Rallying the Troops
🗳️ Midterm rally: the whip, the Walz, and the wisecracks · TN not accepting work permits for driver’s licenses · TN bids for the U.S. Space Academy · Much more!
Voting & TN U.S. Congressional District lookup Early voting is underway. Use your address to find your new congressional district here, find voting information and a sample ballot here, and take a look at the Constitutional amendments here.
Early Voting Tracker Check out our early voting tracker. (Take a look)
Like what we do? Forward us to a friend
Representative Tom Emmer brings the political heat and a buffet of burns while rallying Tennessee Republicans.
From Megan Podsiedlik
Last night, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer, the House Majority Whip from Minnesota, spoke at a Williamson County GOP rally. The event was in support of Republican nominees State Senator Brent Taylor in the 9th District and Charlie Hatcher in the 5th.
Hailing from the land of Representative Ilhan Omar and Governor Tim Walz, he opened with, “Greetings from the People’s Republic of Minnesota.” Minnesotans are “deathly afraid of being called a racist,” he continued, taking aim at Omar. “It’s time that we stand up and call them what they are: criminals.”
During the rally, the dad jokes were flying. Emmer called Walz "the dumbest governor in America."
“I mean, this guy is not a leader,” he said. “I wouldn't follow him through a buffet.”
Emmer came to Tennessee to rally the base before midterms. "There is nothing democratic about socialism. There is no such thing,” he said before taking a jab at Taylor's opponent, state Representative Justin Pearson. “This guy wants to defund the police and defund the prisons. I mean, they want to abolish the Senate. I might think about that one,” Emmer quipped.
As for all the pre-midterm polls, Emmer said the quiet part out loud: polling is used as a political tool. "Polling is not fake; it's just wrong," he argued, asserting that Republicans avoid pollsters because they don't want join the "database" only to be targeted later.
In closing, Emmer urged Tennesseans to send nine Republicans to the House: the very goal set into motion by the state legislature when they redrew the congressional map hoping to flip Tennessee's last remaining Democratic congressional seat in District 9 red.
HEADLINES
- 🚨 ICE arrests man convicted in Davidson County shooting
ICE detained a Honduran man who pleaded guilty last month to shooting a man in the face in Davidson County. A local judge had sentenced him to five years’ probation. He crossed the border in 2021 and was released under catch-and-release. (Breitbart) - 🚀 Tennessee bids for the U.S. Space Academy
Today, Governor Bill Lee announced that Tennessee will compete for the new U.S. Space Academy, a space workforce campus set up by President Trump, with NASA choosing the site. The state is proposing the Coffee County Joint Industrial Park, which is minutes from Arnold Air Force Base and close to Huntsville. The bid leans on partners including the UT Space Institute, MTSU, Tennessee Tech and Vanderbilt. (Governor’s office release) - 🪪 Tennessee stops accepting work permits for driver’s licenses
Tennessee has quietly stopped accepting federal work permits as proof for driver’s licenses, citing a 2025 state law. About 6,000 DACA recipients and other immigrants are being turned away when they try to renew. (Lookout) - 🎣 $3.25M bass tournament comes to Old Hickory Lake
Billed as the “richest bass tournament in history,” the event runs October 30–November 1 on Old Hickory Lake, and the winner takes home $1.25 million. Weigh-ins at Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville are free to attend. (Main Street)
✹ EARLY VOTING TRACKER
🗳️ Who's Voting Where Through Day 12 of 14: 1,018,521 early votes statewide, 118,053 in Davidson County. Our early voting tracker updates every morning with counts for all 95 counties, compared with the 2022 and 2018 midterms. Pick your county or look at the whole state to see where turnout stands (See the tracker)
✹ OPINION: IF WASHINGTON WANTS TO LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS, IT SHOULD GET OUT OF ITS OWN WAY
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation means fewer new treatments, Writesman argues. Congress needs to repeal it and pursue competition, transparency, and accountability instead.
From Patsy Writesman
While Washington debates policy, every day Tennesseans are hit with rising healthcare costs—insurance premiums are increasing, hospitals are raising prices and it gets harder and harder to access prescription drugs because of insurance hurdles that patients have to overcome—like fail-first policies and step therapy.
For seniors on fixed incomes, parents trying to make ends meet, and patients who depend on lifesaving medications, pharmaceutical drugs are a significant financial burden. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tried to artificially lower costs by putting bureaucrats in charge of setting drug prices. To no one’s surprise, socialist-style price controls only made the problem worse. Americans deserve affordable medicine, not a government one-size-fits-all solution.
Congress should roll back the IRA's prescription drug provisions and replace government price-setting with reforms that encourage competition, protect medical innovation, and give patients more affordable choices.
DEVELOPMENT
- East Bank renderings: Fallon’s 600-room hotel near the new Nissan Stadium is eyed for December 2030. TPAC breaks ground May 2027, with the Seigenthaler pedestrian bridge work starting next month. (Post)
- State Building Commission OKs a $147M renovation of the Supreme Court and old State Library and Archives buildings by the Capitol. Adds offices, parking, and a glass skybridge; construction starts early 2027. (Tennessean)
- Alaska Airlines adds a Saturday BNA–Anchorage nonstop June 12–Aug. 7, 2027, timed with its new Anchorage–Tokyo route. A one-stop path to Asia while BNA keeps chasing its own nonstop. (NBJ)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎃 A Charlie Brown Halloween @ Rudy's Jazz Room, 6p, $20, Info
🎸 Shenandoah @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $109, Info
🪕 The Graves Brothers @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
🎸 SOMBR @ Bridgestone Arena, 7p, $50.30, Info
💀 Tennessee Dead @ Tennessee Brew Works, 6p, Info
🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 The Cowpokes @ Robert's Western World, 10:30p, Free, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.