E06: Brandon Puttbrese: WTF Was So Special About TN’s Special Session (Part 1)
Standing Tall with Gloria Johnson
Brandon Puttbrese: WTF Was So Special About TN’s Special Session (Part 1)
Air Date: 08/11/2026
Guest: Brandon Puttbrese, Press Secretary for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus
Host: State Rep. Gloria Johnson
NOTE:This is Part 1 of a multi-part conversation– Part 2 will be released soon.
Episode Summary
Gloria sits down with longtime friend and colleague Brandon Puttbrese, press secretary for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, for a deep, wide-ranging breakdown of how Tennessee's Republican supermajority actually operates. They open with the story of Gloria's first major press moment as a legislator, blowing the whistle on a K12 online charter school illegally changing failing grades to passing ones, then dig into the "distraction and deflection" strategy Brandon says defines Republican governance in Tennessee: school vouchers, Christian nationalism in classrooms, a $80 billion infrastructure backlog, and Tennessee's fall to 51st in the nation in public school funding.
Topics Covered
Origin story: how Gloria and Brandon met during the Obama campaign, and the K12 online charter school grade-fraud scandal that became Gloria's first major press story (with reporter Phil Williams)
Brandon's framing of Tennessee Republican governance as a "mass distraction and deflection apparatus"
The gap between what Republican voters say they want and what Republican politicians actually do once elected
A deep dive into the school voucher program: the "school's choice, not school choice" framing, "subprime" private schools flooding the market, and the funding disparity between public school students and voucher recipients (illustrated with a real floor committee clip)
Tennessee's fall to 51st in the nation in public school funding, and the Greenville legislator who publicly didn't know the ranking includes Washington D.C.
The state's $80 billion infrastructure backlog against a $60 billion annual state budget
The real-world cost-of-living squeeze on Tennessee families — child care, health care, wages — versus Republican messaging about a "AAA bond rating" and "low cost of living"
Christian nationalism in K-12 curriculum, including a "success continuum" bill and a bill promoting Bible literacy in classrooms
A special session incident in which Senate colleagues privately disagreed with leadership but declined to speak up publicly, contrasted with a walkout by state senators in South Carolina
Closing thoughts on political courage (and the lack of it) within the legislature's controlling party
Guests:
Gloria Johnson: Rep. Gloria Johnson:Instagram| Threads | Facebook
Brandon Puttbrese: Press Secretary, Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus: Follow on X
Notable People Mentioned:
Phil Williams (NewsChannel 5 Nashville investigative reporter, mentioned re: the K12 charter school story)
Sen. Jeff Yarbrough (TN State Senator, mentioned)
Rep. Gino Bulso (TN State Rep, mentioned re: "success continuum" and Bible literacy bills — name was garbled in the transcript as "Gina bull," corrected based on context; recommend confirming before publishing)
James Talarico (Texas state legislator, referenced re: Christian nationalism commentary)
Rep. Stevens (TN State Rep, mentioned re: cutting a trip short for a special session vote)
Gov. Bill Lee (referenced re: a broken campaign promise on child care)