Knox County Schools board chair Betsy Henderson announces run for mayor
KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Knox County Schools Board of Education Chair Betsy Henderson has announced that she will be running for Knox County Mayor in 2026.
Henderson confirmed to 6 News that she took the formal step on Friday to appoint Zane Duncan as the treasurer for her campaign. She added that there will be a more formal announcement about her campaign to be the next of Knox County in the coming weeks.
Trump fires Tennessee Valley Authority board member following Blackburn and Hagerty's criticism
'Over the past few months, I have been so encouraged by the heartfelt conversations I've had with people throughout Knox County. It is clear that we find ourselves at a crossroads,' Henderson wrote.
'We have the opportunity to keep our county a place where families thrive, where conservative Christian values guide us, and where personal freedom, responsibility, and hard work are celebrated. A place where our policies empower parents to make the best decisions for their children, where taxes stay low, and where local businesses flourish without the burden of government overreach.'
Earlier this month, Henderson told 6 News she was considering joining the race for mayor, adding that she was being encouraged to run by leaders from across the county.
Substitute teacher in Sevier County accused of statutory rape, sexual exploitation
Henderson has served on the Knox County Schools Board of Education since December of 2020 and as chair of that board since September 2023. Her current term is slated to end in August 2026.
So far, it appears Henderson will be running for the position of County Mayor against Knox County Commissioner Larsen Jay, who announced his plans to run in 2026 over a year ago. Knox County Criminal Court Clerk Mike Hammond also announced in April of 2024 that he planned to run for mayor, however, in November, he withdrew from the race to seek re-election instead.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic same-sex marriage ruling
DALLAS − The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution supporting a concerted effort to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges as the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage approaches its 10-year anniversary. The June 10 vote by the nation's largest Protestant denomination represents a doubling down on issues of gender and sexuality as the predominant group of evangelical Christians continues to move sharply to the right and signals the SBC's hopes of replicating the successful campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. Whether the latest vote will move the needle on gay marriage, a right backed by a strong majority of Americans, remains to be seen. Last year, the SBC passed a resolution condemning the use of in-vitro fertilization, only to see President Donald Trump sign an executive order earlier this year seeking to protect IVF access and reduce its out-of-pocket and health plan costs. Related: He was at the center of a Supreme Court case that changed gay marriage. Now, he's worried. Reversing the Obergefell ruling is one of numerous issues related to sex, gender and marriage encompassed by the resolution. Among other things, the resolution affirms that there are only two genders, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, says families are designed for procreation and that human life is sacred 'from conception to natural death.' The measure describes these declarations not just as Christian convictions but as 'universal truths' 'essential for a healthy, just and free society.' 'Our culture is increasingly rejecting and distorting these truths by redefining marriage, pursuing willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate, ignoring and suppressing the biological differences between male and female, encouraging gender confusion, undermining parental rights, and denying the value and dignity of children,' the resolution says. The resolution also opposes commercial surrogacy and normalization of 'transgender ideology,' saying policies that deny the 'biological reality of male and female' are legal fictions. It opposes laws and policies compelling people 'to speak falsehoods about sex and gender' and calls for the permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood. Last year, the convention narrowly rejected a constitutional ban on female pastors, a measure that required a two-thirds majority to pass. The SBC has disfellowshipped seven churches – including Southern California's megachurch Saddleback Church – for embracing egalitarian views on women in ministry as opposed to the complementarian position espoused by the convention, which holds that men and women have different roles. The Supreme Court's rightward swing and the election of President Donald Trump have emboldened the convention's more conservative factions and Christian political activists, who see the moment as ripe for a shift in American jurisprudence. 'It's time for us to take back our nation,' said Chad Connelly of Faith Wins, an organization focused on getting out the Christian vote. 'I believe we've been given an opportunity and the time is now.' Resolutions are non-binding statements expressing the convention's views on social and cultural issues. Other resolutions at past SBC annual meetings have reasserted Southern Baptist opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, though this year's resolution was the most forceful articulation of their rebuke of the Supreme Court precedent protecting same-sex marriage. Delegates, called messengers, overwhelmingly approved the resolution after little debate on its language. A strongly traditionalist voice in the SBC, Denny Burk, proposed the language in the resolution that messengers ultimately approved. Burk is the president of Louisville-based Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an advocacy group that was behind two well-known, cross-evangelical statements opposing LGBTQ+ rights. The first statement was the Danvers Statement in 1987 and the second was the Nashville Statement in 2017. 'It is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness,' the Nashville Statement said. 'Approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.' The new resolution approved by the SBC is another iteration of the Nashville Statement, but more forcefully attacks the U.S. jurisprudence protecting the LGBTQ+ rights that evangelicals oppose. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic Obergefell ruling
