Gee, from the look of the coverage, Republicans didn't even get a moment to go "Yay!" about their victory last night in Tennessee Seven. All the headlines were gloom and doom. That's what a 15-point swing to Democrats in a deep-red, gerrymandered district will get you.
Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson had to fly out there and appear on Monday with candidate Matt Van Epps and a bunch of other GOP pooh-bahs, accepting a call from Benedict Donald, who is no longer capable of doing his many road "shows" and therefore literally had to phone it in. That was a lot of firepower for what should have been a slam-dunk win for them. Hence the hand-wringing this morning.
We Democrats, meanwhile, are feeling pretty good. Here's why:
Turnout was at eye-poppingly midterm levels — 179,634 (just shy of 181,822 in 2022). This is amazing for a "special" right after Thanksgiving. That means we got our vote out, bigly. Let's do it again in 2026.
What kind of money and resources were the Republicans forced to spend on TN-07 in a panic? We're guessing a lot. It could mean less for other elections down the road, since politics, like economics, is the allocation of scarce resources among competing choices.
Aftyn Behn was a terrific candidate with a great future, and she should run again. In fact, she's thinking about it. Yippee!
Finally, will Benedict Donald have the energy next year to campaign for every House Republican in a district that's less than plus-16 GOP? Will he even be alive then? Hmm! We cats PURR.
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