Nashville Voted! We’re Breaking Down the Results. Plus, It’s Hot Raccoon Summer

Back to school for Nashville parents means back to busy mornings. More showers, more laundry, more devices charging at once. Is your home ready for it? Right now, Hoffman Brothers is helping families get set up for the season with hundreds off of tankless water heaters, air scrubbers, whole home surge protectors, and washer and dryer purchases. For all of your homes plumbing, heating, cooling, electrical, and appliance needs, homeowners across Middle Tennessee trust Hoffman Brothers. Schedule your service today at Hoffmanbrose.com. Today on CityCast Nashville, it's time for our Tuesday News Roundup. Executive producer Whitney Pasterick and Nashville Banner, State House reporter Sarah Grace Taylor, joined me to talk about last week's primaries, who won and who will win come November. Plus, the good news of the week so far. That includes our hot takes on the new Titans mascot.

It's August 11th. I'm your host, Rachel Yacobone, and this is what Nashville's talking about. Happy back to school. Before we get started, we want to remind you that for a limited time only, if you go to membership.citycast.com and become a citycast Nashville neighbor today, you get to claim one of our sweet neighbors make Nashville tote bags. Whitney, you've got one. Give us your review. This is a very nice tote bag. It's got a good solid handle. It doesn't feel like it's going to break when you're carrying around many, many books. Sarah Grace, though, what do you look for in a tote bag? I don't know the answer to that, but I can tell you that I recently washed and dried one and it shrunk. So maybe something that's not going to shrink if I clean it. She's in the market for a new one. We've only got nine bags left. One of those might be Sarah Graces. But once they're gone, they're gone. That link again is membership.com. Membership is only $10 a month or $100 a year. And it gets you access to tons of great perks besides the swag. Plus, you're supporting the work of this podcast and our Citicast Nashville newsletter. Both of which, I don't mind saying, were honored in last year's Nashville Seen Best of Nashville Awards, which reminds me, you should go vote for us again at vote.nashville scene.com. I feel bad saying this in front of Sarah Grace, who works very hard on the Nashville Banners podcast, and who was also probably very exhausted after her excellent coverage of last week's election. So go vote for us. Don't tell Sarah Grace you're doing it, and let's get into it. On Thursday, Senator Marsha Blackburn won the nomination as the Republican candidate for governor of Tennessee. She'll face Democratic Memphis City Councilwoman Jerry Green in November, which means for the first time in history, Tennessee's next governor will be a woman. Sarah Grace, you had the opportunity to fly around the state on Marsha Blackburn's private plane. I heard you say on the banner podcast, not quite a jet, but... a plane, and you spent a lot of time with her leading up to election day. There was a significant red flag in your reporting. Marcia drinks unsweet iced tea. Look, I don't want to give my opinion about any candidate that I'm covering, but I sympathize with her. I like an unsweet iced tea. I'm a bad Southerner, too. Whoa. Wow. Sorry. Red flag. Yeah. During her acceptance speech, Blackburn said, and I'll quote here, if you're someone who wants a God-fearing, freedom-loving, flag-waving, guitar-picking, NASCAR-loving, bald cheering, pro-life, low-tax, beacon of freedom, you are in the right place. Sarah Grace, I'm assuming that line went over pretty well with the crowd at her election night party. Yeah, I think the...