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic same-sex marriage ruling
Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic same-sex marriage ruling Show Caption Hide Caption The Southern Baptist Convention in 2025: The key issues The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination denomination. It is headquartered in Nashville. The resolution approved seeks to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges as the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. The June 10 vote by the nation's largest Protestant denomination represents a doubling down on issues of gender and sexuality. DALLAS − The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution supporting a concerted effort to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges as the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage approaches its 10-year anniversary. The June 10 vote by the nation's largest Protestant denomination represents a doubling down on issues of gender and sexuality as the predominant group of evangelical Christians continues to move sharply to the right and signals the SBC's hopes of replicating the successful campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. Whether the latest vote will move the needle on gay marriage, a right backed by a strong majority of Americans, remains to be seen. Last year, the SBC passed a resolution condemning the use of in-vitro fertilization, only to see President Donald Trump sign an executive order earlier this year seeking to protect IVF access and reduce its out-of-pocket and health plan costs. Related: He was at the center of a Supreme Court case that changed gay marriage. Now, he's worried. Reversing the Obergefell ruling is one of numerous issues related to sex, gender and marriage encompassed by the resolution. Among other things, the resolution affirms that there are only two genders, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, says families are designed for procreation and that human life is sacred 'from conception to natural death.' The measure describes these declarations not just as Christian convictions but as 'universal truths' 'essential for a healthy, just and free society.' 'Our culture is increasingly rejecting and distorting these truths by redefining marriage, pursuing willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate, ignoring and suppressing the biological differences between male and female, encouraging gender confusion, undermining parental rights, and denying the value and dignity of children,' the resolution says. The resolution also opposes commercial surrogacy and normalization of 'transgender ideology,' saying policies that deny the 'biological reality of male and female' are legal fictions. It opposes laws and policies compelling people 'to speak falsehoods about sex and gender' and calls for the permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood. Last year, the convention narrowly rejected a constitutional ban on female pastors, a measure that required a two-thirds majority to pass. The SBC has disfellowshipped seven churches – including Southern California's megachurch Saddleback Church – for embracing egalitarian views on women in ministry as opposed to the complementarian position espoused by the convention, which holds that men and women have different roles. The Supreme Court's rightward swing and the election of President Donald Trump have emboldened the convention's more conservative factions and Christian political activists, who see the moment as ripe for a shift in American jurisprudence. 'It's time for us to take back our nation,' said Chad Connelly of Faith Wins, an organization focused on getting out the Christian vote. 'I believe we've been given an opportunity and the time is now.' Resolutions are non-binding statements expressing the convention's views on social and cultural issues. Other resolutions at past SBC annual meetings have reasserted Southern Baptist opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, though this year's resolution was the most forceful articulation of their rebuke of the Supreme Court precedent protecting same-sex marriage. Delegates, called messengers, overwhelmingly approved the resolution after little debate on its language. A strongly traditionalist voice in the SBC, Denny Burk, proposed the language in the resolution that messengers ultimately approved. Burk is the president of Louisville-based Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an advocacy group that was behind two well-known, cross-evangelical statements opposing LGBTQ+ rights. The first statement was the Danvers Statement in 1987 and the second was the Nashville Statement in 2017. 'It is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness,' the Nashville Statement said. 'Approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.' The new resolution approved by the SBC is another iteration of the Nashville Statement, but more forcefully attacks the U.S. jurisprudence protecting the LGBTQ+ rights that evangelicals oppose. Contributing: Liam Adams of The Tennessean This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
