PEOPLE ARE CALLING THE TN-7 RACE FOR MATT VAN EPPS, but Aftyn Behn was in the lead for a while and it’s still closer than it should have been. With her views and history she should be in the single digits.

UPDATE: Tennessee’s 7th District Special Election. “Victory for Behn, a progressive some dubbed the “AOC of Tennessee,” was once unthinkable in a district President Trump won by 22 points just last year. Despite her record of backing controversial policies, including transgender surgeries for minors, defunding the police, and even saying she hates Nashville, the very city she sought to represent, her support surged into the margin of error, leaving a tight race for today’s election. Her near-upset could have flipped a deep-red seat for the first time in more than four decades, validating Democrats’ new strategy and signaling a dark warning for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms.”

Helen and I watched an AppleTV show called Physical, set in the early 1980s. The protagonist’s husband, a lefty Democrat, was running for state Senate and thought he might win because his poll watchers reported a lot of voters in Birkenstocks. Then a whole fleet of buses showed up, full of conservatively dressed Mormons who put his Republican Mormon opponent over the top. Dems have built their turnout apparatus, but the GOP — especially in my rather complacent state — hasn’t built a system to deliver its equivalent of the busloads of Mormons. It needs to get going on that, pronto.