Correction: Rep. Gabby Salinas is the most recent Latino member of the Tennessee General Assembly.
Gabby Salinas is a fighter. She fought cancer three times and won. She became a U.S. citizen, a scientist and a political activist. While she lost her first two runs for office, she succeeded on the third try.
Her history of persistence and beating the odds will serve her well as she enters her first legislative session in 2025 where Republican legislators hold a super majority of the chamber’s 99 seats.
On Nov. 5, Salinas, D-Memphis, was elected unopposed to an open seat in the Tennessee General Assembly representing District 96. She succeeded Rep. Dwayne Thompson , D-Cordova, who served from 2016 to 2024 before deciding to retire.
A week later, she came by The Tennessean offices for an interview to talk about her story and share her priorities.
“I think just, I’m a product of, of everything that has happened to me and the times that I’ve lived in,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of hardship in my life. A lot of things have happened. But I always say that within a lot of that hardship, I think I’ve just been in very unique positions and unique places.”