What Gerrymandering Actually Looks Like
Red state voters aren't the problem - systemic disenfranchisement is.
I woke up this morning with a migraine and a dead refrigerator. The prospect of driving 85 miles to the *center* of my US Congressional district to run as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention was the last thing I wanted to do.
Party politics in the US is an odd animal. Most people see it play out every four years in a Presidential election with a guy (it’s always a guy) on tv pointing out red state and blue states. But those states are filled with voters and (hopefully) organizers who help get the word out through phone banking and good old-fashioned door knocking. Those door knockers are regular people who feel passionately about a cause or an election and want to do something about it.
This is the political geeky part.
The door knockers themselves are organized by political parties. And that’s why I was driving to Cookeville — because I’m an old school, door knocking progressive Democrat. The pinnacle of party politics are the national conventions held every four years to nominate that party’s presidential candidate. Conventions are filled with delegates representing each state and are apportioned by population. In most states, the Democratic party elects delegates from each Congressional district, with those districts also being apportioned by population.
It’s a little convoluted, but it’s also a great way for party members in the same district to get to know one another, share strategies and build some enthusiasm for getting those door knockers to work.
This the part where I get breakfast
Armed with a McDs bacon egg and cheese biscuit, some migraine meds and a shred of hope around doing SOMETHING to try to keep democracy alive (I’m trying y’all) in the deepest, gerrymandered red state in this country — I got in the car anyway.
I started out the drive incredibly disheartened. Two years ago, the Tennessee GOP split Nashville into three new congressional districts that cracked the concentration of Democratic voters the city and stretched our votes (and our organizing power) across the state into areas filled with reliable Republican voters.
Which is how I, one of those Nashville Democratic voters, found myself driving halfway to Knoxville to coordinate with other District 6 Democrats on who’d represent us in Chicago at the DNC.
It shouldn’t be this way. Rural, suburban and urban issues can be dramatically different. I shouldn’t be an urban voter coming out to rural farmland telling them what issues we should focus on. I grew up in an incredibly small town (Possum Trot shout out!) and hated when “city people” tried to tell us what to do.
The is the part where I fall in love with Tennessee
But driving out to Cookeville, taking in the incredible spring beauty of this state, I realized that the MAGA majority in Tennessee has given us a gift. We have a chance, like no other time in history, to work together. Tennessee is made up of farmland, suburbs and cities. And all of us are Tennesseans. We all want better schools, bridges that don’t fall down and for kids to not go hungry. Honestly, we all just want to be able to pursue happiness.
I drove out to Cookeville to run to represent TN as a delegate to the DNC. I didn’t win. I made my case on the first ballot and lost to Anne Ferrell Quillen, an amazing woman who has been on the ground organizing rural TN Democrats for years.
The part where I asked them to not vote for me
Y’all. I wanted to win. I had printed flyers, sent emails, spent a previous Saturday at a union hall in Nashville to just get the right to drive to Cookeville. But I could also read the room and knew that what this party needed wasn’t someone from Nashville coming to tell Putnam, Sumner and Cumberland counties what to do. So when I ran on the second ballot, I took the microphone at the front of the room and asked everyone to not vote for me, but to cast their ballot for Megan Lange, a young, go getter from Sumner County. She’s perfectly positioned in a Nashville suburb to help tip this state back to blue.
The part where I cried, lost and then got a standing ovation.
And while I asked them to vote for one of the future Democratic leaders of this state, I also asked them to not forget the voters of Nashville-Davidson County. Because our voices are being silenced. (Honestly, I cried a little bit at this point in my speech.)
I didn’t win. But I got a standing ovation for you, Nashville.
Now let’s get to work.
This is such cool grownup stuff.
Great start Kbean! These days I'm sn armchair activist --- wrote today to our county Dem chair to demand he stop fighting the courts to retain his unearned power. It's NJ! The county Line, party bosses, ignoring the people, won't go down without a fight.
Go you, with your fight, too, complete with standing O, from me, too.