—not such a great restaurant necessarily, but that I remember Steak and Ale [laugh]. It had another name too, but I can’t remember. But I worked in high school and in college at Kingston Four Theater, and so Steak and Ale was right across the street. So, we used that a lot. Also, Michael’s was down—no not on Michael’s. What was that? Doodles. Doodles—
Julia: Oh, my God [laugh].
Gloria: And we would go over to Doodles on our dinner hour because they would have ten-cent shrimp or something like that [laugh].
Julia: That was expensive. Ten-cent shrimp’s expensive [laugh].
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: You were at the classy bar.
Gloria: Now, my favorite. I’ve got so many favorite restaurants, but like, a standard of mine is probably Bistro at the Bijou. You know, I like comfort food, you know? I’m not a fancy—I’ll eat any kind of food [laugh] but you know, I love that they have this varied menu. Every time you come in the specials are really different. And it’s dark and cozy [laugh]. I like that.
Julia: Yeah, I love it there. Their brunch is good.
Gloria: Oh, their brunch is really good. Yes.
Julia: Yeah, their brunch is fantastic. All right. Favorite, like, scene I guess you could say. Like, give me—set the scene? Where do you go, like, for hiking or biking or relaxing or just to read a book? Like, favorite, favorite place?
Gloria: Well, so just any of our parks. I mean, we have amazing parks. I like to go to UT Gardens. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous. And a friend of mine, [Anne 00:28:54], goes there all the time and she kept saying, “Gloria—” You know and so now I’ve gone and now I go back and now I take my mom and I just—it’s beautiful. And it’s a wonderful place to just sit and be quiet. But there are so many places like that around here.
Julia: We’re very blessed. Knoxville people don’t even know, Knoxville is the hidden gem. All right, one last question. What is your best-kept secret that whenever somebody comes to visit you from out of town, you take them to this place and no one really knows about it. Only you know about it.
Gloria: Well, it used to be, years ago, it was King Tut.
Julia: Oh yes.
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: Yes. Oh man, I’m so glad you said that [laugh].
Gloria: Always. It was always an experience. But now, it’s just some of my favorite little, like, you know public house or some of my favorite little places to go and just down around here. Used to be—again another place that’s gone was Tootsie’s.
Julia: Oh. Oh yeah, that was a fun place.
Gloria: Tootsie’s in Nashville, but Toot’s here, which is down sort of around in my neighborhood. And it was so interesting because it went from being kind of a—people thought it was a scary Happy Hour kind of place, to being this place where the hipsters did karaoke, you know?
Julia: Yes [laugh].
Gloria: So, I had some friends from Colorado come in and I took them there and they were just—they loved it, but they were sort of stunned [laugh].
Julia: Knoxville is a special place. I hear that a lot. It’s like, “Oh, well I came to visit. I may want to—I’ll invest in this place. I might relocate here, I might retire here.” But it just kind of that. “This was so much fun and I don’t know what I was expecting. It wasn’t this.” And just kind of the deer-in-headlights look.
Gloria: And my friends from Colorado, most of them were younger than me and just really energetic, but I remember my friend Casey doing the worm on the floor at Downtown Grill and Brewery [laugh].
Julia: I mean, why not? [laugh]. Naturally. Naturally.
Gloria: Oh, but they absolutely had a blast. And a couple of them have come back and they still want to come back. So, it’s been great. And then a couple of them I did a road trip of with a RV, we did a redneck road trip and we came from Colorado in a principle friend of mine’s RV and we stopped at Graceland and we stopped at the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
Julia: Where they don’t actually give you Jack Daniel’s because a it’s dry county. Oddest place to visit but I love it.
Gloria: The final stop was Dollywood, and I had never been to Dollywood.
Julia: Oh, my gosh.
Gloria: First time to go to Dollywood was with them, and we just had an absolute blast.
Julia: We went there in Covid. There were eight people in the whole park.
Gloria: Oh, my God.
Julia: We had the best day of our lives. We literally rode the same roller coaster three times.
Gloria: You’re outside. It’s perfect.
