First Senate tenure In 1996, Kurita won a state senate seat by defeating an incumbent Republican senator. She was re-elected twice, in 2000 and 2004. In 2005, she was the first major Democratic candidate to enter the
2006 United States Senate election in Tennessee, and initially appeared to be competitive But she dropped out of the race in early April 2006, as a result of financial and organizational challenges. On January 9, 2007, Kurita was the lone member of the Democratic
caucus in the Tennessee Senate to vote together with all 17 Republican members to replace long-serving Democratic
Senate Speaker John Shelton Wilder with Republican
Ron Ramsey. On January 12, 2007, Ramsey named Kurita Speaker
pro tempore, replacing Republican State Senator
Micheal R. Williams, who had in the previous legislative session broken with his fellow Republicans to vote in favor of Wilder. Before 2008 Kurita was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Democratic nomination in
Tennessee's 7th congressional district in the 2008 election. The district, represented by Republican
Marsha Blackburn (who served with her in the State Senate from 1999 to 2003), includes most of Kurita's state senate district. She also was mentioned as a candidate for the Tennessee U.S. Senate seat held by Republican
Lamar Alexander. However, Kurita sought to remain in the State Senate. In the August 7, 2008, Democratic
primary for District 22, she was opposed by
Tim Barnes, whom she outpolled by just 19 votes, receiving 4,477 votes to Barnes' 4,458 votes. Election officials certified her victory, and no Republican candidate opposed her for the District 22 State Senate seat. However, Barnes contested the results, claiming that Kurita only won because a large number of Republicans crossed over to vote in Tennessee's open Democratic primary. On September 13, Tennessee Democratic Party officials met in Nashville and voted to strip Kurita of the nomination. Party officials in Kurita's district then held a convention and designated Barnes as the party's candidate in the November general election. Kurita had been on bad terms with party leadership because of her vote for Republican Ron Ramsey, enabling him to win election as Senate speaker. Kurita subsequently announced that she would seek re-election in November as a
write-in candidate. Her write-in candidacy was unsuccessful, resulting in 23,322 votes, which was not sufficient to overcome Barnes' total of 36,977 votes as the Democratic nominee. Kurita also
sued the state Democratic Party in federal court, seeking to have her name restored to the ballot. Barnes succeeded Kurita in the State Senate in January 2009.
Second Senate tenure In
November 2018, State Senator
Mark Green was elected to the U.S. House, vacating his senate seat in doing so. On January 14, 2019, the Montgomery County County Commission chose her from among 12 applicants to serve in the Senate until a special election could be called. Kurita did not run in the special election in August 2019. ==References==