Marquita Bradshaw

Deep Dive

Marquita Bradshaw is the Democratic nominee for Tennessee's seat in the U.S. Senate and faces Bill Hagerty, the sitting senator, on November 3, 2026. She is a Memphis organizer who runs an environmental justice nonprofit and has never held office. She won the Democratic primary on August 6, 2026 with 54.7 percent of the vote, and eight independents are on the November ballot with the two of them. This is the second time she has faced Hagerty: she was the Democratic nominee for the same seat in 2020 and lost it by 62.2 percent to 35.2.

On the question this site asks, the record is empty rather than thin, and it has been empty through two statewide campaigns. Her campaign site sets out seven priorities and every page of it was read: public schools, the economy, affordable housing, healthcare, voting rights and gerrymandering, broadband, and environmental and climate justice. Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons and foreign aid appear nowhere in any of them. She answered a candidate survey at length this year, writing several hundred words on a circular economy, on schools and on protecting the right to vote, and naming as the policy she is most passionate about "building a circular economy that justly transitions all of us to a sustainable future"; no country and no form of aid is named anywhere in it. The survey is worth weighing because she used the whole range of the form, so the silence in it is hers rather than a gap in the questions.

The 2020 campaign is the same story, and one of the outside records of it is unusually direct. An American Jewish organization that publishes a guide to candidates' positions gave her a page of her own in that campaign and wrote on it that she does not have a record or public positions on issues important to Jewish voters, and that the page would be updated when she presented them. The page has since come off that organization's site. A publication that covers American politics for its Israel content reported her primary victory in August 2020 and carried nothing from her on this subject either. An empty record carries no implication either way.

Everything that was read, including the addresses that did not open, is on her research page. You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Bradshaw directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in her own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about her.

The money

Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. Her campaign site was read in full, page by page, including all seven of its issue pages; so were her Ballotpedia page and her survey answers there, both of her profiles on a second guide, an archived copy of the page an American Jewish organization's candidate guide kept for her, her encyclopedia entry, a long newspaper profile from her 2024 campaign, a magazine piece from her 2020 campaign, and a report of her 2020 primary victory by a publication that covers American politics for its Israel content. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. She has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are hers, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

• Nothing located, at any date. No statement by her about arms transfers, weapons shipments, Foreign Military Financing, the memorandum of understanding, security assistance, a dollar figure, a condition on aid, or any bill, amendment or arms sale by name appears on her campaign site, in her survey answers, in her published biography, in either of her profiles on a second candidate guide, in her encyclopedia entry, or in any news report about any of her three campaigns read for this card.
• [Earlier record, read 2026-09-20 from a 2022-02-01 copy] The one outside body that set out to record her position on this subject found none. The American Jewish Congress's candidate guide gave her a page during the 2020 campaign, and its own sentence about her, repeated twice on the page, reads: "Marquita Bradshaw does not have a record and public positions on issues important to the Jewish community. This page will be updated once Ms. Bradshaw presents her positions." The rest of the page is biography: her birth year, the seat she was running for, her work with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club and Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, and the 2020 primary result. The live address for it, https://www.ajcongress.org/what-we-do/jewish-voter-guide/senate , now returns an error, and the page was read in the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20220201045229/https://ajcongress.org/jewishpoliticalguide/senators/marquita-bradshaw/ .

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• Nothing located, at any date. Neither the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, nor humanitarian funding for Gaza, nor the aid pipeline appears anywhere in her published material or in anything written about her that was read.

Characterization of the conflict

• Nothing located, at any date. She has not been found using the words genocide, apartheid, self-defense or terrorism about the war in Gaza, and nothing was found from her on Palestinian statehood, a two-state framework or territorial boundaries. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas and Middle East occur zero times across the whole of her 2026 campaign site, her survey answers, the campaign platform Ballotpedia reproduces from her 2024 run, and her encyclopedia entry.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

• Nothing located, at any date. Nothing that could be read here has her naming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, any other advocacy organization on this subject, or money connected to any of them. Her own framing on money in politics is about corporations and billionaires: her campaign site's closing line is that "Tennesseans deserve a senator who answers to them -- not to corporations and billionaires who have spent decades calling the shots." It names no organization and is not a position on what the United States sends.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

• Nothing located, at any date. Nothing in her published material addresses antisemitism or the safety of any religious community.