volunteers referenced there actually got more applause at her Knoxville party than her announcing that she won but that kind of quote was pretty central to what Blackburn was saying when she was at public events and most public events she attended were actually Republican rooms that conservative firebrand thing is what she ran on and what she won with Well, it's not getting such rave reviews here in Nashville. I'm going to quote Nashville seeing columnist Betsy Phillips, who said Republicans have been running Tennessee for nearly 30 years. If they haven't gotten us our freedom beacons by now, I don't think it's going to happen. Sarah Grace, while you were out traveling with her, did you see Marsha Blackburn engage with voters who might not have self-selected into a Republican room already? She did. I mean, she shook hands at a small barbecue restaurant, East Tennessee, and again at a restaurant in Wilson County. But the vast majority of the people she interacted with were there for a Republican event and had already voted for Marsha Blackburn and where there were stickers on. She wasn't even swaying Republican voters in the primary at that point, I don't think. So her, I'm talking to Tennesseans every day. doesn't necessarily mean that she was branching out into spaces where people might have ideological differences. Because even a diner in East Tennessee, there's a pretty safe bet on some of the constituency there. You know, Blackburn did this tour in the hours leading up to the election to demonstrate that thing of talking to constituents. But even when she and I did an interview during that, she was very clear that she's been working a lot in the Senate. She said they've been in session 1900 hours this year. which she thinks is the most in history. I couldn't verify that stat, but it's more than twice what the House has been in. So she was just making the point, she's doing two jobs. She's not maybe out in the field as much as some other candidates would have been. Sarah Grace, whatever happened with the Tennesseans report that Marcia was being investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee for paying congressional staff with federal funds to work on her 2024 campaign? No news on that yet, but I think you could expect to hear more about that. Oh, enticing. A teaser, a spoiler. I read somewhere that of the like over a thousand Senate ethics complaints that have been filed, only like three have ever come to fruition. So is it rare that we even know about this? Right. And I think that's the nature of this complaint against Blackburn is that it's probably not going to come out and be like, here's some. tangible thing you can read about what she may or may not have done wrong. It's usually a kind of private slap on the wrist and they're told to get their affairs in order if they're breaking a rule. She has said over and over again, as is her want. Her line on this is, quote, there was a complaint that was made. It was investigated and nothing, end quote. I don't know if this has any impact on how people will vote in November, but it is worth noting that we even know about it. I want to move to the Democratic side here. Jerry Green won in a landslide with 70% of the vote. What's her path to victory in November? I think Green might benefit from the redistricting that happened this summer, which has activated some Democrats, particularly in Memphis where she's from because they split up the ninth congressional district. So maybe she'll see some better performance than Democrats have in the last 20 years. But her path is.

at best uphill, I think. Yeah, I mean, it's worth noting that while John Rose and Monty Fritz combined got more votes than Marcia, I think it would probably be an uphill battle for Jerry Green to peel off any of those specific voters. Well, and there's a couple of independent candidates running and one, Lauren Pinkston, who's gotten some attention. But realistically... If you look at the last 15, 20 years of Tennessee gubernatorial elections and the general, it's going to be largely Republican voters. Now, that said, it's also out of a very abysmal turnout every time. So theoretically, if Democrats could mobilize people, that would be a path forward. But it's a long shot. And folks, just so you know, if you go to our website at Nashville.com.com, we've got... interviews with both Jerry Green and independent candidate Lauren Pinkston, please feel free to check those out. I thought they were great conversations, and it really tells you a little bit more about them. Blackburn has also said that she plans to serve in the Senate until she takes office, if she wins, which would mean she gets to pick her successor there. There are several names being floated, including House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. Sarah Grace, did you get any read on which way she might be leaning with that? No, so I talked to Blackburn about that, and I don't even think up to now she had acknowledged that she would make her an appointment. She wouldn't even talk about the process. But she said that she would stay until she was sworn in as governor if she wins. And then she has a 21-day window then where she could make an appointment. I will say we had this conversation on her plane, and Glenn Jacobs was sitting directly behind me, and he traveled with us this whole time. He was her treasurer. My instinct. says that he's pretty likely. And we know that he kind of teased a gubernatorial run and then immediately got behind Blackburn when she acknowledged wanting to run. When I asked him about it leaving her election party on Thursday night, he was not entertaining any conversation about that. Well, you don't want to jinx it. It will be very interesting. If you can mention the plane and he is not who has chosen. When we come back, we'll dig into the races for local congressional and state legislative seats. Stay tuned.

