Mayor O'Connell donates to voter protection efforts ahead of Election Day
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell. Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell plans to contribute $100,000 through his political action committee to help bankroll Democrats' voter protection efforts in Tennessee.
Why it matters: Democrats say they are guarding against voter intimidation and disenfranchisement in this bitter election year.
- O'Connell's donations will be to the state Democratic Party, signaling a level of cooperation that figures to pique interest among insiders about his future ambitions.
Driving the news: O'Connell's Ready PAC has already donated $50,000 to fund voter protection and education.
- The Ready PAC is partnering with the Tennessee Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee's voter protection division to "protect Nashville, Memphis and other priority communities across the state," according to a PAC fundraising email obtained by Axios.
- The money will be used to train poll observers who will be stationed at voting precincts, as well as attorneys who will run "voter protection boiler rooms" providing voters with legal help.
- The Ready PAC's funding helped the state party hire Clay Capp, who also serves on the Metro Council, as its statewide voter protection director.
Between the lines: Nationally, Democrats are worried about the Trump administration sending ICE agents to polling places, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that officers wouldn't patrol or monitor polling places, according to the AP.
- Mullin did say that immigration agents could go to polling places to arrest someone if they have a warrant or are responding to a threat, the AP said.
- States are preparing for advocacy workers to be at polling places just in case, Axios reported.
The intrigue: "The work is bigger than one election, it is the foundational infrastructure Tennessee Democrats need to compete across the state and protect every vote, everywhere as we look forward to 2028's presidential elections," Ready PAC treasurer Marjorie Pomeroy-Wallace said in the Oct. 6 fundraising email.
- Pomeroy-Wallace managed O'Connell's 2023 campaign and served as a mayoral aide before stepping down this year.
Zoom out: The Ready PAC is also partnering with a new advocacy group called Nashville Guardians of Democracy, which was launched by former U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper's top aide, Lisa Quigley.
- The Guardians group has been holding education sessions since Labor Day to train poll watchers in Nashville.
- Quigley tells Axios they launched the group after comments from President Trump and members of his administration about sending federal officials to the polls in November.
- There's heightened sensitivity in Nashville, she says, due to the off-cycle redistricting by the legislature over the summer, which once again overhauled the city's U.S. House map.
By the numbers: Guardians of Democracy has trained 200 volunteers so far and hopes to reach 500 by Election Day, Quigley says.
What he's saying: "Every Tennessean deserves to know where to vote and to have their vote counted," O'Connell tells Axios. "I'm investing in voter education and protection so people have clear information before they head to the polls and help when they need it."