Julia: It was great. We had a blast. We love Dollywood. All right. Well, everybody, listen, our time is up. We’re going to have to bring you back after session to see how something turned out for you, so count on that invitation. We appreciate your time today. Everybody, this is the honorable Gloria Johnson. Very good friend to all people in Knoxville, but especially for women in Knoxville. We appreciate you very, very much, touting our flag, as I guess you could say, as we follow you through your trips to Nashville. We appreciate you. This is Julia Hurley, hostess of Connect the Knox. Thank you Gloria thank you, Gloria.
Gloria: [laugh]. Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
Julia: Bye.
Gloria: Bye.
Julia: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I am your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is one of the top performing state legislatures in Nashville, Tennessee, the Honorable Gloria Johnson who represents Knoxville, part of Knoxville city. So, Knoxville has gotten so big now there are several people. We’ll let her explain that to you. Gloria, welcome. Thank you for taking the time. And if you don’t mind to introduce yourself, and your connection to Knoxville and just tell us your whole story here and how you ended up where you are.
Gloria: [laugh]. I don’t know we have time for the whole story, but thanks for having me on. I’m excited about doing this and having this conversation. Yeah, well, I am Knoxville. My family has been here for generations, my father’s family, and after dad graduated law school, they live down in Fort Sanders and then they lived in Norwood.
But when dad graduated law school, instead of going into practicing law, he went into the FBI. And so, when you go into FBI, they start you out in a large city and then they move you to—you have to go after that to a top ten city. So, we moved to Denver—or my parents moved to Denver—after law school with the FBI, and I was born in Denver. And then Denver was the large city we went to. Then he got transferred to Los Angeles, and that was the top ten city he got sent to.
And you know, my dad is a Tennessee—he was a Tennessee boy, and so his goal was always to get back to the city. And so, we went from Los Angeles to San Diego. There was an opportunity to come back to the southeast in Jackson, Mississippi, so we came back to Jackson. But we got back to Knoxville when I was in the sixth grade. So, I’ve been here since the sixth grade and my family’s been here for generations and Knoxville is definitely who I am.
I lived in Denver briefly and I love that, but I always miss the people. The thing that is so different are just the people here. And so, I stayed in Denver for three years when I moved there back in 2001. And came back because my dad wasn’t doing well. He had a mass and mom needed help, so that’s why I came back, but I also came back because I knew I always would.
It’s just one of those things that you try moving away but you’re always drawn back to Knoxville. I know so many people who have done the exact same thing. So, I absolutely love it here. Grew up in West Knoxville, went to Farragut—Cedar Bluff and Farragut. But as soon as I—after college, I knew that I wanted to stay, you know, closer to that area, and so moved there and lived around downtown for several years before finally buying my house over by North Hills.
Julia: That’s fantastic. I have met so many people that own businesses in Knoxville that I’ve known for years and had no idea the history that they had connected to Knoxville. So, it’s really been a treat for all the people that I’ve known and got to know over the last 20 years to understand how deep-rooted you all really are in the Knoxville area. So, tell us about—so I know you are a teacher. Tell us about how that ended up, and then get into what made you want to run in a political setting. And you went there as a female in any party that it’s not one small feat in this area. So, how did you go from teacher to legislator? How did we get there?
Gloria: So, I love teaching more than anything. That is the greatest career. It’s one of those things. I’m a lucky human being in the fact that they say you know, get a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life and that’s certainly how I felt about teaching. The kids part, I’m not going to say it was easy.
I worked with teenage emotionally disturbed students who, you know, that had special needs. And usually it was behavioral, not academic but more behavioral. That’s the majority of my 27 years in education. And just, you know, I learned so much about these families, how these kids get to this point, you know, what systems in our government and everything else that has led to them being in the situations that they are, and you know, knowing lots of ways that we could improve those situations. And so, it was always something that was on my mind.
But until there were all the attacks on teachers and the attacks on public education, where they’re [removing 00:04:57] a teacher sitting at the table, I’m mean, no one consults teachers anymore when they’re making policy on education. Teachers are making less today than they did ten years ago based on the cost of living. So, this is outrageous. And so, that is what got me into it. Then and a combination of another thing.