Let's get into our local congressional races and start in the Tennessee 7th, where Darden Copeland won the Democratic primary to face incumbent Republican Matt Van Epps in November. Yeah, I got a question here. Okay, remember how for like the last three months Nashville has been consumed with stopping the data center next to the Nashville Zoo? So Darden Copeland, he's always cited as a businessman, but his business is lobbying. He's got a lobbying firm called Calvert Street Group. And one of the things that they have lobbied for in the past is data centers in data centers. Why do we think that after all of this hubbub around data centers in Nashville, that that narrative didn't take more hold? With the redistricting this summer, Seven changed a lot. And so a big chunk of North Nashville that was in Seven is not anymore, including where I live. Vincent Dixie's state representative who was running against Copeland for a second time in this primary. He lost Davidson County, which I think was kind of a surprise. Right, because he had cleaned up in Davidson in that special election last fall. It changed which parts of Nashville were in that Davidson County sliver, including the part near Fisk that is facing a data center, which I think would have centralized that a little more. And the general redrawing gave more suburban. areas where we know that Copeland did well last year. I was kind of surprised by the margin that he won this year, though. Yeah, and I guess I just find it weird that all of a sudden this little spark of, hey, we don't think we should put a data center next to animals, grew into this massive community movement. But that massive community movement did not then show up at this election or even really be a part of the conversation. Well, part of it might have also been that to some degree, the zoo argument was already at least temporarily answered. prior to people actually showing up to vote. So it's not front of mind like it was in June since the council passed what they passed. You're telling me people don't sit around and obsess about all this stuff constantly like I do. Like once they think they've won, they're done and they go do something else with their lives. A small percentage of them do and you can see that in the voting. Right. Well, maybe the biggest news from Thursday night was Congressman Andy Ogles losing his primary to former Tennessee Ag Commissioner Charlie Hatcher, a result that Tennessean conservative columnist Cameron Smith described as primary voters chose a candidate whose main credential was actual public service rather than auditioning for national television hits. Does Hatcher's victory mean there's less chance for Columbia Mayor Chas Mulder to flip that seat? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's move on. District 5 was never winnable because of how it's drawn or because of the voter makeup. It's still pretty conservative, both how it existed before and with the redraw. But Andy Ogles was a beatable candidate. And so that's why Mulder was seen to have a chance, and that's not true anymore. I think Hatcher is normy enough to carry it. I don't think a lot of people associate the... former agricultural commissioner with any kind of hardcore MAGA ideology, regardless of where his beliefs may stand right now. But that's a lot different than some guy who's out there constantly writing like death to puppies on Twitter and getting into fights with the mayor. I did love Freddie O'Connell's response. Mayor Freddie's response to being asked, how do you feel about Andy Ogles losing his primary? And Freddie simply answered, who? Well, it's also worth noting that Hatcher kind of gets to do the best of both worlds because his history.

I think this is flippable. Discuss. That's interesting. It's so hard to guess. And trying to read the tea leaves on one of the statehouse races is pretty hard to do. I would think POTE is mostly safe being in Wilson County. But I also would say that I think Lindsay Patrick Wright's advertising, mobilizing, whatever, has been effective enough that she's broken containment some. I see her in a lot more places. But I'd be shocked to see that Wilson County seat change. Yeah, I have a follow-up, actually, to Whitney. What makes you think this is flippable? What's the timing here? The voter mobilization? I just keep looking at these maps and going, I don't know. I don't know if this is benefiting either party, actually, in a lot of places. I think that Wilson County's demographics have changed quite a bit, even just in the last two years. And I think that Ms. Patrick Wright, who has been a guest on our show, has done a lot of baseline organizing there, not politically, just within the community. And I actually think she's more of a familiar face to people who live there than she is to people here in Davidson. So I don't know. And the thing about a state Senate race is that it's so close and so low participation that it's not impossible. I know that there has been like democratic organizing. I'm from Wilson County, and I know that there's, like, more of that now than certainly when I was growing up. But I don't know if it's going to be enough or if people will show up to the polls enough for it to matter. Well, I said it was a hot take. All right. Then we've got one last one, Rachel, right? Mark Proctor, the former Tennessee Highway Patrol leader, took the Deb nod in the crowded State House District, 59. That covers Belmead and Oak Hill. He had a long list of prominent Dem endorsements, and he fundraised the most, but it still came down to less than 100 votes. So does his Republican opponent, Bill Hancock, stand a chance in this district? I feel like that seat is... That seat and maybe even Chondell Brooks seat in 60 are the two worth watching to see if there's anything interesting in the general just because of what I just said about how low turnout is. But I think if you did. a walk around a neighborhood in Proctor's District, you would probably think that Democrats were going to win. And considering that Himmers held the seat before, if I had to put money on somebody, it's probably Proctor. He probably can put money on that nowadays, but maybe not as a journalist. Yeah. Sorry, let me hop off here and get on Polymarket real quick. Yep. It's Calci time. Here we go. I was like, what's the one that owns all the bars downtown? Draft Kings. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Maybe we would have bigger turnout if we had draft kings for politics. Well, that's nice. Yeah, thanks for that depressing thought, Whitney. Sorry for even putting that into the universe. That's my bad. All right. Has all of this election night talk made you hungry for something besides newsroom pizza? When we come back, it's time to chow down on some good news.

