Victoria Broderick Celebrates Surprising Congressional Win in Tennessee

Victoria Broderick Celebrates Surprising Congressional Win in Tennessee

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“They messed around and they found out,” Victoria Broderick told Axios Nashville of the Republican-led effort to redraw Tennessee’s congressional map this May. The 34-year-old tech support worker and mother of two has defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais in Tennessee’s 4th District, pulling off a surprising victory that was a shock to the rest of the country.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press had not yet officially called the race for Broderick, but the Tennessee secretary of state’s website had declared her the unofficial winner. Axios Nashville reported that the result marks a stunning reversal for a candidate who lost to DesJarlais by 43 points in 2024, and a major pickup for Democrats seeking to claw back representation in a state long dominated by Republicans.

How a 43-Point Defeat Became a 52-Point Nashville Rout

“I know it was a shock for the rest of the country, but it wasn’t a shock for our team,” Broderick told Axios of her “surreal” win. The comeback began when she refused to accept the 2024 drubbing as final. “Fifteen seconds later, I said, ‘I’m gonna do it again,'” she said.

Dem. Victoria Broderick flips U.S House seat despite redistricting

The opportunity arrived when Tennessee Republicans gerrymandered the state’s U.S. House map this May, lumping a large chunk of Nashville into District 4. Broderick won just two of the district’s 11 counties overall, but in Nashville itself, she drubbed DesJarlais by 52 points. She also won Rutherford County, a Nashville suburb where Democrats rode their own blue wave this year to take a slate of county and state elections.

From Lincoln County Organizing to “Friendly Neighborhood Liberal” on TikTok

Broderick describes her political identity as a “progressive, working-class mom who’s been running for this seat for two-and-a-half years.” By day, she 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 joked. She says she had “always been political” but only decided to run for Congress after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Her political career started with hyper-local organizing in Lincoln County, where she rose to become chair of the Democratic Party. She also began posting videos on social media, referring to herself as “your friendly neighborhood liberal on TikTok,” and serves on the state Democratic executive committee. Despite her growing profile, she received little help from the national party establishment.

Instead, Broderick says her victory reflects a true grassroots campaign built on “time.” “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 said.

Victoria Broderick Celebrates Surprising Congressional Win in Tennessee

“Victoria was not on anyone’s radar with this race,” Davidson County Democratic Party chair Dakota Galban told Axios. Galban added that Nashville Democrats are invigorated to regain a Democratic representative in Congress.

Restoring Nashville’s Voice After the 2022 Carve-Up

Broderick’s victory gives Nashville a Democratic voice in the House for the first time since 2022, when the city was carved into three Republican-majority districts—a redistricting that led longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper to retire rather than run in the reshaped seat. By capturing the newly drawn District 4, Broderick has essentially reversed a key element of that 2022 gerrymander.

Looking ahead to her term in Washington, Broderick says her top short-term priority will be addressing affordability for working families. In the longer term, she hopes her victory serves as a flare for party donors and organizers who might invest more heavily in Tennessee going forward.

“Tennessee is not a red state,” Broderick said. “It’s a nonvoting gerrymandered state. What we witnessed in May was unacceptable.”

Whether this win represents a rebuke of the redistricting effort or the first sign of a broader Democratic resurgence in the Nashville area remains an open question.

How Dem Victoria Broderick overcame redistricting to become one of TN’s new U.S. Reps

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