I got involved with the Obama campaign and learned a whole lot about organizing and all of that, and one of his big issues, of course, was health care. That was big for me because I had a sister and her brother-in-law, who own their own business, and struggle because it was a small business, getting health care is difficult. She had a long-term illness that required multiple brain surgeries, and ultimately, they were kicked off their insurance while my two nephews were fighting in Afghanistan. They lost their home and their business—
Julia: Oh, my God.
Gloria: Because of health bills. And she needed another brain surgery. And those two things, you know, made me run. Because there was a situation of a special election here back in 2011, and listening to the three candidates that were running on the other side, there was no discussion of health care. There was none.
And that was a huge discussion nationwide. And everybody’s like, “Gloria, if you don’t get in that race, no one’s going to be talking about health care.” So, I knew the numbers were impossible, but I got into the race, just so I could talk about health care.
Julia: How did that first race end up? I honestly don’t remember, I was coming out of Nashville as you were trying to come into Nashville. So, I was coming out of a seat and I did not keep up with that one.
Gloria: Well, it was a special election when Jamie Woodson went to SCORE, and it—
Julia: That’s right.
Gloria: Yes.
Julia: I’d completely forgotten what how that was—that feels like a lifetime ago.
Gloria: It was a li—it was 2011.
Julia: Yeah [laugh].
Gloria: Special election. It was a short timer and I had already—you know, we had just been watching and I was at a debate with a bunch of college students and the three people running were just trying to [outright 00:07:09] themselves. It’s like if they kept going, they were going to fall off the stage. And I know that didn’t all feel exactly the way they were saying. And I was just like, “Somebody’s got to do something.”
And then the state party contacted me, and they said, “Gloria, we’re not going to have a conversation if you don’t get in the race, and there’s only two-and-a-half months left.” And I did it. And it was a 75/25 district, I think. We moved the district about seven points in two-and-a-half months. Never expected to win.
It was about bringing a different conversation to the race. And I believe that everyone, every voter deserves a choice. I think every race should be challenged. I think voters deserve a choice. And they also deserve a good, thorough, in deep conversation about the issues. They owe that to the people voting for them.
Julia: That is something that I think is the new conversation—not to change topics about a whole different subject but it’s kind of related—that you’re starting to see Gen Z talk about a lot, especially on the ne—on TikTok. And a lot of people don’t like TikTok. You don’t have to, but billions of people are on TikTok every single day looking for new ideas and new conversations. And what I am seeing in the younger generation—I mean, I’m 40, so I’m an elder millennial. So, there are two generations after me now, which makes me feel interesting—
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: —but the next generation, the Gen Z generation, all they can talk about is options. It’s not necessarily that they aren’t willing to have a conversation about what they believe versus what you believe, but they want the option to talk to both or multiple. And not throwing your hat in the ring is taking something off the table. And that in and of itself, as a female in the political arena, in the Knoxville market, in the southeast as a whole, is a feat in and of itself. So, it’s like, “Hey, look, I’m from here, my family’s from here. I moved away a little bit. I’m back. I was a teacher for something I loved, and now we have a real issue and I’m going to leave this thing that I love to contribute back to my community, at least give an option.” I think that’s huge. And I think that as we progress into the next decade, that’s going to be—every race will be challenged. Every conversation will be on the table.
Gloria: Yeah. And it’s really interesting where Knoxville is so far ahead in some ways, but so far behind in others. When I went to Denver when I taught there, one of the most interesting things was they really treated teachers as professionals. I’ve never seen teachers get treated so well. And I’m not—you know, it’s just and it’s little things. It doesn’t cost money to treat teachers well.
When we had in-services or professional days or something like that, we’d go to some business center where other folks met and we had an adult-sized table, I didn’t have to put my 37-inch inseam into some kindergarten chairs for eight hours, you know? And they served as, you know, nice lunches and not anything, you know, exorbitant or anything like that, but treating you like any professional in any business. And it makes such a difference about how you feel about—when I got there, I felt like, “Man, these teachers are so on top of their game,” but it’s because they required continued education to get the salary bump every year. Your bump came from how many hours you took, graduate hours you took. And so, the first year I got there, I took 20 hours because they paid for a lot of it, and that bumped my salary up $12,000 by taking 20 hours.