Dunna, done a good news! The annual Nashville scene's Iron Fork competition is back this fall on November 12th, with some of the city's top chefs going head to head in a timed kitchen challenge with a surprise secret ingredient. This year, it's Dung Jr. Fall, representing his omicassee restaurant, Kase X Noko, Noko, and the upcoming Noko Yaki. Will this make reservations even more impossible at those yet to be seen? I've never gotten in. I have not. I was on Noco's opening night and I have yet to go to Kase. Anyway, we've also got Josh Cook and Anna Aguilar from Tantissimo. I just had some of the best breakfast tacos outside of Tempo there. Chef owner Marcio Flores from Limo Peruvian Eatery and Chef Alfredo Bueno from 888. Whitney, Sarah Grace, who's the favorite to win here? I'm going with Marcio. I worked with him when I was running the World Central Kitchen program here, and I know what he can whip up in a limited amount of time for people in a terrible disaster. So this quick cooking situation, I don't think he's going to be scared. I have no intel like that, but I do love NoCo, so I think that's where I'd have to gamble if we're back on Polly Market. Everybody but Whitney has gone to Noco. We'll go this week for Happy Hour, Whitney. Don't cry. What about you, Rachel? You're a big foodie. Look, I have heard amazing things from Marcio, like about him and I need to go there. So I don't want to rule him out here. I think I'm going with Tantissimo based on my experience very recently. I think they're a sleeper hit. They're doing some really creative stuff. Also, my former neighborhood. So I feel like I got to support Sylvan Park area. But we'll see. Y'all can get to that on November 12th. Tickets are on sale at the Nashville scene website. I'm excited about this piano lounge concept that is coming to West Nashville. This just got announced in the Business Journal this week, the Starry Night Lounge, which doesn't that already sound like something off of like a rural highway attached to a holiday inn? I'm obsessed. And all of the like renderings of the inside are like a piano surrounded by curtains and little cocktail tables. The owner is a real estate investor named Kevin White, and he said that it's going to be a classy place. scheduled to open later this fall. I like this. It looks like you should be allowed to smoke in there. We need more classy date places where I can smoke and pretend I'm sophisticated. I know smoking is bad. Don't do it, kids. The only one that I can think of, it's like Rudy's probably, right, in this vibe. So I do think we need more of that. I'm kind of surprised we don't have. It's like we've got a lot of cocktail bars and we've got a lot of live music venues, but it's rare that that has been like a true successful combination. On the flip side here, guys, John Roberts Western World is opening their first satellite location in the new Titan Stadium in 2027. The scene reported last week that the new location will pay tribute to the original downtown business with checkerbird floors, portraits, neon signs, and a boot display. But okay, is this good news? I'm going with no. Sarah Grace, your thoughts? I don't know. I think any investment in the Titans is questionable news. I just, why are we commodifying this for, it's already downtown. Tourists can already go to it. Do we need the fake airport version of it at the stadium? I guess the counterpoint, though, is if you make a satellite, does that help bring people away from the original one and cleanse it a little bit? Could sage everybody for the recession special. The other Big Titans news is we have a new mascot. Our previously slightly weird looking raccoon mascot.

