We turned our disappointment about the Special Election into ACTION. Craig turned his car trailer into a structure for a float. This took him several days of planning and constructing. It was designed to have a red, white and blue table skirt surrounding the wooden frame and a LED American Flag for the front but the skirt and flag were delayed. So we ended up using wrapping paper for the skirt and suspending a real American flag with fishing line from the frame – with spotlights.
Friday we had a gathering of people at the garden so see the basic structure and talk through the plan for construction on Saturday. Many contributed to wrapping of presents and we came up with the present tags including coal for billionaires. We started building the float at 1045 yesterday morning and stopped at 445 when we had to check in. It was chilly and overcast but a dedicated group of a dozen people worked together and got it done. There were 95 entries in the parade. Ours was one of the best and certainly much better than the one from the Republican Party.
Our reception along the parade route (less than a mile) was mostly positive to enthusiastic. A fair amount of glares, a couple of thumbs down, but no verbal taunts. While we shifted 7 points to left in Robertson County, there is still a lot of hesitancy paricularly by the long-standing residents to identify themselves as not supporting the GOP even if they do not support the direction they are taking this country. Most of our most active members are transplants or natives who lived elsewhere for many years and came back.
We accomplished our goal of being proudly present in our community. We are here to stay.
The result of the Special Election, the focus our lives since July, “STINKS” but it does not negate all of the progress we made in Robertson County and throughout District 7 to build of community of people who want to see change and now KNOW it can happen.
IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT.
We have learned a lot through the Special Election process and are now in a much better position for the 2026 elections.
Being a Precinct worker was seeing Democracy in action. We had a steady flow all day long which was surprising to the experienced precinct workers. As a voting machine operator yesterday. I arrived at 6 AM, stood all day, didn’t drink enough water and was exhausted when I left the precinct at 730 PM. I enjoyed it and will do it again but will manage my fluid intake differently next time. The last minute GOP get out the vote efforts were more successful than Democrats. My take is that much of the turnout was driven from the pulpit from hundreds of churches on Sunday. Voters showed up who hadn’t voted in for years and were clearing voting against Aftyn and not for a person. They didn’t know a thing about the election, just that they had to vote.
Next up is a RCDP Float in the Springfield Christmas parade this Saturday at 530 PM (it is all about the lights after dark). We got a large (12 foot) Christmas tree for the float on Marketplace. It was a great deal and will the centerpiece on our Float. With the trailer will be 6 inches too tall to clear the overhead wires/traffic lights on the parade route. Fortunately it looks great with one section removed. We now have a 10 foot tree. RCDP will be out in our community, loud and proud this weekend – celebrating the fact that the 22 point GOP margin was cut to 8. We will continue to grow our community.
Aftyn won the Democratic Primary in October. We have 3 more days to motivate Democratic/Independent/disenfranchised Trump voters to get out and vote. While Robertson County went for Trump by 22%, the last poll had Aftyn at 46% and her opponent at 48%. Suddenly, there is a Republican get out of the vote. It has been an amazing journey. Robertson County voter turnout rate is very low. There is no sense your vote will matter – the GOP candidates always win so why bother.
The first few weeks after she won the primary were VERY SLOW. It was all fundraising, canvassing and phone banking. There were very few public appearances. It didn’t make any sense to Craig and I. Our working hypothesis was that the DNC needed to get through the November 4th elections to see how much they wanted to invest in this solidly GOP district in TN. After the November sweep, our little District seemed more interesting. I think the campaign was told to keep a very LOW profile, i.e. do not create anything that could possible be NEGATIVE in the sprint to December 2. Do not commit to any appearances in the rural counties in case something more valuable comes along. Aftyn needed to spend all her time fundraising since she was not accepting corporate PAC money.
RCDP planned an Early Voting Kick-Off event on November 8th. All the candidates were notified prior to the Primary. After Aftyn won, we were told she had a conflict for the 8th and would not be able to attend. So we invited one of the other primary candidates that did well in Robertson County to the Kick-Off event. All candidates pledged to support the winner. The candidate, Darden, accepted our invitation. At our event, we had a Bake Sale, a decorated car rally, speeches, small goats to pet, a music circle around a fire pit AND a POP up Food Drive for United Ministries Food Bank of Robertson County. The weather was great.
Imagine our surprise when Aftyn showed up for our event. While our attendance was pretty good, it would have been much greater if we could have said she would be there.
I have led some canvassing groups in Springfield and phone banking of. Robertson County residents. The majority of the Campaign efforts were allocated to the 3 populace counties. I have been on a roller coaster of feeling pissed of how “unimportant” the rural counties were and understanding of the complexities of running an election with few paid people and the need to reserve money for commercials. The campaign team were so busy, they could not communicate with people or organize all of the potential volunteer help that was available. Frustrating but Special Elections take place over weeks to months rather than months to years.
