Inside Victoria Broderick's unlikely congressional win in Tennessee
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Photo: Courtesy of the Broderick campaign
On Wednesday morning, everyone was Googling Victoria Broderick.
- Up until her shocking victory in Tennessee's District 4 U.S. House race, she was a political unknown outside of a small pocket of Democrats in rural Lincoln County.
Why it matters: By unseating eight-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, Broderick delivered a victory that pundits, the political establishment and the media did not see coming. (Her campaign raised less than $100,000.)
- Everyone from the former governor to former Nashville mayors and state lawmakers had failed in the last 18 years to flip prominent Republican-held seats in Tennessee.
Yes, but: "I know it was a shock for the rest of the country, but it wasn't a shock for our team," Broderick tells Axios of her "surreal" win.
- As of Wednesday afternoon, the AP still hadn't called the race for Broderick, but the secretary of state site had declared her the unofficial winner.
What she's saying: Asked to describe her political identity, Broderick says she is a "progressive, working-class mom who's been running for this seat for two-and-a-half years."
Catch up quick: Broderick, 34, is a married mother of two who works in tech support. ("I'm the person in your office who asks you to turn it off and then turn it back on again," she jokes).
- Broderick says she's "always been political" but only decided to run for Congress after Roe was overturned in 2022.
- Her political career began at the hyper-local level, organizing in Lincoln County and rising to become chair of the Democratic Party there. She also began posting videos on social media, referring to herself as "your friendly neighborhood liberal on TikTok."
- She serves on the state Democratic executive committee.
The intrigue: She first challenged DesJarlais in 2024 and got clobbered, losing by 43 points.
- "Fifteen seconds later, I said, 'I'm gonna do it again,'" she says. The race was completely overhauled when Republicans gerrymandered Tennessee's U.S. House map this May.
- The newly drawn map lumped a large chunk of Nashville into District 4.
By the numbers: Broderick won just two of the 11 counties in her district, but in Nashville, she drubbed DesJarlais by 52 points.
- She also won Rutherford County, the Nashville suburb that experienced its own blue wave this year with Democrats winning a slate of county and state elections.
The big picture: Broderick says she takes pride in the fact that three candidates who won office this year also worked or volunteered on her congressional campaign, including incoming state Rep. Owen Farnsworth.
Inside the room: Broderick says her victory reflects a true grassroots campaign.
- The key ingredient, she says, was "time." She put in the work to get to know voters, despite receiving little help from the national party establishment.
- "What we learned is when you show up for voters, show up for constituents, this is what does it. It's lots of nights and weekends," she says.
Zoom out: Davidson County Democratic Party chair Dakota Galban tells Axios that "Victoria was not on anyone's radar with this race."
- Galban says Nashville Democrats are invigorated to regain a Democratic representative.
- Nashville lost its longstanding Democratic seat in 2022 when the city was carved into three Republican-majority districts, leading longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper to retire.
What's next: Broderick says that in the short term, her top priority in Congress will be addressing affordability.
- In the longer term, she hopes her victory will be a flare for party donors and organizers who might invest more in Tennessee.
The bottom line: "Tennessee is not a red state," she says "It's a nonvoting gerrymandered state. What we witnessed in May [when the legislature redistricted] was unacceptable.
- "They messed around and they found out."