What the campaign site and her own pages say

• [Position, read 2026-09-20] Her campaign site was read in full: the home page, Meet Marquita, Priorities, Events, Volunteer, Go Vote, Store and Connect, and all seven issue pages behind the priorities. Every page was searched case-insensitively for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, zionis, aipac, antisemit, jewish, foreign, military, weapon, arms and middle east: zero hits anywhere, including in the navigation.
• [Position, read 2026-09-20] The priorities page lists seven, each with a page of its own: "Support Students and Teachers", "Build a Fair and Equitable Economy", "Invest In Affordable Housing", "Healthcare Is a Right", "Defend Voting Rights. End Gerrymandering.", "Universal Affordable Broadband" and "Environmental and Climate Justice". None is about foreign policy, and no foreign country is named on any of them.
• [Position, read 2026-09-20] Her biography page describes her as a tenth-generation South Memphis resident and executive director of Sowing Justice, an environmental justice nonprofit, working on industrial pollution, fossil-fuel infrastructure and data-center development. Her own sentence there lists her priorities as "affordable healthcare and housing, strong public schools, universal broadband, voting rights, fair electoral districts, climate resilience, environmental justice, and greater economic opportunity for every community."
• [Position, 2026; read 2026-09-20] Her Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. The page states that she "completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026" and carries the answers in full. She answered every question at length. Her three key messages are an economy that works for working people, bold environmental and climate action, and education. Asked what areas of public policy she is personally passionate about, she answered: "I am most passionate about building a circular economy that justly transitions all of us to a sustainable future." Asked what legacy she would like to leave, she answered: "Legacy of a sustainable future where everyone has clean air, water, and soil." Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons, foreign aid and foreign policy appear nowhere in any answer, and no question on the form asks about them. The questionnaire test is met in her favor: she used the whole range of the form, so the silence is hers and not a wall of blanks.
• [Earlier record, 2024; read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia reproduces the platform her campaign website carried during her 2024 run, under eight headings: making Tennessee work for all Tennesseans, healthcare for all, the Green New Deal, community policing and restorative justice, high quality public education, universal background checks, protecting democracy, a living wage, and a statement in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. No foreign country and no form of foreign aid appears in it. The page records that she "did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey."
• [Earlier record, 2019; read 2026-09-20] Her 2020 survey answers, on the same page, are three short answers about environmental justice, public education and the economy. Nothing in them is in scope.
• [Read 2026-09-20] Her campaign's account on X, https://x.com/BradshawforTN , carries 3,101 posts and 33,700 followers and describes her as "2026 U.S. Senate Nominee, Executive Director of SowingJustice.org, TN 1stBlack Woman Nominee for US Senate, Let's clean up the environment & politics". The posts themselves are served only to a reader who signs in, so none was read and nothing is claimed from them. The same is true of her accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, whose addresses are listed at the foot of this page.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for the race gives the filing deadline as March 10, 2026, the primary as August 6, 2026 and the general election as November 3, 2026, and states: "The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. Senate Tennessee on November 3, 2026." The field is Bill Hagerty (R), Marquita Bradshaw (D) and eight independents: Tharon Chandler, Andrew Gerena, Jeremy Hearn, Robert Jones, James Macon III, Yoshi Matthews, David Sutman Jr. and Catherine Whitson. Above that field the page warns that "The candidate list in this election may not be complete." It records Andrew Mixon of the Federalist Party under withdrawn or disqualified candidates, and her own page adds Dallas Templeton there.
• [Read 2026-09-20] The primary results on the same page. "Marquita Bradshaw defeated Maria Brewer, Kevin Lee McCants, Civil Miller-Watkins, and Diana Onyejiaka in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Tennessee on August 6, 2026", with 182,564 votes and 54.7 percent of 333,605 cast; Brewer took 18.0 percent, McCants 10.0, Miller-Watkins 8.7 and Onyejiaka 8.5. On the same day, "Incumbent Bill Hagerty advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Tennessee on August 6, 2026" unopposed, with 623,538 votes. Bill Hagerty's record is on his own card and is not narrated here, and neither are the records of the eight independents.
• [Earlier record, 2020; read 2026-09-20] Her own Ballotpedia page records that this is a rematch. In 2020 she won the Democratic primary of August 6, defeating Robin Kimbrough Hayes, James Mackler, Gary Davis and Mark Pickrell, and then lost the general election of November 3, 2020 to Bill Hagerty, 1,840,926 votes and 62.2 percent to 1,040,691 and 35.2 percent, with four independents also on that ballot. In 2024 she ran for Tennessee's other Senate seat and lost the Democratic primary of August 1, 2024 to Gloria Johnson.
• [Earlier record, 2020-08-08] The Times of Israel's report of her 2020 primary victory, published August 8, 2020. Its subject is the defeat of James Mackler, the candidate the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had backed. Everything it says about her is her margin, her line on the night, "The progressive movement is undeniable!", her work with the Sierra Club and environmental policy, her fundraising total, and that she and Hagerty would face off in November. A publication covering the race for its Israel content reported no position of hers, which is recorded here as a fact about the coverage and not treated as evidence of anything else.
• [Read 2026-09-20] Two profiles on a second candidate guide, iVoterGuide, at https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/56678/race/6830/election/793 and https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/56678/race/34515/election/1499 . The first carries a questionnaire of about thirty questions on abortion, the economy, religious liberty, healthcare, national security, immigration, education and values, and records "Did not answer" against every one of them. The second, for this year's general election, carries no questionnaire at all. Neither form asks about Israel, Palestinians, foreign aid or boycotts. Nothing is drawn from either.
• [Position, 2024-07-20; read 2026-09-20] The Nashville Banner's profile of her during the 2024 campaign runs to about 2,300 words on her upbringing, the Memphis Defense Depot Superfund site, her 2020 campaign, money and organizing. It does not mention Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons or foreign aid.
• [Earlier record, 2020-09; read 2026-09-20] A Facing South report on Black candidates for the Senate in 2020 covers her 2020 campaign at length and reaches none of these subjects either.
• [Read 2026-09-20] Her encyclopedia entry contains no mention of Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, foreign aid or any foreign policy question. Nothing on this card rests on it.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