And they allowed you and they encouraged you to do that. So, I was working with teachers who had not gone a year without at least having one class. And here, you know, you there’s nothing, there’s no benefit to continuing. And I think we’re doing a disservice in education and especially in Tennessee now, where they don’t even want to recognize graduate degrees and master’s degrees, you know, doctorates, that sort of thing. And we should not just—one of the goals you see on every website for schools is, “We want our kids to be lifelong learners.”
It doesn’t say they want teachers to be lifelong learners, though. It’s just, we need to be smarter and more intentional about what we do in education. And I think we can do that. But one thing that Colorado did terribly was special education. They broke a lot of rules and did not acknowledge—when I went there, I taught at a school that was about three miles from Columbine. And they had no program for mental health. And so, I literally wrote a grant using our program from Knoxville, and they loved it and they put it into practice.
Julia: That’s fantastic.
Gloria: And my school was one of the two schools that the kids who couldn’t—some kids just couldn’t go back to Columbine, and so I was one of the two schools where those kids came, and we were able to get help and support. I had a psychologist in my classroom, you know, every day. So, it was—they were open to new and great ideas, and that was a Knoxville idea that really brought Colorado forward, at least in Jefferson County.
Julia: I think mental health for kids now has been—we talk about it a lot.
Gloria: [laugh]. Yeah.
Julia: A big hot topic to talk about. Action is lacking. But I really feel like the conversation is shifting at least. So, as you know, Knoxville is 20 years behind some of the biggest cities in the world, so if we can start talking about it more, maybe we can bump that timeline up to only a decade behind, which [laugh] I would not be upset about [laugh].
Gloria: It’s so important because I think about the structure of the classroom, the intervention classroom that I taught would be beneficial to any class all regular ed kids. It would be beneficial to those teachers because it makes your classroom so much more manageable. Because part of what you do is build trust between the classroom. And kids have so much problem with trust these days. And so, spending some time in the first two weeks of school on team-building and trust-building activities would make a huge difference in the rest of the year as far as discipline and all of those things go.
And every kid needs it. And it benefits the entire classroom, how much information you can get to your kids, and how much time you’re spending on discipline. Because it will—I would maybe send a kid to the office three times out of the year and I had the worst kids two steps away from juvenile. But the behavior management system is so good and it’s all about making them responsible for the teamwork and the trust in the group.
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Julia: I think something that we struggle with as a society as a whole—not just Knoxville but as a whole—is the conversation that we want children to grow up to be independent thinkers and want them to be creative and we want them to understand that they have power, but then we sent him to school eight to ten hours a day and say, “Nope, do as you’re told. You don’t need to know this information. We just need you to stay here and be quiet and do this.” [laugh]. And I think that it’s a stark contrast to what we want for them.
Gloria: And a lot of that is, you know, would come through if you use some of the activities and some of the mindsets in my classroom because it was a lot of thinking outside of the box a lot of problem-solving. We did a lot of problem-solving activities, which are great soft skills that all of our kids need and we see that they’re lacking in those skills. And I have seen a shift in teachers being more consciously considering, you know, asking probing questions and doing more problem-solve activities and critical thinking. But yes, within the legislature, they’re trying to take away all the time for those things to happen.
You know, they think there’s this idea that teachers are indoctrinating. Look, it’s the same teachers they had years ago and they were not indoctrinated. It’s all made up. But the reality is, we teach kids how to think, not what to think. We never tell them, “This is right or this is wrong.”
You know, you lay out all the different things and you decide which one you think is best. I always did during the presidential election, I would—there’s a world’s smallest political quiz and then there’s a little more in-depth political quiz for which candidate do you align with. And so, we would always go through the questions and the kids would always decide. And it was always funny because it was usually somebody that they really didn’t pick, you know, that they didn’t think about. And sometimes it was some obscure candidate even I hadn’t heard of [laugh] because there’s a lot of them on there. The big quiz had all of them.
