MERIBAH KNIGHT, HOST:
Is it hard to have your views challenged and to bend?
SARAH SHOOP NEUMANN: It's really hard.
KNIGHT: Sarah Shoop Neumann lives in Nashville, Tenn. She's a nurse, a mom...
NEUMANN: Can Mommy make some coffee? OK. Let's make some...
KNIGHT: ...A supporter of the Second Amendment, a lifelong conservative...
NEUMANN: I look out for my neighbor. I welcome everybody. To me, those are conservative Christian values.
KNIGHT: ...And her whole world changed on March 27, 2023.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Police say a 28-year-old opened fire at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn.
KNIGHT: It was the school her son went to.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Children are being taken to the reunification center to meet up...
KNIGHT: He was OK, but Sarah was reeling.
NEUMANN: I have a hard time even describing what it was like to live that week.
KNIGHT: Sarah looked toward her lawmakers for answers. But what she saw...
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: House Republicans and Senate Republicans disagreed on how to move forward.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: ...Pushing and shoving between lawmakers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Voting to expel three Democrats from the state legislature after they protested for stricter gun control on the floor of that chamber.
NEUMANN: I just found myself saying, how did this happen? How did we get here? I probably voted for most of these people. What do they think is going to fix this?
KNIGHT: So Sarah rallied two other moms like her...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: I've never spoken out politically.
KNIGHT: ...Conservatives who are worried about their party.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: And I don't want to be a part of the problem.
KNIGHT: And together, they headed to their state legislature to try to make change. I'm Meribah Knight, and this is SUPERMAJORITY from NPR and WPLN in Nashville.
NEUMANN: They're coming in.
KNIGHT: I've been following these women for the past year.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: I hereby declare the House representatives of the 113th General Assembly of the Senate of Tennessee now in session.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING GAVEL)
KNIGHT: Because they find themselves in a battle for the future of their state...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: The world is staring at us. Are we going to stand our ground?
KNIGHT: ...And their party.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: That's what's going to jeopardize the base, is if you don't listen.
NEUMANN: I've been listening all summer.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: This is a Republican state. If they don't like something, they're going to change it. These cultural wars aren't my primary concern.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: So we could do civil war.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: Ignore it at your own peril. We are voters. We are parents.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: You knew better than this. You pandered to the right.
NEUMANN: If you have to drag me out, so be it.
KNIGHT: Can these women change state politics?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: I feel like the weight of Tennessee is on my shoulders.
KNIGHT: Or will state politics change them?
NEUMANN: We are smart, and we are swift. We are not going anywhere.
KNIGHT: Listen to SUPERMAJORITY, a new series coming soon from NPR's Embedded podcast and WPLN News in Nashville. Embedded+ supporters get early and ad-free access.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.