Early on, Aftyn consistently posted on Facebook but many Robertson County residents are not on Facebook. It was hard to keep people engaged in trying to help her get elected. As the National attention grew as the polls showed her within 10 points.
I think my hypothesis was correct. Since November 4th, Aftyn has been everywhere and the National and Global (BBC story) attention to the possible UPSET of this incredibly gerrymandered district has skyrocketed. The DNC Chair, Ken Martin was here. Kamala Harris canvassed when she was here on her book tour. I got a postcard from a New Jersey woman which I greatly appreciated.
As of 3 days ago, Aftyn had narrowed the gap to 2 which is in the margin of error. I think Aftyn is a great candidate and will make a great legislator. The challenges associated with trying to “help” from a nonprioritized rural area will fade and if she wins will go away. I
will be out canvassing Saturday and Sunday. I will take Monday off because I will be a voting machine operator on the Tuesday for Election Day. We have to be there at 6 and have to stay until everyone in line at 7 PM votes.
We are supposed to go to Aftyn’s Election Watch party in Nashville – hopefully I will have the energy for it.
The Robertson County Democratic Town Hall was a success. Aftyn Behn won the primary for District 7, but came in 3rd in Robertson County. The Primary was 2 weeks ago and the campaign is still trying to get everything in place to run General Election campaign against Matt Van Epps, a Trump endorsed West Point grad and Army helicopter pilot. Early voting starts November 12 with Election Day December 2. It will be an expensive TOUGH fight.
As I was went to sign up for the No Kings Protest in Nashville on September 17, I wondered if Robertson County was ready for its own protest. So I called my “partner in outreach” for RCDP, Donna and she said “maybe”. So we went about planning a protest in Springfield. We decided to have a “visibility” protest rather than a “rally” (planned line up of speakers). We planned it for around the Robertson County Courthouse in downtown Springfield from 11AM-1PM. I registered a new Indivisible group as well RobCoTN Indivisible as a co-sponsor with the RCDP. This protest was on NO Kings website and we advertised it on RCDP Facebook and directly to RCDP distribution list. I ordered bull horns and yellow safety vests. We took Safety Training sponsored by Move On. We contacted the city and county Mayors offices and visited the Springfield PD and RC Sherif’s office. As we were not planning on closing a street, we did not need a permit.
Registrations came in a few at a time and interestingly the vast majority were not names that I recognized from the RCDP. Craig made signs to advertise the event and protests signs for people who came without signs.
On Saturday, the weather was beautiful. We arrived early as did the other organizers and those who agreed to be Safety Officers. About 1030 a few people arrived and sat in the share around the periphery. By 1050 we had a small group on the major street starting the protest and people just kept coming. I heard many attendees say they were afraid they would be the only ones there. Some were concerned about safety (that someone would drive a car into the crowd). We ended up with nearly 200 protesters – most were first time protesters. It was joyous. The only thing that could be construed as counter protest was a couple of loud trucks going by drowning out the chants for about 3 minutes.
We took a group photo at 1 PM as it ended and sang “We shall Overcome”. Several attendees made sure we left the Courthouse grounds clean and the event was over. All of the signs Craig made were used by those that did not bring signs. I had my moment of fame being interviewed by local online publication which is not known to be friendly to Robertson County Democrats. SWAT is Smart Women Against Trump.
We had our RCDP monthly meeting last night and we had over 60 people attending – the largest group since we have been going. The RCDP distribution list has grown from just over 200 to just over 400 since June.
Now I have the RobCoTN Indivisible group to get off the ground. I started this hoping, if “I built it”, “people will come” who know the community better and want to actually lead it. Time will tell. So far my instincts about bringing Democrats and those wishing to preserve democracy out from hiding have been working out pretty well. Fingers crossed.
Charlie Kirk was killed the day of our Democratic Candidate Town Hall. The Democratic Party office in an adjoining county had a visit from an angry man who threatened the volunteer in the office. I got a call around 3 PM from the RCDP Chair asking if I thought we should cancel our Town Hall. I said HELL NO and waited anxiously while he checked with the TNDP who was providing the liability insurance for the event. Fortunately, they were OK with us holding the event. The Town Hall was at a Middle School that was having a sporting event which took up quite a bit of the parking which was not ideal. All of the volunteers showed up to help get set up and new people were personally welcomed as they came in. The only detail I missed was that I should have had a jar for Undecided for the Straw Poll as many people were not able to pick a favorite. There are 4 strong candidates.
