The rumors are true — state Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) is running for Congress.
After weeks of speculation, the District 61 rep has joined the long list of Republicans vying to replace former 7th Congressional District Rep. Mark Green. Bulso made his announcement at a July 26 GOP forum at the Humphreys County Fairgrounds in Waverly.
“I'm running because I want to give the people the type of government that their founders pledged their lives, their honors and their sacred fortunes for,” Bulso told the crowd of more than 100 Republicans Saturday. “And I also want to point out that our enemy is not a king far away. Our opposition is our own federal government that has grown in scope way beyond the powers that were properly delegated to it by our Constitution.”
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The forum was hosted by the Humphreys County Republican Party and covered a variety of topics, including congressional stock trading. Bulso pledged to draft a law codifying it as “unethical” for members of Congress to trade stocks, saying he will dub the legislation the “Nancy Pelosi Act” — a reference to criticisms of stock trading by the former U.S. Speaker of the House. Similar accusations have been leveled against Green and several other members of Congress. Bulso also said he’s a “firm proponent of term limits,” and blamed career politicians for the country’s ballooning deficit.
“If I'm elected to this office, I will serve no more than three terms, or however long it's necessary to get this federal government back to what our founders intended to get to a balanced budget,” he said.
Bulso touted his "Tennessee Reduction of Unlawful Migrant Placement Act" — or "TRUMP Act” — which failed last session, in response to a question about whether immigrants should receive any kind of government assistance. He also praised what he said is the president’s “moral leadership” regarding immigration policy.
Bulso earned second place in a straw poll, and telling Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene, “The problems that we have in D.C. are a little more intractable than what we've got here in the state, and so it does call for a bit more urgency.”
Matt Van Epps, who has been endorsed by Green, earned the top spot in the straw poll. Now-pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionist Stewart Parks earned third place.
Bulso is the second state representative from Williamson County to enter the race, following an announcement from Rep. Lee Reeves (R-Franklin) earlier this month. Reeves was endorsed by every Williamson County mayor, something Bulso said he doesn’t view as a challenge in the primary. Reeves was not present at the forum, which did not go unnoticed by the audience.
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“If you look at those people that have endorsed Lee, I think they probably endorsed my opponents in my past elections, and they were not successful in doing that,” Bulso said. “I think the voters make up their own minds. I think if President Trump endorses someone, that will make a cataclysmic difference in this race, but I think the endorsements of other officials are not nearly as significant, and really probably will not play a material role.”
Bulso said he’s not actively seeking Trump’s endorsement, but would “gladly accept it.”
“I'm sure that the White House is watching this race very closely, and they're going to want the strongest candidate to emerge from this field,” Bulso said.
Bulso is a second-term state representative and was first elected in 2022. He has embraced a self-described “culture warrior” identity. He has been called a “bully” by his critics, some of whom have publicly characterized him and his legislative efforts as “hateful,” especially concerning his LGBTQ opposition — including legislation aimed at banning Pride flags in schools.
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Bulso counts among his state-level legislative achievements the passage of the “Baby Olivia Act,” which requires a medically inaccurate fetal development video to be shown in schools, as well as a bill that prohibits trans athletes whose biological gender was assigned male at birth from competing in sports against females in private schools, along with restricting shared locker room access based on gender. He has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his work as a lawyer representing some Williamson County parents in a lawsuit calling for the removal of “obscene” books from Williamson County Schools' libraries. Bulso has not shied away from sparring with constituents at in-person town halls (unique among Tennessee Republicans).
“We can do and have done so much good in the statehouse, with our supermajority,” Bulso told the Williamson Scene. “Congress is a completely different animal, but I just think that the need to get federal spending under control is just such an important role that it's worth sacrificing the role that I've had in state government, because we can do so much good for so many more people across the country.”
