Senator Thelma Harper Abandons Senator Kurita

By Kleinheider Posted on July 24, 2008 at 6:57 am

Senator Thelma Harper comes out full bore against the woman who made Republican Ron Ramsey Speaker of the Senate:

Harper addressed the audience with the kind of fire that has made her one of the most powerful senators to ever represent Tennessee. but the sadness in her voice could also be heard every time she mentioned the name of the current senator Rosalind Kurita.

It was Thelma Harper who some time ago came to Clarksville to lend her support to a young up and coming candidate from Montgomery County. It was Thelma Harper who walked these same streets with Kurita and it was Thelma Harper who welcomed her with opened arms when she arrived for her first day on Capitol Hill. Senator Harper, the first African American woman elected to the Tennessee State Senate, knew how it felt to not only to be a minority but also what it meant to be one of the few women senators serving her state and country on capitol hill.

On this night, Thelma Harper told a story of how Rosalind Kurita crossed party lines and cast a vote giving the Republican Party control the Tennessee state senate. It was a speech about trust, a word Senator Harper repeated several times during her emotional speech.

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Tags: Clarksville, Montgomery County, Ron Ramsey, Rosalind Kurita, Thelma Harper, Tim Barnes