There were nearly 150 attendees. One person said they had not seen that many Democrats in the same place in Robertson County in decades. There were 45 people who signed in that were not on our email list which was GREAT. Craig recorded the event so we were able to post it for those that could not attend.
We had a private security person at the door which we planned prior to the Kirk assassination. There were no disruptions. Some audience members did choose to sit in the back on the side out of view of a potential shooter.
The Straw Poll was won by Aftyn Behn who is a passionate young woman in her first term in the TN State Assembly. She is the candidate with the most “fire” and she seems to be consistently appealing to those attending the Town Halls across District 7. I like her a great deal but we will not be able to win the General with a typical Democratic electorate. We are going to need to appeal to Independents and disenfranchised Republicans and it is hard to know if her “fire” will appeal to those voters.
The person who came in second in the Straw Poll, Darden Copeland. is a business man who has never run for office. His life experience is as a consensus builder and he does not have any record in the State Assembly to target by the Republican candidate. He has great confidence that he is the one who can get the votes by Independents and disenfranchised Republicans. I really don’t know who I am going to vote for at this point.
We had a man post a threat on our RCDP Facebook page later on Wednesday so we will now need to have security at our monthly meetings. This is truly hard to believe but that is our current reality.
I was really hoping for at least 200 people to attend the Town Hall but with the parking situation and the fear of a threatening situation, I am satisfied with the attendance. Now to figure out what our next event will be to keep people engaged.
What does it take to get the Democrats in Robertson County TN to poke their heads out and engage? I am not sure, but I am willing to try about anything. I think I make a pretty good Donkey. This may go up on the RCDP FB page if those in charge (not me) think it might help.
I canvassed both Saturday and Sunday (without the costume) and am headed out now on my bicycle. Again without the ears.
Canvassing is mostly dropping a flyer about the Town Hall on Wednesday but about a third of the time someone comes to the door and is willing to engage. Most continue to be unaware of the Special Election and the opportunity it provides. With the typical low turnout for Special Elections, the people I am reaching through canvassing may be enough to make a difference.
At the Workers over Billionaires protest yesterday we saw the 3 women who cared for Craig at the John Lewis parade just over a month ago when Craig suffered from heat exhaustion. Mandy and Julie, left and center are partners. Andrea, on the right was the ER nurse that recognized how compromised Craig was. They met over Craig and have remained friends. I wanted to get a picture of them and they wanted to make sure they got a picture with Craig. We are so grateful to them and look forward to seeing them at future protests.
My involvement in politics has been limited aside from financial support. I did do some phone banking in 2016 and lots of postcards in 2024. While I had heard from others that canvassing was fun and rewarding, I was not convinced that would be the case for me.
The Robertson County Democratic Party Treasurer, Donna, has become a friend and she had never conversed either. The RCDP Chair was concerned that canvassing for the Primary Election would burn people out and they would not want to canvass for the General Election. He may be right given the level of energy members have been willing to put in so far, but I think people will engage for a a few hours of canvassing over a couple of weekends prior to the Primary. To NOT make an effort to get democratic voters engaged in selection of the candidate they will be hounded to vote for in the General election strikes me as one of the the many things that led to our defeat in 2024.
So Donna and I decided to go canvassing for a few hours as an experiment. I had a list of people and addresses in my district of Robertson County that had recently voted democratic. The list was not geographically arranged so I hand plotted addresses on a hard copy of a map to create an area to canvass. I then created a list of the addresses in “walking” order and we set out. I now know that the Vote Builder software can generate the map of neighborhoods for canvassing.
In 2.25 hours we walked 3 miles, visited 25 addresses, had 9 Doors answered and 8 conversations. One woman took materials for her daughter. We dropped materials at the other 14 addresses. This was a new development and everyone had cameras in their doorbells. After I started showing the Town Hall flyer in the camera, it seemed like more people came to the door. One person was aware and one person vaguely aware of the Special Election. People were VERY happy that we were out raising awareness about the Special Election. We developed a nice little rhythm going back and forth with our key points and we got more comfortable as we went. We had a great time.
Donna was so excited that she wanted to make a “training” video to share with her network of friends to encourage them to do some canvassing. We did this while she and her husband Mike were out at the Garden observing a podcast. Unfortunately I can’t upload the video without upgrading to a premium account.
We each introduced ourselves and then I did the initial talking and looked to her to do her part and she just stared back at me. I asked if she wanted to add anything and she said “NO”.
Well, our training video ended here. We tried a couple of more times but they didn’t record. Technology and older persons can make for interesting times. At least we try.
