Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The polls are open in Tennessee as they have an
election going on there that could really mean some big,
you know, movement for the rest of the country, and
the impact it's having there could ripple effect into the
big midterms coming up. And joining us now to talk
about this, Young Voice spokesperson Victoria Churchill is back. Good morning, Victoria,
thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So, I guess this is a big bell weather on
whether or not, you know, this could be moving in
the wrong direction for this country. What's going on here.
I thought this was going to be pretty much a
lockdown for the Republican here with this race in Tennessee,
But now, all of a sudden, it's a pretty tight race.
So let's talk about these candidates first of all, and
(00:43):
then getting to why this has become such a contentious battle.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, this is a deep red district.
This is a district that President Trump won by over
twenty points and also a seat that the previous Republican incumbent,
former Congressman Mark Green who's also chairman of the Homeland
Security Committee, he won it by a very wide margin
as well. And so you know, I think this was
a seat that he felt comfortable stepping down from earlier
(01:07):
this summer as he took a job in the private
sector to leave d C. And you know, now it's
really become a point where Democrats and Republicans are fighting
tooth and nail. Democrats were definitely energized after the election
results from last month in November in the of course
the states of New Jersey, Virginia, which is my home state.
(01:29):
You know, the Democrats picked up legislative seats of course,
other than just the governor's mansion and other statewide you know,
state wide offices, which you know, I think I even
went on your show a couple of times to talk
about how how really unelectable some of the down ballot
Democrat candidates seemed, but they still ended up edging out
wins on election day. And so, you know, this is
(01:50):
a this is a race that has really captured the
attention of the nation. President Trump has held tell rallies
for the Republican Matt VANEBBS House Speaker Mike Johnson in
it was there yesterday, and as well as for the Democrats.
You know, it was interesting Kamala Harris went and campaigned
for after Ben, who's a Democrat nominee, but she didn't
actually campaign with Ben, so I thought that was a
(02:12):
very interesting play. But you know, I really think it
was Harris's appearance there that really spurred Democrats to get involved.
And it's also really become quite a war in the media.
I've covered some of the comments made by Ben where
you know, and to be clear, like she is somebody
that currently represents Nashville as a state legislator, and she
(02:34):
was aired out on a podcast a couple of years
ago speaking about how you know, she basically hates everything
that makes Nashville Nashville. The pedal taverns, which for those
that aren't familiar, and I've I've figured out people some
people don't really know what those are, but those are
the you know, the bike pedal kind of bars that
roam around Nashville. And you know, she's also gone out
(02:55):
and said that sororities are like part of white supremacy.
She's gone out and advocated for defunding the police, and
so you know, that's earned her the nickname of the
AOC of Nashville, which is probably quite indicative of how
far left Ben's policies really are.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, I got to tell you, after what we saw
with Mandannie in New York, you know it's going to
be a tough ride for I guess, you know, Mad
van Epso as the Republican going up against this representative
from Tennessee after Ben and it sounds like that it's
going to be closer than we would really want in
all of this. And when you get big folks like
you know, Speaker Mike Johnson and Kamala Harris wing in
(03:34):
on this election here just in Tennessee, this woman sounds
just as far crazy left as AOC and Mundannie and
the rest of them out there like this, And what's
bothersome to me? And I'm assuming she's grabbing some younger
voters in the in the urban areas versus the older
folks that are in the rural areas in Tennessee. Is
it split like that?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
That definitely is a part of it, of course, the
demographic splits. But you know, it's also interesting to point
out that House Speaker Mike Johnson and even his predecessor,
Kevin McCarthy, they've previously spent the day before election day
in districts that they considered swing districts. And again, I know,
this is somebody that lives in Virginia and has covered
Virginia politics. They've spent it down for example, in Virginia's
(04:12):
second congressional districts, which you know is a very heavy
military community. It's really one of those seats that swings
kind of with the political pendulum. It's have both the
Democrat and Republican representatives in the past few years. And
so the fact that they're going out the day before
election day in an arplus twenty is really a sign that,
you know, Democrats have gained in the polls there of course,
with the attention, with the money that's being looked at
(04:35):
in this race. And you know, for Democrats, I think
even if Ben does not edge out a win tonight,
they're still going to look at this as a sign
that they could play in districts all over the country,
even ones that are considered very safe Republican districts. But
I also think at the end of the day, this
could actually end up benefiting Republicans because Democrat resources, I
(04:55):
think are going to be stretched much thinner than you know,
concentrated in a handful of toss up congressional seats come
this time next year.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So when you look at this race, how close is it?
