Holly McCall, a longtime communications professional and political operative, has become the first Democrat to announce plans to run for the Franklin state House seat held by embattled Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham.
McCall, a former newspaper reporter, public relations strategist and Franklin native, said she picked up qualifying papers on Monday to run in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary for state House District 65
The seat is in a solidly Republican district in dependably conservative Williamson County. But Tennessee Democrats are hoping to put the seat in play because of the recent controversy surrounding Durham, who will likely need to withstand a primary challenge to be the GOP nominee in November.
McCall, discussing her bid with The Tennessean, said the Republican-dominated legislature has “lost touch with what voters in Williamson County want and what voters in Tennessee want.”
She accused the state legislature of spending too much time talking about “frivolous bills” — singling out legislation involving pet skunks and the state’s official rifle — and not enough time on issues such as traffic and transit.
McCall also acknowledged that the controversy that has trailed Durham helped compel her to run for the seat.
“I have empathy for him as a person because he’s clearly got some personal issues,” McCall said. “But he does not need to be dealing with these issues on the taxpayer dime. And his issues have effectively hijacked our legislature for several weeks this year. He took two weeks off, and the district basically had no representation. I think we need better representation here.”
Durham, who has indicated he will run for a third term for District 65 (continue reading at Tennessean)