She sent the video out to her friends anyway and I am going to put it on Facebook. I am going to go way outside of my comfort zone on FB and ask for donations to the RCDP if I can include the ActBlue link. RCDP has very little money and the Chair is very uncomfortable asking for money. He says we need to start fundraising and need to plan a fundraising event which is way more work than directly telling members we need money. We have an Executive Committee of 28 people and a email list of over 250 names. In April I started a small monthly donation and encouraged the rest of the EC to do the same. Few, if any did.
It seems like the Robertson County Democrats have been in hiding for decades and while they enjoy the camaraderie and support that comes from the monthly meetings they can’t quite grasp the with enough sweat equity and money we have an opportunity with this Special Election to gain a Democratic seat in the US House. THIS IS A BFD.
Craig and I are doing everything we can to make things happen. Craig designed this to go with a RCDP flyer about our Town Hall that while informational (time and place) was not motivating. We are both so scared for our democracy that NOT doing everything we can think of is NOT an option for either one of us.
Donna and I are going to try to get some people out to canvass next weekend. It will be interesting to see if more people will have time after Labor Day.
Craig and I are unique in that we don’t have ties to the community so we don’t have a lot of other friend groups or activities to occupy our time and we don’t have grandkids’ events to go to. This means we don’t have many distractions as other RCDP members do. Hopefully our energy/fear will be infectious over the next few weeks.
The Robertson County Democratic Party (RCDP) Outreach and Engagement Committee, which I chair, decided it wanted to do a podcast to be a helpful voice in Robertson County to promote the Special Election and hopefully turn our District 7 seat blue. Beyond that we want provide helpful information as the full effect of the recently passed BBB has more and more impact on Robertson County residents. Robertson County does not have a local newspaper or radio station anymore. Portland TN a nearby town still has a local radio station and they started a radio show, The Loyal Opposition a while ago which is also put out as a podcast. That show was our inspiration. We have no members with any podcasting experience, but fortunately we have a younger man with the “can do” attitude about technology and software and he figured out the how. Others jumped in to be on the podcast as hosts.
Craig and I have quiet space on our windowless third floor that we have turned into a podcast studio. To do this, it needed to be emptied out and repainted – the maroon walls had to go. Craig found some cubby dividers on Marketplace and the studio was born. We had a tight deadline to get experience with doing podcasts so we can get each of our 4 Special Election Primary Democratic Candidates interviewed on the NHN Podcast before the Town Hall on September 10. Craig is continually improving the studio,
We have completed 2 podcasts and will hopefully be doing 1-2/week. While this property has very little sound except for the occasional mooing and the 3rd floor is isolated from outdoor noises, I failed to take into account that with an open atrium inside sounds carry up to the studio. During the first podcast, I was out on the back deck with a friend but had to go into the kitchen a couple of times. Craig came racing down the stairs to remind me to not make any noise. Now we have an ON AIR sign visible from the door.
Nothing like trial by fire. I look forward to seeing the evolution of our podcasters. I will likely get involved in being on camera at some point soon.
Stay tuned for my first experience with canvassing.
The biggest challenge in my move to Tennessee has been the lack of safe cycling. In DC, I could ride 20-30 miles from the door of my condo, mostly on bike paths. There are some greenways in Nashville but they are a 20 minute drive. There is the Natchez Trace, but that is a 45 min drive. While bike lanes are improving, they often don’t connect with anything. And there are always poorly graded hills. I had hoped it would be better in rural Tennessee but not really. There are some areas that have just the right amount of hills, but the low car speed roads don’t often connect to other roads. Shoulders on roads are rare and where we live there are hills too steep for me. The prospect of having to get off of my bike on a hill on a road with no shoulder makes me very uncomfortable.
The only factor I could really change is to make sure I would not have to get off the bike going up the hill. So I got a e-bike, Lucy. I wanted to get a model that only had pedal assist with no throttle, but there were no step-through models. Getting my leg up over the seat is a time when I have come close to falling on occasion. I didn’t figure that would get any better with age. Falling with the heavier e-bike was not appealing so the step-through was a necessity. I wanted to get one a local bike shop so I ended up with this lavender Velotric.
The day after I got it, the heat dome settled in so it sat for 3 weeks. I took it out Monday and today and I am getting used to it. It is much more stable on our gravel drive and the weight of the bike with riding does not seem that different. Of course I am not trying to get any where quickly. I have only used the battery a handful of times on the last part of hills so the battery will likely last me a week or more of riding. Lucy has managed my fear.
Now I need to get a bike rack so I can explore other areas in the country. Here, I am pinned in a bit by high traffic/high speed roads so to get to the desired destination ride where I can have lunch and return, I will need to drive to bike. It doesn’t sit well with me but there is no way around it.
Tamara Unleashed 