Actress/activist Park Overall Announces Run for Republican-held Senate Seat in Tennessee

You can now add Senate candidate to actress and activist Park Overall's resume, as the Greeneville, Tennessee, native announced today that she has filed qualifying papers to seek the Democratic Party's nomination to challenge Republican Bob Corker for his U.S. Senate seat.

"I went to Nashville, I spoke, I met, I saw. Today, I announce here, first to the The Tennessean, second to the Greeneville Sun, and now to you, my most fun people: I am filed to run against Bob Corker for the U.S. Senate," Overall announced.

"The Blunt amendment put me over the top. I am sick of rhetoric, and as all of you who know me, know, I have an East Tennessee fire in the belly. I am tired of liars, cons and thieves, a filthy environment and the subjugation of the poor, let alone the middle class. I am not buyable, and I don't have $7.5 million for my campaign. But I have you, or some of you, and I believe, I believe, I believe!"

Overall, 55, an environmental activist, is the daughter of Frances (a professor of English) and Thomas Wesley "Jack" Overall, Jr., (a federal magistrate) and hails from Greene County in East Tennessee.

Prior to her career in New York, Overall toured East Tennessee with a children's theater group. Numerous off-off-Broadway productions of such plays as The Seagull and The Skin of Our Teeth led to her being cast as Becky Lou in the Hartford Stage Company's production of Sam Shepard's The Tooth of Crime. Overall made her Broadway debut as Rowena, the prostitute, in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues and she later reprised the role in the film version of the play.

Her first television role was on NBC's Empty Nest and she later starred in the short-lived series Katie Joplin and Ladies Man. She has also appeared in TV movies, including Fifteen and Pregnant (1998) and has made numerous guest appearances on TV shows including The Golden Girls, Nurses, The Young Riders and Reba. Her other feature film roles include Tainted, Vibe, Mississippi Burning and Talk Radio.

Tennessee's primary election is August 2, with the general election on November 6. Incumbent Senator Bob Corker, a Republican, is concluding his first term in Washington. 

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