How a far-right mayoral campaign went down in flames: 'Too much to stomach'

In Franklin, Tennessee (an upscale Nashville suburb), MAGA Republican Gabrielle Hanson's chaotic mayoral campaign ended in defeat when, on Tuesday, October 24, Democratic incumbent Ken Moore enjoyed a landslide reelection and won by around 59 percent.

Hanson, a Franklin alderperson and local real estate developer, ran as a severe culture warrior. She had tried to block a gay pride event in the spring, and according to the Daily Beast, she wouldn't disavow some white supremacists who supported her. But in the end, Franklin voters rejected her extremism.

The Daily Beast's Josh Fiallo, in an article published on October 25, stresses that Hanson's "myriad scandals" were "too much to stomach."

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Fiallo explains, "Tuesday's result puts a cap on a chaotic campaign for Hanson, who seemingly found herself embroiled in new controversies weekly on the home stretch of her election bid…. She loudly lambasted the city for planning to install historical markers about historical racial injustice in the area — memorials she deemed to be 'racial terror' markers. She was grilled for threatening to retaliate against a local airport for supporting a Juneteenth festival and was slammed by Nashville cops for spreading false information about a horrific mass shooting at the city's Covenant School."

Hanson, Fiallo notes, "cozied up to white supremacists," including members of a group called the Tennessee Active Club.

"Despite calls from local politicians," the reporter explains, "Hanson never disavowed the group, which was spotted carrying Nazi flags at a drag brunch in Cookeville, Tennessee, earlier this year. She insisted she didn't invite the group to her forum personally, but Active Club members disputed that, saying they were invited over concerns related to 'Antifa.' Hanson's initial efforts to distance herself from the group didn't last long — she was photographed Wednesday grinning next to the hate group's leader, Sean Kauffmann, who has described himself as being an 'actual literal Nazi.'"

Fiallo adds, "In an October 10 board meeting, Hanson claimed she didn’t disavow the group because they were against Antifa. She strangely said to city officials in the meeting, 'This is exactly the seeds that you sowed, and your harvest is now here.'"

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Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).