But I would have them do some in-depth research, you know, and write about that candidate. And if you are going to, if you are going to design a logo or a sign for that candidate, what would it look like? You know, those kinds of things. It just got them to think. And it may not have been somebody they would have voted for, but it made them think civically, you know, and it made them think about why did I align with this candidate, and you know, what issues are important to me, and you know, what should a president been doing?
Julia: What a great segue to my next question because you have a, you know—and again, we’re going back to what you just said—you are an advocate for challenge every seat, you get challenged every year. I’ve never not known you to have a challenger. And good for you, you keep pulling out those W’s and that is tough to do, that is tough to do anywhere. So, you consistently are running a campaign. I don’t think you’ve had one year unchallenged.
And as you continue to go and you are solidifying that power base—that’s what I call it; your power base is Knoxville—people in Knoxville continuously choose you. And once you put yourself out there and you keep doing that is that is an amazing step forward. What are the topics that you’re going to be taking to Nashville this year, this coming up legislative year that are important to you? Because I think that civic-mindedness for kids, just putting that kind of conversation out there at any age is really important. But I think as we age, we tend to curb our open-mindedness to conversation because of what our experiences are versus what’s going on around us as well. So, what are you taking in Nashville that your constituency is bringing to you to take this year? What are your hot-button issues?
Gloria: Yeah. Well, there you know, there’s so many things, and it’s hard to narrow it down to one. And there’s so many things—I still am going to push for Medicaid expansion. I’m still going to push for adequately funding public ed and teacher pay, those things. Never going to stop making sure that our schools get better and better.
But also, you know, to me, making sure that people have good jobs with good wages and benefits. I mean, we need to be lifting people out of poverty and not letting them drop back into it. And part of that is making sure that everybody earns a wage so that they can support their family and not have to decide between groceries and medicine, you know, that they can get both of those things. And one thing that I brought because I had at one time, within one year, I had three friends pregnant with triplets.
Julia: Oh, my God. How does that happen, statistically [laugh]?
Gloria: One was a police officer, one was a firefighter, and one owns her own business. And so, having triplets automatically means a C-section, and that automatically means six weeks off. That’s if, you know, a lot of times they come early, they’re small, there’s NICU time, all of those things. And how does somebody who’s a police officer or a firefighter, they don’t have six weeks off, you know? That just doesn’t exist.
And so, in talking to so many people and looking around the country at how paid family leave can work, I brought a paid family leave bill every year since 2018 and I’m going to keep doing it. Because the reality is the program that we picked—I work with a group called A Better Balance because they help, all around the country, they’ve worked with people on paid family leave—and so I chose the most conservative plan because this is Tennessee. It doesn’t require any—this doesn’t cost the state a penny and it doesn’t cost the business a penny. It’s employee-driven, it’s kind of like insurance. I put in the cost of a cup of coffee a week, that’s about 3 to $4, and then when they’ve been there a year’s time, if you’ve been there a year’s time, when you have—either you want to have a baby, or your child has an illness, you have your own long-term illness, or say you have a parent who’s ailing and you need to stay with them, you’ll have 12 weeks paid leave for that time that you put in.
Julia: So, is it kind of like a program where I can pay into it, kind of like a medical savings program?
Gloria: Well, everybody pays in, you would pay and your 3 to $4, whatever the comptroller’s office or, you know, whatever they decided what that amount needs to be for all of Tennessee—and even sole proprietorships you know, anybody and [that’s working 00:21:40] getting a paycheck can be a part of this plan. So, I just think it’s important that if we’re going to prioritize families if we’re going to force people have families before they’re ready, we should be able to take care of them.
Julia: Yes. Because we’ve both—I’ve been in Nashville—I understand. I understand. If you only could have one thing, one bill, and you know what, you know how it is, you’re going to present your ten and you’re going to get maybe a half of one. So, if you only had one, what would be the bill for 2023-2024 that you wouldn’t do nothing but that bill?
Gloria: Always—until we get smart, Medicaid expansion. I mean, it would change the life of every Tennessean. Because when people have access to affordable care, guess what that means? Mental health is health care. And so, everyone has access to that mental health care.
