Election 2020
“Zip-Tie Guy” Arrest Spotlights Nashville MAGA Protest Scene
WASHINGTON — The arrest and charging of a Tennessee man for allegedly breaching the Capitol and running wild in the Senate chamber carrying zip-tie restraints with a holster on his hip has spotlighted a Nashville scene of pro-Trump activists, some of whom appear to have attended the ill-fated Wednesday insurrection in the nation’s capital. The […]
Commentary: Personal responsibility? Any Tennessee Republican leader ready?
“Personal responsibility” is a favorite slogan for Tennessee Republican political leaders. Until it comes to their own words and actions. After the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday Tennessee GOP leaders issued their obligatory statements of condemnation. U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty said: “Yesterday was a shocking day of lawlessness… Last […]
How Tennessee leaders responded to uprising at U.S. Capitol
Members of Tennessee’s Congressional delegation called for peace following insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday during a Senate debate about whether to certify the presidential election results. Congress members and their staff reported being safe following a dramatic scene in which armed protesters stormed the Senate chambers, overrunning the Capitol police following a rally […]
Commentary: Tennessee congressional delegation in destructive denial
Just hours before he would take the oath of office as a U. S. Senator from Tennessee, Bill Hagerty made another pledge, one of loyalty to the deranged notions of Donald Trump to challenge documented results of the 2020 presidential election. Hagerty, like Sen. Marsha Blackburn and nearly all of our state’s Republican members of […]
The year in photos: September-December
Politics and pandemic consumed our photojournalists for the latter portion of the year. When President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, Memphis photojournalist Karen Pulfer Focht went to Barrett’s alma mater, Rhodes College, to get images from Justice Barrett’s college years. Focht also got what may will be one of […]
The year in photos: May-August 2020
No matter how well-crafted a written story, superb art work always makes the story better and in 2020, there have been no shortage of opportunities for our talented crew of photojournalists to show off their professional chops. Less than a month after the Tennessee Lookout launched in May, John Partipilo attended the May 30 “I […]
Analysis: The polarization express
Political junkies continue to pore over the 2020 presidential election maps featured in the New York Times looking for keys to electoral trends: the maps graphically display the vote shift from 2016 to 2020 in every county in the United States. The setup is simple: counties with larger vote margins for Donald Trump in 2020 […]
Election aftermath: life after a campaign
The election is over. The volunteers shuffle around the subdued campaign headquarters, sipping coffee and stare at the television screen, as if willing the numbers to change. But they did not and the stark numbers reveal the winners and losers. The victors – almost all Republicans – will maintain their positions and the newly elected […]
1946 Tennessee election parallels 2020
Election season in Tennessee has been a microcosm of the nation’s problems: social media videos of voter intimidation in Knoxville, massive protests led by teens, alleged hate crimes by right-wing instigators and implications of voter fraud by the president, but voters’ memories are short: they may have forgotten that in at least one rural Tennessee town, violence […]
The End of Stupid?
President Toddler’s post-election tantrum slash adventure—a third-rate legal team flooding the courts with fourth-rate filings, with a few feeble attempts to intimidate local election officials tossed in for effect—is going nowhere fast. Or it would be going nowhere fast if it was fast, but almost three weeks after the election it’s more accurate to say […]
Newly elected members of the U.S. House converge on Washington
WASHINGTON — They’ve won their campaigns. Now, newly elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives are spending their first days in the nation’s capital, learning how to perform their new jobs. The orientation session for those incoming House freshmen began on Thursday, covering their office budgets, how to hire staffers and the ethical guidelines […]
Tennessee group advocates for conservative Latino voters
Latino voters have historically leaned Democratic, but more Latinos than ever voted Republican in the 2020 election and showed they can’t be taken for granted by either political party. The Latino vote provided decisive leads. In Florida, Latinos cast votes for President Donald Trump. In Arizona, they helped decide the election for President-elect Joe Biden. […]