T-Rack? He's cute now. Marie thinks he's kind of hot. Ladies, your thoughts. He was beautiful before. He was a freaky, like, brown wolf-looking raccoon with emo eyeliner and his tongue sticking out. He was perfect. And now he looks like a furry and I hate him. Not because of anything to do with furries. Those are just two separate facts as he looks like a furry and I hate him. Right. I don't want to upset furries. They're not harming anyone. I do fear this guy is. Like, looking into his googly eyes. I don't know. Where's his tongue? Why is his tongue not sticking out? He looked so cool. Marie's writing sexy with four exes in the prep doc right now. I did say I was going to block Marie when she responded to my Instagram story the other day and said he was hot. That's an unacceptable take. And the only hot mascot in Nashville history. is Cool Cat from the Arena Football League. Well, at least he doesn't have an erect tail like Ganesh. That's always been off-footing. You gotta stop saying Ganesh. You really do. My biggest issue is just that it's not a fierce raccoon. It's Ranger Rick. No, Ranger Rick is cute. Right, where the other one was feral. The original T-Rack was feral and you would be scared of him if you encountered it. Right. I mean, at least go the Jimothy route. It's the summer. It's the summer of hot Jimothy. At least give the mascot a short spine. You just called Jimothy Hot? What's going on at CityCast? Why are you guys looking at raccoons like this? We don't know. Sarah Grace, what's your good news for today? Help us. I guess I'm going to keep it with sports. This is not Nashville related, but the women's professional baseball league started last weekend. I went to the two opening games. It rules. We should all get very into it so that they expand and do more women's baseball. Where's our closest team? So right now the teams are in San Francisco, L.A., New York, and Boston, but they're all playing in Springfield, Illinois, which is a very drivable road trip from Nashville. Oh. And it's very cool, and they will ultimately expand and play in cities. wink wink, nudge, I hope Nashville gets a team, but we have to support them for that to happen. Well, now I would be in favor of a women's professional baseball team. That's what I'm saying. I think I'm offering at this point a trade deal that we support baseball so that I get the WNHL folks. I want women's professional hockey. And I think Whitney wants WNBA. So I think we could make this trio. And women's soccer. I want a professional women's soccer team. All of the above, yes. Yes. Told. I think Chapstick will see plenty of us if we are getting all of these teams. Aggressive nodding, yes. Hey.

Folks, finally, have you heard the good news? Our very own Marie Cecile Anderson has been working her ass off on our very first live show. The roast of Music City will be taking over the lab at Zanies on September 15th. Marie has assembled a lineup of all-star comedians to rag on this city that we all love to hate. Tickets are on sale now. They're $15. Proceeds are going to our friends at Open Table Nashville. head on over to nashville.zanis.com and grab your seat today. You will not want to miss this. I will not be on stage, but Rachel will be. Sold. Yay. Sold. I'm not doing stand-up. Don't worry. But Marie is. And we've got some new members to shout out today. Maggie S. Nicole A. Sherry L. Kristen S. Margaret L. and the good people at Cherry Picked Second Hand. Thanks for joining the neighborhood, y'all. Hey, if you want to join the neighborhood, you get a cool tote bag. membership.citycast.fm. And that's it. We did it. Sarah Grace, Rachel, do you realize this is our first Tuesday news roundup in two years? Wow. Thanks for having us. Well, you weren't here yet, Rachel, but we tried it at the beginning. And it didn't go well, so we stopped. But maybe we'll make it a regular thing. As long as Sarah Grace can turn off her camera, that was her. her fine print in the contract. Taping Sarah Grace to her chair and forcing her to be on camera, Clockwork Orange style. Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, you guys should make us do this more frequently. I don't have to come on. Come on her show. It's so fun. I don't ever make threats. That's all for today here on CityCast Nashville. Best of Nashville voting is open now. We would love to have your vote as Best Podcast. Go to vote.nashville scene.com and find us in the media and politics category. You've got to vote in 20 categories for it to count, so be sure to spread the love. And don't forget, you can support this show and get great perks by becoming a citycast Nashville neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. If you enjoyed the show, why not tell your friends. Rate the show. Leave us a review and subscribe to our citycast. Nashville newsletter. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news from around the city. Palante.