• Her posts on X, https://x.com/BradshawforTN , which are served only to a signed-in reader; her campaign's accounts at https://www.facebook.com/BradshawforTN/ , https://www.instagram.com/bradshawfortn/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@marquitabradshawtn and https://www.youtube.com/@MarquitaBradshawTN ; and her personal accounts, which Ballotpedia lists separately. None was read. With more than three thousand posts on one account alone, these are the places most likely to hold anything she has said on this subject.
• The American Jewish Congress's candidate guide as it stands today, https://www.ajcongress.org/what-we-do/jewish-voter-guide/senate , which returns an error. Only the archived copy of her page from that guide could be read.
• No candidate forum recording, debate transcript or local voter guide entry from the 2026 campaign that asks about this subject was located at all.

Not on the card, and why

• A sentence in the form "I support" a boycott of Israel "if they refuse to allow the creation of a Palestinian state", which search summaries attribute to her and to a voter guide. It is not on this card in any form and it is not quoted here as hers. Every page those summaries point at was opened: the guide page in question says in its own words that she has no record or public positions on the subject, both of her profiles on the other guide record no answers and ask no such question, and her encyclopedia entry does not contain it. No page carrying that sentence could be found anywhere. It is not published on this card in any form, because a sentence of that weight with no source behind it is exactly what this site exists not to repeat.
• The claim in our research that a candidate guide asked her about boycotts and about a Palestinian state and that she left the questions unanswered. Both of her profiles on that guide were opened. The questions are not on either form. What is true is narrower and is recorded above: on the older form she answered nothing at all, about thirty questions, none of which was about this subject.
• Her seven campaign priorities and the whole of her survey answers on schools, wages, taxes, housing, healthcare, rural hospitals, broadband, voting rights, gerrymandering, climate and pollution. Out of scope, and listed above so the absence can be checked.
• Her campaign's argument that a senator should answer to Tennesseans rather than to corporations and billionaires. It names no organization and is not a position on what the United States sends.
• Bill Hagerty's record and the records of the eight independents on the November ballot. Another candidate's positions belong on that candidate's own card.

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

• https://www.marquitabradshaw.com/ , /meet-marquita , /priorities , /events , /volunteer , /go-vote , /connect and the seven pages at /issues/public-education , /issues/economy , /issues/invest-in-affordable-housing , /issues/healthcare , /issues/defend-voting-rights-end-gerrymandering , /issues/universal-affordable-broadband and /issues/environmental-and-climate-justice (all opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Marquita_Bradshaw (opened; 2026-09-20; her survey was completed in 2026)
• https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_Tennessee,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://web.archive.org/web/20220201045229/https://ajcongress.org/jewishpoliticalguide/senators/marquita-bradshaw/ (opened; 2026-09-20; the copy is dated 2022-02-01)
• https://www.ajcongress.org/what-we-do/jewish-voter-guide/senate and https://ajcongress.org/jewishpoliticalguide/senators/marquita-bradshaw/ (both return an error now; 2026-09-20)
• https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/56678/race/6830/election/793 (opened; 2026-09-20; about thirty questions, none answered, none in scope)
• https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/56678/race/34515/election/1499 (opened; 2026-09-20; no questionnaire)
• https://www.timesofisrael.com/dem-backed-jewish-veteran-loses-tennessee-senate-primary-to-progressive-activist/ (opened on the second route; 2026-09-20; published 2020-08-08)
• https://nashvillebanner.com/2024/07/20/marquita-bradshaw-candidate-senate-race/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-07-20)
• https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/09/black-southerners-hoping-chart-new-path-us-senate (opened; 2026-09-20; published September 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquita_Bradshaw (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://x.com/BradshawforTN (heading opened, posts not served; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.facebook.com/BradshawforTN/ , https://www.instagram.com/bradshawfortn/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@marquitabradshawtn , https://www.youtube.com/@MarquitaBradshawTN (not read; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.