When you look at the states who expanded like Michigan, those great study out of Michigan, what they wanted to look at was how did it help people in Michigan when they expanded Medicaid? Was it effective? Did it work? And what they found, they looked at low-income people, it raised them up. They were able to get loans because they didn’t have to worry about not having health care or not having affordable health care.
They were able to get insurance, improve their health. They were able to, they save enough money to have loans, they bought new cars, which got them better jobs, they didn’t have to be on a bus line. It was an enormous boon to their economy. And so, the 10% at this point that there were required to pay after the federal taxes coming back to your state, easy peasy. They said it overwhelmingly paid that much.
Plus, it will pay in perpetuity because it will always do that. And that’s what they found. And then in Ohio, what they found was everyone they were able to insure on Medicaid expansion—which is most people in addition to those who already had insurance—of those with opiate issues, they were able to treat 96%. We only treat 13% in Tennessee.
Julia: We do have that problem in Tennessee.
Gloria: We do have that problem. And we’ve lost, you know, 13 rural hospitals because of Medicaid expansion because that’s our poor community, they don’t have that money, the hospitals aren’t getting their typical reimbursement. Everybody should have insurance now. And what so many don’t understand, it is this leadership that is keeping that from happening. And you know, something you said before which I think is so important, talking about women and women running for office, I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have Medicaid expansion.
Julia: I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have a whole different state.
Gloria: Yeah. We would.
Julia: [laugh].
Gloria: I was the first woman in House District 13. I’m wondering, were you the first woman in your district or no?
Julia: No, actually, there was a lady—oh my gosh, and everybody knew her name and I never met her, she passed away. So, she was the mentor to my predecessor. And then she had passed away and then I had taken that seat. Now, we were the only two women that have ever held that seat. And I don’t believe—I actually don’t believe Loudoun County, the other half of my seat, had ever been held by a female. So, I was the first female in Loudoun County to hold a statewide position. And as I can recall, the last so far [laugh], in a decade.
Gloria: Kind of shocking to me that your county beat Knox County, though. I mean, really. Just wow.
Julia: You never know [laugh]. You never know. All right, we have four-and-a-half minutes. So, shifting that, we wish you the absolute best of luck in Nashville. We really hope that you get something that you want one.
I know your constituents where they may be in the minority still want to see you succeed and they elected to you to do that, so we do wish you the best of luck. But let’s reel this in to be more Knoxville-oriented and less Nashville at the moment because I’ve got so many questions for you. Because you’re from here and your family’s from here and you’re going to remember so many cool things. So, what is your best memory as a child in Knoxville as a whole? Like, like any memory, like, other than the World Fair; that doesn’t count because everybody says that one [laugh].
Gloria: I wasn’t a child in the World’s Fair. But I was in school at UT in education and so I got a gig doing tours for school groups that came from all over the country.
Julia: [laugh]. That’s awesome.
Gloria: I had to carry this tall thing with a little flag on the end with our number so all the kids could follow along. And it was so [laugh] much fun.
Julia: Try that today. 30-something kids with a flag. They’re not—you’re done. You’re out.
Gloria: You’re going to have to get a rope and a leash [laugh].
Julia: “My dad’s bonafide.” I don’t know if you remember that scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou? where she tied all of her kids—
Gloria: Oh, yeah [laugh].
Julia: —to one rope. She was like, “My dad’s bonafide.” That’s all I can remember of the rope of the kids. Anyway, so okay. Best remembered restaurant versus now favorite restaurant.
Gloria: Okay. So, I have to—let’s see, I have to go back to places that—not such a great restaurant necessarily, but that I remember Steak and Ale [laugh]. It had another name too, but I can’t remember. But I worked in high school and in college at Kingston Four Theater, and so Steak and Ale was right across the street. So, we used that a lot. Also, Michael’s was down—no not on Michael’s. What was that? Doodles. Doodles—
Julia: Oh, my God [laugh].
Gloria: And we would go over to Doodles on our dinner hour because they would have ten-cent shrimp or something like that [laugh].
Julia: That was expensive. Ten-cent shrimp’s expensive [laugh].
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: You were at the classy bar.
