Marquita Bradshaw

Marquita Bradshaw was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Bradshaw earned a high school diploma from Central High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of Memphis. Her career experience includes working as an executive director.[1][2]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Marquita Bradshaw is a proven community organizer and environmental justice advocate running for the U.S. Senate to put people over special interests. The campaign will mobilize working families across Tennessee—urban, suburban, and rural—around a

practical agenda: good-paying jobs, clean air and water, strong public schools, affordable healthcare (including saving rural hospitals), reproductive freedom, bold environmental and climate action, and voting rights. Bradshaw has a track record of elevating kitchen-table issues with proven advocacy for an economy that works for working families not special interests,. Bradshaw experienced medical bankruptcy and wants to ensure that cost and logistics do not prevent Tennesseans from getting the medical care they need. She believes healthcare legislation must be comprehensive by covering mental, dental, vision, comprehensive reproductive health and addiction wrap-around services

Marquita’s career and service have spanned labor, environment, education reform, tax reform, trade policy, and social justice work. Her passion for a clean and safe environment drives her to raise awareness and fight for environmental justice which impacts the poor and most vulnerable. She is an alumna of University of Memphis. and has worked as a caretaker for a differently abled adult. Bradshaw is the founder and Executive Director of Sowing Justice a nonpartisan organization focused on civic engagement beyond voting utilizing community science,

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Build an Economy that works for working people that's fair and equitable.

Incentives, and investments to small and medium-sized business owners so they can do right by their employees and enjoy the profits of their work.

Ensure a living wage. Revamp the outdated poverty index.

Restructure the regressive tax system to fairly tax all working Americans, removing the burden of income, sales & property taxes from the working population.

Break our dependency on fossil with a just transition to a circular economy which focus on clean renewable energy, affordable housing, public transportation, expanding Medicare, and green jobs. Fossil fuels are causing unstable markets. increasing energy cost, increasing healthcare burdens from pollution,Bold Environmental and Climate Action

Will invest heavily in green infrastructure and jobs for professionals who are desperately needed in a rapidly changing environment: biologists, climatologists, renewable energy engineers, inventors, regenerative farmers, conservationists, and specialists in fields as far-ranging as soil regeneration, closed-loop waste disposal, and renewable energy financing.

Will require corporations to have environmental, social, and governance plans to rapidly remediate their waste and decrease environmental harm, and encourage a complete lifecycle of products with recycling or reuse to achieve net-zero waste

Expanding Medicare for all to mitigate the disproportionate burdens of pollution and climate change..Education

Will support measures to relieve current student debt and reinstate protections from predatory for-profit student debt companies and colleges.

Prioritizes making funding available to under-resourced and low performing local education authorities to implement appropriate wrap-around services to set students up for success

Emphasizes quality childcare and school wrap-around services that support working families in economically depressed communities

Supports universal pre-K education giving children the foundation to be lifelong learners

Expand public education to include free technical, community, HBCU, and public college.

Fund education the same as our military.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am most passionate about building a circular economy that justly transitions all of us to a sustainable future. In the 17 principles of Environmental Justice. Protecting democracy and the right to vote is how meaningful involvement and self-determination are expressed in a democratic society. As a proven leader and a problem solver, our economy and democracy must be people-focused. We can strengthen public schools by investing in our students and teachers.

Bold environmental and climate action will stabilize our economy and build a fair and Equitable Economy that invests in affordable housing, public transportation, and expands Medicaid, which will save rural hospitals and lower drug costs.

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What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Integrity

What legacy would you like to leave?

Legacy of a sustainable future where everyone has clean air, water, and soil.

Marquita Bradshaw did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Bradshaw’s campaign website stated the following:

MAKING TENNESSEE WORK FOR ALL TENNESSEANS

I have engaged people around policy throughout my career. Many times, we were reacting and responding to federal policies around education, economy, environment, and health care. Now I want the opportunity to fight for hard-working Tennesseans to shape federal policy as your United States Senator.

I BELIEVE IN HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

As your Senator, I will fight to ensure Tennesseans going bankrupt from seeking needed Medical Care is a thing of the past. Having experienced that in my own life, I know what it's like to have to suffer through our current system.

I SUPPORT THE GREEN NEW DEAL

As a fighter for environmental justice my entire life, I am proud to stand as someone who sees the unending benefits of this deal, not only for our Planet’s health but for the future of our state’s economy. Tennessee has an opportunity to invest heavily in new jobs, infrastructure, and more with this deal and we need bold, unafraid leadership to take us to new heights.

I BELIEVE IN COMMUNITY POLICING AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Restorative justice is a theory of justice that focuses on repairing the harm caused by the crime. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that allow stakeholders to meet. In Tennessee, we need a fundamental overhaul of our justice system to ensure that we all are being held to an equal interpretation of the law, not one rooted in racial and income bias. When we do this it will lead to a transformation of people, relationships, and communities.

I BELIEVE IN HIGH QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION

Our society demands that we teach our students lifelong learning and skills that will translate to a modern economy. I am a lifelong proponent of funding our education system the same as we do our military in order to promote generations of meaningful success regardless of background or location in Tennessee.

I BELIEVE IN UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS

Every day, more than 300 Americans are shot or killed–whether from mass shootings that are occurring with alarming regularity to more frequent acts of domestic violence and suicide.

I BELIEVE IN PROTECTING DEMOCRACY

Some have argued the single most influential Supreme Court decision in our lifetimes has been the overturning of the Citizens United case. This ushered in an era of untold amounts of money being funneled into campaigns from billion-dollar corporations to buy elections. Protecting Democracy is a critical piece of my campaign.

I BELIEVE IN A LIVING WAGE FOR ALL WORKERS

Tennesseans are the hardest working people in this country & their labor deserves to be recognized. This means fully and aggressively fighting for the federal recognition & implementation of a living wage beginning at immediately increasing the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. We should implement a Building an economy that helps all Tennesseeans means:

I BELIEVE IN DACA

We should always be the beacon for families looking for better opportunities to find refuge from oppression, tyranny, violence, and prosecution.[3]

—Marquita Bradshaw’s campaign website (2024)[4]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Marquita is native to Tennessee. She is a Memphian who has extensive experience in the environmental justice movement. Marquita advocates for human rights. Marquita grew up in South Memphis and is an alumna of university of Memphis. As a single working-class mother, she raised her son in Tennessee.

Bradshaw is a volunteer project director for Defense Depot Memphis, Tennessee - Concerned Citizens Committee (DDMT-CCC). She is one of the eleven founders of Youth Terminating Pollution. As a project director she fights for her childhood community. Bradshaw raises awareness and fights or justice for contamination from the Memphis Defense Depot Superfund site. The Superfund site is a chemical and biological warfare landfill.

Marquita has championed many communities causes. Bradshaw has worked as an organizer at local, state, and national levels, including work with the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, Sierra Club, Stand for Children, Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, AFGE, and the AFL-CIO

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We can plan for the environment to have transition away from pollution. High quality public education pre-k-12 that prepare students for success in higher education and workforceThe Economy must work for working families

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe that policies should ensure that people have healthy and safe places to live, learn, work, worship, and recreate, I am passionate about environmental policies and how the physical environment and human health are related.