5 takeaways from a major new report on religion around the world
This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night. When people hear that researching religion is part of my job, they often ask me very specific questions about faith-related issues that have been in the news. After I disappoint them by not immediately knowing the answers, I turn to Google for help. My job has made me a search engine expert, not a religion expert. The questions that still trip me up even when I've got a strong internet connection are about the religious makeup of faraway countries. It's hard for me to quickly find info about religious life in the Czech Republic or New Zealand and then talk about what that info means for the athlete or politician who's grabbing headlines in the U.S. But now, I've got an exciting new tool in my trivia tool belt. On Monday, Pew Research Center released an interactive website that shows the religious makeup of nearly every country in the world in a single (very large) table. Once you're on the page, it takes only a few seconds to confirm that New Zealand was 40.3% Christian in 2020 or that the Czech Republic is dominated by religious 'nones.' Pew's interactive table was released alongside a new report discussing how the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020. Based on more than 2,700 censuses and surveys, the report provides an in-depth look at 201 countries and territories — and plenty of fodder for conversations with your friends. Here are five key takeaways from Pew's new analysis of the global religious landscape. Christianity is the world's largest faith group, but it's not keeping pace with global population growth. In 2010, 30.6% of the world identified as Christian. By 2020, that figure had fallen to 28.8%. Islam is the fastest growing religious group. 'The number of Muslims increased by 347 million (from 2010 to 2020) — more than all other religions combined,' researchers wrote. Sub-Saharan Africa is now the region of the world where most Christians live. In 2010, Europe held that title. As of 2020, the United States has the second-largest number of religiously unaffiliated residents. China has the most. The growth of Islam from 2010 to 2020 was mostly due to natural population growth, while the decline of Christianity stemmed, in large part, from religious switching. 'Religious 'switching' — especially people shedding their religious identity after having been raised as Christians — explains much of the unaffiliated population's growth between 2010 and 2020," Pew reported. Americans are divided over religious freedom. The Supreme Court? Not as much How 'Jeopardy!' can save us all, according to Ken Jennings The Supreme Court's surprising decision day This top running back says he believes in God, not the so-called 'Madden curse' A religious school is facing pushback for its partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Hidden Christianity is a unique form of Christianity practiced on some of Japan's rural islands. It gets its name from the fact that its earliest practitioners really were hiding their faith to avoid persecution. 'Hidden Christians were forced to hide all visible signs of their religion after the 1614 ban on Christianity and the expulsion of foreign missionaries. Households took turns hiding precious ritual objects and hosting the secret services that celebrated both faith and persistence,' according to The Associated Press. Early practitioners disguised their Christian icons by making them appear to be Buddhist. Even after it was safe to be openly Christian again, many families continued these secretive practices, in part because they wanted to honor loved ones who'd risked their lives and in part because they didn't fit in with mainstream Christians, the AP reported. 'Many Hidden Christians rejected Catholicism after the persecution ended because Catholic priests refused to recognize them as real Christians unless they agreed to be rebaptized and abandon the Buddhist altars that their ancestors used,' the article said. Hidden Christianity may soon be just a memory in Japan, since most current practitioners are quite old and most young people who grew up with the traditions have moved to cities and either don't want to or can't access the gatherings. A controversial research project featuring faith leaders using psychedelic drugs was released last month after a long delay. The report showed that nearly all of the members of the clergy who took part described their experiences with psilocybin as some of the most spiritually significant of their lives, but health and religion experts don't agree on what type of additional research or policy proposals that finding should inspire, according to Religion News Service. Which groups face the most discrimination in the United States? Pew Research Center recently asked Americans to weigh in, and the survey report offers an in-depth look at how people's political views influence their thoughts about discrimination. My Deseret News colleague Krysyan Edler recently wrote about the inspiring life of Caroline Klein, the chief communications officer for Smith Entertainment Group. After being diagnosed with cancer in her thirties, Klein committed to living every day like there might not be a tomorrow. 'Nothing about my situation is sad to me, but I want to make sure that when I'm gone, I've left people with a lot of great memories that bring them joy, too,' she said. After years of daydreaming about getting back into tennis, I finally started a summer tennis class on Saturday. It felt so good! Take this as the nudge you need to do that thing you've been dreaming about.