Gloria: Now, my favorite. I’ve got so many favorite restaurants, but like, a standard of mine is probably Bistro at the Bijou. You know, I like comfort food, you know? I’m not a fancy—I’ll eat any kind of food [laugh] but you know, I love that they have this varied menu. Every time you come in the specials are really different. And it’s dark and cozy [laugh]. I like that.
Julia: Yeah, I love it there. Their brunch is good.
Gloria: Oh, their brunch is really good. Yes.
Julia: Yeah, their brunch is fantastic. All right. Favorite, like, scene I guess you could say. Like, give me—set the scene? Where do you go, like, for hiking or biking or relaxing or just to read a book? Like, favorite, favorite place?
Gloria: Well, so just any of our parks. I mean, we have amazing parks. I like to go to UT Gardens. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous. And a friend of mine, [Anne 00:28:54], goes there all the time and she kept saying, “Gloria—” You know and so now I’ve gone and now I go back and now I take my mom and I just—it’s beautiful. And it’s a wonderful place to just sit and be quiet. But there are so many places like that around here.
Julia: We’re very blessed. Knoxville people don’t even know, Knoxville is the hidden gem. All right, one last question. What is your best-kept secret that whenever somebody comes to visit you from out of town, you take them to this place and no one really knows about it. Only you know about it.
Gloria: Well, it used to be, years ago, it was King Tut.
Julia: Oh yes.
Gloria: [laugh].
Julia: Yes. Oh man, I’m so glad you said that [laugh].
Gloria: Always. It was always an experience. But now, it’s just some of my favorite little, like, you know public house or some of my favorite little places to go and just down around here. Used to be—again another place that’s gone was Tootsie’s.
Julia: Oh. Oh yeah, that was a fun place.
Gloria: Tootsie’s in Nashville, but Toot’s here, which is down sort of around in my neighborhood. And it was so interesting because it went from being kind of a—people thought it was a scary Happy Hour kind of place, to being this place where the hipsters did karaoke, you know?
Julia: Yes [laugh].
Gloria: So, I had some friends from Colorado come in and I took them there and they were just—they loved it, but they were sort of stunned [laugh].
Julia: Knoxville is a special place. I hear that a lot. It’s like, “Oh, well I came to visit. I may want to—I’ll invest in this place. I might relocate here, I might retire here.” But it just kind of that. “This was so much fun and I don’t know what I was expecting. It wasn’t this.” And just kind of the deer-in-headlights look.
Gloria: And my friends from Colorado, most of them were younger than me and just really energetic, but I remember my friend Casey doing the worm on the floor at Downtown Grill and Brewery [laugh].
Julia: I mean, why not? [laugh]. Naturally. Naturally.
Gloria: Oh, but they absolutely had a blast. And a couple of them have come back and they still want to come back. So, it’s been great. And then a couple of them I did a road trip of with a RV, we did a redneck road trip and we came from Colorado in a principle friend of mine’s RV and we stopped at Graceland and we stopped at the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
Julia: Where they don’t actually give you Jack Daniel’s because a it’s dry county. Oddest place to visit but I love it.
Gloria: The final stop was Dollywood, and I had never been to Dollywood.
Julia: Oh, my gosh.
Gloria: First time to go to Dollywood was with them, and we just had an absolute blast.
Julia: We went there in Covid. There were eight people in the whole park.
Gloria: Oh, my God.
Julia: We had the best day of our lives. We literally rode the same roller coaster three times.
Gloria: You’re outside. It’s perfect.
Julia: It was great. We had a blast. We love Dollywood. All right. Well, everybody, listen, our time is up. We’re going to have to bring you back after session to see how something turned out for you, so count on that invitation. We appreciate your time today. Everybody, this is the honorable Gloria Johnson. Very good friend to all people in Knoxville, but especially for women in Knoxville. We appreciate you very, very much, touting our flag, as I guess you could say, as we follow you through your trips to Nashville. We appreciate you. This is Julia Hurley, hostess of Connect the Knox. Thank you Gloria thank you, Gloria.
Gloria: [laugh]. Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
Julia: Bye.
Gloria: Bye.
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