What are the numbers looking like as far as the
polling numbers where they were, say a month ago versus
where they are today on election day.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, absolutely, So some prognostigators, including the Political Report, have
moved this from a safe Republican seat to a likely
Republican seat. So that shows gains of momentum towards the Democrats.
But you know, also outside of kind of some crazy
things that Ben has said, particularly in previous media appearances,
at least the messaging that I'm hearing that she is
(05:34):
talking about on the ground is actually issues, for example,
like the affordability crisis, which is kind of something that
crosses party lines, and that's you know, kind of more
of that populus messaging. Of course, you mentioned Mom Dommy.
You know, that's something that both Mom Dommi and Trump
have really pushed in their respective elections. And you know,
I think this is something that Republicans have at least nationwide,
(05:57):
not really presented major solutions on. And so this has
presented an opportunity for Democrats to really capture some parts
of the electorate that may even be more favorable towards Republicans.
On any given normal day, and so that's resulted in
some of these polls being about you know, four points,
you know, say, like a forty two to a forty
six percent. And that's also important to know that that's
(06:21):
typically been among likely voters, which in a you know,
off off year special election. It's, of course, all elections
are about who shows up, but you know, it's really
about the people that go to the polls, particularly at
a time when few other people are paying attention.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, who do you think wins this? In your gut right.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, you know, I'm thinking Vanepps still pulled it out.
He's you know, kind of outside of the margin of
error on a lot of these points. Okay, but but
but really just barely. So you know, it's definitely going
to be a close one to watch.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You met it, you mentioned it. I mean, it's Byparson.
We want to get things more affordable for everybody in
this country. It's expensive, especially for young people to get
get some you know, legs and get going and you know,
starting a family and buying a home, and in both
sides of the I'll agree, we got to work on
becoming more affordable in this country right now because it's
getting a little bit out of control. It's how we
get there where the policies really differ so much, so much,
(07:14):
and those left policies a little scary when they started
and talked about it. Everything's free socialism. This most socialism
that that has never proven to work anywhere. So we'll
keep an eye on this when an important race in
Tennessee today. Thank you so much, Victoria Churchill. We appreciate
you being with us today.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Thank you so much.
The polls are open in Tennessee as they have an
election going on there that could really mean some big,
you know, movement for the rest of the country, and
the impact it's having there could ripple effect into the
big midterms coming up. And joining us now to talk
about this, Young Voice spokesperson Victoria Churchill is back. Good morning, Victoria,
thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So, I guess this is a big bell weather on
whether or not, you know, this could be moving in
the wrong direction for this country. What's going on here.
I thought this was going to be pretty much a
lockdown for the Republican here with this race in Tennessee,
But now, all of a sudden, it's a pretty tight race.
So let's talk about these candidates first of all, and
(00:43):
then getting to why this has become such a contentious battle.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, this is a deep red district.
This is a district that President Trump won by over
twenty points and also a seat that the previous Republican incumbent,
former Congressman Mark Green who's also chairman of the Homeland
Security Committee, he won it by a very wide margin
as well. And so you know, I think this was
a seat that he felt comfortable stepping down from earlier
(01:07):
this summer as he took a job in the private
sector to leave d C. And you know, now it's
really become a point where Democrats and Republicans are fighting
tooth and nail. Democrats were definitely energized after the election
results from last month in November in the of course
the states of New Jersey, Virginia, which is my home state.
(01:29):
You know, the Democrats picked up legislative seats of course,
other than just the governor's mansion and other statewide you know,
state wide offices, which you know, I think I even
went on your show a couple of times to talk
about how how really unelectable some of the down ballot
Democrat candidates seemed, but they still ended up edging out
wins on election day. And so, you know, this is
(01:50):
a this is a race that has really captured the
attention of the nation. President Trump has held tell rallies
for the Republican Matt VANEBBS House Speaker Mike Johnson in
it was there yesterday, and as well as for the Democrats.
You know, it was interesting Kamala Harris went and campaigned
for after Ben, who's a Democrat nominee, but she didn't
actually campaign with Ben, so I thought that was a
(02:12):
very interesting play. But you know, I really think it
was Harris's appearance there that really spurred Democrats to get involved.
And it's also really become quite a war in the media.
