Sen. Beverly Marrero says she has yet to forgive Sen. Jim Kyle for edging her out of office in the Democratic primary instead of running against a Republican.
But the 73-year-old says she hasn’t totally ruled out taking another stab at getting back into the Legislature by running against Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, in 2014.
“It flashed on my mind a little bit that I might run against Brian Kelsey, but I would have to move to do that,” she said Wednesday in her Capitol Hill office during an interview with TNReport. Marrero added that many of her constituents for the last decade were drawn into Kelsey’s district this year.
“I’m sure that they’re not going to be happy with their choices. However, I’m sure there are enough Republicans in that district where he’ll easily be able to win. I may make him work for it a little bit. I don’t know,” she said.
Marrero lost her bid for re-election last month against Kyle, the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, who asked Republicans to draw him into a race against Marrero instead of Kelsey during redistricting this year. Kyle beat Marrero with 55 percent of the vote in the Memphis district.
“I’m trying to deal with my feelings about it because I do — had — a certain feeling that I had been betrayed by a member of my own party, particularly when he was originally drawn into a district with a Republican and he chose to run against me,” Marrero said.
“I do feel a little bit put upon on by that. Unfortunately, that’s quite often the way things work. People look out for their own interest rather than for the members of their party,” she said.
Kyle could have gone up against Kelsey, who is up for re-election in 2014. Kelsey wants students to be able to use public tax dollars to attend the private school or their choice and is among the more conservative members of the GOP in the legislature.
