The Race That Shows the Bones: The Work That Rebuilds a Party
We keep hoping the next race will save us. But the truth is, nothing changes until we start choosing differently - in every county, every season, every decision.
This is the final post in a four-part series on TN-07 and the state of Democratic infrastructure in Tennessee. I know… it probably should’ve just been one long post. But here we are.
If you’re just jumping in, catch up on:
Now, let’s finish the thing.
The most dangerous thing Tennessee Democrats can do right now is treat the special election in TN-07 like a fluke.
To write it off as too sudden, too hard, too late. To tell ourselves we could do more if only we’d had a little more time. To once again accept that failure is normal, and success, when it comes, will be spontaneous.
But if we took ourselves seriously (not just as Democrats, but as people who want to change the direction of this state) we would treat this race differently.
We would treat it like a case study. A field test. A hard look in the mirror.
We would use it to measure every promise the state party has made over the past five years.
Promises about rural strategy. About year-round organizing. About growing from the ground up.
We’d ask the questions that actually matter:
What did we already have in place when this race was announced?
Which counties were ready? Which ones were hollowed out?
Who was trained and ready to lead? Who had never been contacted at all?
We’d treat this like an organizing audit… not a Hail Mary.
Because if we say we’ll be ready next time, we need to stop pretending that "next time" gives us more than 100 days.
This is next time.
The only difference is whether we prepared for it.
So what would it actually look like to be ready?
Being ready would mean investing in every county, not just the ones that already turn out blue.
Being ready would mean training local candidates before an election is on the calendar, so they’re ready when it suddenly is.
Being ready would mean funding field instead of fluff - paying people to knock doors, build relationships, and reconnect with communities that haven’t seen a Democrat in years.
Being ready would mean ending the drought.
No more starving local parties until we need them, then acting surprised when they can’t perform miracles.
Being ready would mean redefining success.
Not just defining “success” as how many seats we flip.
But in trust built. In turnout gaps closed. In first-time voters showing up because someone finally showed up for them.
This isn’t glamorous work. It’s not tweetable. It doesn’t make headlines.
But this is the work that moves the needle.
It’s the conversations held at kitchen tables, not press circles. It’s the database that gets updated every weekend. It’s the three-person canvas launch that turns into twenty. It’s volunteers learning how to cut turf, map precincts, track walk results not because we’re 50 days out from an election, but because they know during the off-time is where gains are made.
It’s the work that feels invisible… until it isn’t.
Because when the margins tighten, or a seat flips, or a narrative changes, people talk about momentum. They talk about magic. They never talk about the 18 months of organizing that led to it.
But we should.
Georgia didn’t flip overnight. Arizona didn’t organize itself.
Those wins were built by people who knew the long game wasn’t optional. That you don’t wait until the race is called to start caring about the voters in it. You show up before you need something. You plant before the forecast looks good. You build in the off season.
The people who built those wins didn’t wait for a special election to start. They started with what they had.
And they kept going long after everyone stopped watching.
Tennessee can do that.
But first, we have to stop pretending we’re one lucky race away from relevance.
We’re not.
We are where we are because of choices.
And we’ll get somewhere better the same way - by choosing differently.
By treating this race not as a fluke, or a fantasy, but as what it truly is:
A truth-teller.
This race is a chance to be honest. And you know what they say:
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Postscript
You don’t have to agree with everything I’ve said here.
But you do have to sit with it.
Because no matter how this race goes: whether we win TN-07 or not, whether turnout exceeds expectations or fizzles out, whether the headlines keep coming or dry up - the deeper truth won’t change:
We are not building fast enough.
And we are not being honest enough about why.
This race won’t fix that.
But it might expose it.
And if it does, we have a choice.
We can dismiss it as just another fluke.
Or we can let it be the mirror we finally decide to look into.
We owe it to ourselves (and to every volunteer, every voter, every candidate still showing up) to not waste this moment.
To not walk away and pretend we didn’t see what we saw.
Not again. Not this time.
If you want a quick recap on where we are as a state, check out Crumbs and Cruelty: The 2025 Tennessee Legislature’s Betrayal of Progress. It’s a pretty quick read, and honestly, if anyone at the state level is still more focused on drama than the reality we’re living in, their priorities are completely f*cked.