I've covered some of the comments made by Ben where
you know, and to be clear, like she is somebody
that currently represents Nashville as a state legislator, and she
(02:34):
was aired out on a podcast a couple of years
ago speaking about how you know, she basically hates everything
that makes Nashville Nashville. The pedal taverns, which for those
that aren't familiar, and I've I've figured out people some
people don't really know what those are, but those are
the you know, the bike pedal kind of bars that
roam around Nashville. And you know, she's also gone out
(02:55):
and said that sororities are like part of white supremacy.
She's gone out and advocated for defunding the police, and
so you know, that's earned her the nickname of the
AOC of Nashville, which is probably quite indicative of how
far left Ben's policies really are.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, I got to tell you, after what we saw
with Mandannie in New York, you know it's going to
be a tough ride for I guess, you know, Mad
van Epso as the Republican going up against this representative
from Tennessee after Ben and it sounds like that it's
going to be closer than we would really want in
all of this. And when you get big folks like
you know, Speaker Mike Johnson and Kamala Harris wing in
(03:34):
on this election here just in Tennessee, this woman sounds
just as far crazy left as AOC and Mundannie and
the rest of them out there like this, And what's
bothersome to me? And I'm assuming she's grabbing some younger
voters in the in the urban areas versus the older
folks that are in the rural areas in Tennessee. Is
it split like that?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
That definitely is a part of it, of course, the
demographic splits. But you know, it's also interesting to point
out that House Speaker Mike Johnson and even his predecessor,
Kevin McCarthy, they've previously spent the day before election day
in districts that they considered swing districts. And again, I know,
this is somebody that lives in Virginia and has covered
Virginia politics. They've spent it down for example, in Virginia's
(04:12):
second congressional districts, which you know is a very heavy
military community. It's really one of those seats that swings
kind of with the political pendulum. It's have both the
Democrat and Republican representatives in the past few years. And
so the fact that they're going out the day before
election day in an arplus twenty is really a sign that,
you know, Democrats have gained in the polls there of course,
with the attention, with the money that's being looked at
(04:35):
in this race. And you know, for Democrats, I think
even if Ben does not edge out a win tonight,
they're still going to look at this as a sign
that they could play in districts all over the country,
even ones that are considered very safe Republican districts. But
I also think at the end of the day, this
could actually end up benefiting Republicans because Democrat resources, I
(04:55):
think are going to be stretched much thinner than you know,
concentrated in a handful of toss up congressional seats come
this time next year.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So when you look at this race, how close is it?
What are the numbers looking like as far as the
polling numbers where they were, say a month ago versus
where they are today on election day.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, absolutely, So some prognostigators, including the Political Report, have
moved this from a safe Republican seat to a likely
Republican seat. So that shows gains of momentum towards the Democrats.
But you know, also outside of kind of some crazy
things that Ben has said, particularly in previous media appearances,
at least the messaging that I'm hearing that she is
(05:34):
talking about on the ground is actually issues, for example,
like the affordability crisis, which is kind of something that
crosses party lines, and that's you know, kind of more
of that populus messaging. Of course, you mentioned Mom Dommy.
You know, that's something that both Mom Dommi and Trump
have really pushed in their respective elections. And you know,
I think this is something that Republicans have at least nationwide,
(05:57):
not really presented major solutions on. And so this has
presented an opportunity for Democrats to really capture some parts
of the electorate that may even be more favorable towards Republicans.
On any given normal day, and so that's resulted in
some of these polls being about you know, four points,
you know, say, like a forty two to a forty
six percent. And that's also important to know that that's
(06:21):
typically been among likely voters, which in a you know,
off off year special election. It's, of course, all elections
are about who shows up, but you know, it's really
about the people that go to the polls, particularly at
a time when few other people are paying attention.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, who do you think wins this? In your gut right.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, you know, I'm thinking Vanepps still pulled it out.
He's you know, kind of outside of the margin of
error on a lot of these points. Okay, but but
but really just barely. So you know, it's definitely going
to be a close one to watch.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You met it, you mentioned it. I mean, it's Byparson.
We want to get things more affordable for everybody in
this country. It's expensive, especially for young people to get
get some you know, legs and get going and you know,
starting a family and buying a home, and in both
sides of the I'll agree, we got to work on
becoming more affordable in this country right now because it's
getting a little bit out of control. It's how we
get there where the policies really differ so much, so much,
(07:14):
and those left policies a little scary when they started
and talked about it. Everything's free socialism. This most socialism
that that has never proven to work anywhere. So we'll
keep an eye on this when an important race in
Tennessee today. Thank you so much, Victoria Churchill. We appreciate
you being with us today.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Thank you so much.
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