E02- Civil Miller Watkins: Always Be Civil

Jul 21

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Air date: 07/21/2026

Host: Gloria Johnson: Tennessee State Representative, District 90

Guest: Civil Miller-Watkins, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate (Tennessee, 2026), educator, former Fayette County school board member

Episode Summary

Gloria Johnson talks with Civil Miller-Watkins, a middle school math teacher and former Fayette County school board vice-chair who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Bill Hagerty. The two ran against each other in the 2024 Senate Democratic primary and now sit down as allies. They cover Civil's roots in rural West Tennessee, the origin of her name (tied to her mother's civil rights activism), maternal health care and hospital closures in rural Tennessee, reproductive rights, voucher programs and public school funding, redistricting, and what it will take to turn out Democratic voters in a state that hasn't elected one to the Senate since 1990.

Topics Covered

Civil's background: educator, mother of eight, former Fayette County Board of Education vice-chair, county Democratic Party chair
The story behind her name — her mother's civil rights-era activism in a factory hiring dispute
Rural health care: Fayette County Hospital's closure, long drives for OB-GYN care, Medicaid expansion
Reproductive rights and Civil's own experience with pregnancy loss
Running against Gloria Johnson in the 2024 Senate primary, and now backing each other
Redistricting ("packed and cracked" districts) and building coalition across counties
Turnout strategy for 2026: mobilizing non-voters rather than "flipping" persuadable voters
Education funding: Tennessee's drop to 51st in the nation in public school funding after voucher expansion; a personal story about a wealthy family qualifying for a school voucher
Voting rights: the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act
What Civil would prioritize as senator: rural infrastructure funding, protecting the Department of Education, voting rights