The Tennessee House Republican leadership has continually failed to provide a safe working environment at our State Capitol.

The recent Attorney General report released on Representative Jeremy Durham made official what Tennesseans have known for months: Jeremy Durham is a serial sexual harasser. He has a long history of harassing women and abusing his position of authority, and Tennessee Republican leadership has been covering it up for far too long.

Speaker of the House Beth Harwell, Leader Gerald McCormick, and Chairman Glenn Casada have been woefully inadequate in their response and in their actions. They have known for more than a year about Jeremy Durham’s inappropriate behavior, and yet for the longest time they did nothing but sweep it under the rug to protect their own power.

Once the public found out about their complacency, they continued to drag their feet, doing only the minimum to cover for their terrible misdeeds including the ridiculous and ineffective step of moving Rep. Durham to a separate building.

The people of Tennessee won’t easily forget the fact that GOP leadership allowed a serial sexual harasser to abuse his authority, create a toxic work environment, and cause irreparable harm to his victims. Even now, after all the reports and victims coming forward, the leadership still refuses to hold him accountable.

Speaker Harwell and her fellow Republican leaders' failure to act, failure to lead, and failure to hold Durham accountable for sexually harassing multiple women, is unacceptable and an utter failure of leadership. Since Beth Harwell, Glen Casada and the Republican leadership have refused to take any real action they need to step aside and make room for real leaders who will put the people above ambition.

Jordan Wilkins

DeKalb County Democratic Party

Chairman