Which way does the wind blow.

Today is Election Day in Tennessee.

Call any and all people you know in Tennessee.

Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn is within two points in a Tennessee US House special election in a district that Donald Trump carried by 22 points in 2024.

Johnson and Trump Try to Avoid an Upset House Loss in Tennessee

Speaker Mike Johnson put the president on speakerphone during a Monday stop in the state, underscoring the unusual amount of national attention on a House special election.

The crowd milling around the sleek multimillion-dollar barn full of gleaming vintage cars was already a snapshot of the Republican elite in Tennessee. There were donors, state representatives, five members of Congress, the governor and the candidate for the state’s House special election on Tuesday, Matt Van Epps.

Then Speaker Mike Johnson, who flew in from Washington early Monday, called President Trump and put his phone on speaker.

“The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and they’re watching your district,” Mr. Trump said, his voice crackling over the phone. The election, he added, “has got to show that the Republican Party is stronger than it’s ever been.”

The phone call, coupled with the convergence of political heavyweights, underscored just how much Republicans appear rattled by the Tuesday election for what would normally be a safe conservative seat in Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District. It is the final special election of 2025 and, as Mr. Johnson told reporters, “we think what will happen here will be a bellwether for the midterms next year.”

Mr. Van Epps is running against State Representative Aftyn Behn, a Nashville Democrat who has energized many in her party despite a political record perceived by some as too liberal for Tennessee.

“I thought Tennessee was deep red. How did that happen?” Mr. Johnson said of Ms. Behn, calling her “a dangerous far leftist” that would be a “rubber stamp” for Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a favorite progressive target for Republicans, among others.

The district, which cuts through part of Nashville and stretches between the borders with Alabama and Kentucky, was left vacant after Representative Mark Green stepped down for a private sector job this year.

Much of the rally was not about Mr. Van Epps, an Army veteran and former state commissioner, but was instead focused on what a Republican victory on Tuesday would mean for the party’s razor-thin majority in the House and the country’s future.

>An Emerson College survey last week showed Mr. Van Epps beating Ms. Behn by only two percentage points, an uncomfortable margin in a district carefully drawn to favor a Republican candidate. Mr. Trump won the area by more than 20 points last year.

“We are out front right now, but we want to finish this fight,” Mr. Van Epps said.

Mr. Van Epps’s former primary opponents, three congressional representatives and both U.S. senators from the state all lined up to cast the race as a chance to prove the state’s Republican bona fides and reject the liberal tack of national Democrats.

They pointed to Ms. Behn’s support for transgender Tennesseans, her enthusiastic trailing of immigration agents in Nashville this year in protest of their presence, and comments she made in 2020 that were critical of the police.

Such a candidate, Senator Marsha Blackburn told the crowd, is not the type of person who “should be representing Tennesseans, and you all are not going to let it happen.”

Representative Tim Burchett, who drove in from Knoxville, was more blunt. “Folks, we are one flu season away from losing the majority,” he told the crowd, adding, “This is our chance to tell America we’ve had enough of this far-left craziness and everything that this woman represents.”

He was among those who pointed to one clip in which Ms. Behn professed a hatred for Nashville and its downtown tourist scene of pedal taverns, country music and bachelorettes as a sign that she is out of touch with the district. (“How the hell can you elect a person like that?” Mr. Trump asked.)

Ms. Behn, speaking to supporters on Monday, downplayed the criticism.

“National Republicans are panicking, because the story of the South is changing, and they can see it happening right here,” she said.

Ms. Behn, for her part, spent the weekend canvassing with Democrats across the district and held a virtual rally with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Al Gore, the last Tennessee Democrat to rise to the highest levels of national politics.

Mr. Gore told the hundreds of supporters gathered on the Zoom call that “Tennessee has proven again and again that we can answer the call of democracy, and that great cause of American democracy is calling us once again tomorrow.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that in a district so favored by Republicans, it “takes a very special kind of person with a very special kind of guts” to run as a Democrat. (New York Times)

New Jersey

Here is a good model for the Tennessee election.

New Jersey Assembly: Democrat Marisa Sweeney flipped a long-held Republican seat in the 25th Legislative District (Morris County) in the November 2025 election.

Indiana

One more thing.

How popular is Trump now?

Trump, the developer, is up to his old tricks.

Once a crook, always a crook… if your name is Trump.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day.

Decent people acknowledged it. The indecent did not.

Guaranteed Income.

Think of it as a way to lessen income inequality. Or an answer to the mass layoffs we can expect from Artificial Intelligence.

Whatever. It has begun to happen.

Guaranteed Income Program: America's second-largest county approves $500 monthly to residents in 2026.

Check who can apply for this benefit

In a significant milestone for US social policy, one of the most populous states in the country has transformed a pandemic relief pilot project into a permanent financial support initiative. This decision ensures that thousands of low- and middle-income residents will continue to receive direct economic assistance to meet their basic needs, setting a precedent for how local governments address economic insecurity.

Cook County, Illinois (home to the city of Chicago and the second largest county in the country), has taken a historic step by transforming its Guaranteed Income pilot program into a permanent initiative. Initially launched in 2022 with $42 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds, the reported success of the scheme has prompted the Board of Commissioners to ensure its long-term continuity.

What is the Guaranteed Income Program?

The Guaranteed Income Program is a social policy model that involves delivering periodic and recurring cash payments to a specific group of people or families, usually with low incomes, without conditions or requirements on how the money should be spent.

The goal of this program is to reduce poverty, increase household financial stability and decrease economic stress. It focuses on breaking down the barriers of extreme poverty with key assistance.

What is the amount that will be delivered in Cook County?

The Cook County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved $7.5 million from its 2026 budget to fund the program's continuation.

During the previous pilot, the program, called Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot, delivered $500 a month unconditionally to 3,250 households and the new permanent scheme will maintain similar support for residents.

Justification for the continuation of the program

The findings of a survey of participants were key to approval. The April report showed that:

94% of participants used the funds for financial emergencies.

Three-quarters reported greater financial security.

Most reported an improvement in their mental health and a reduction in stress levels.

The funds were mainly used for essential needs: food, rent, utilities and transportation. (Marca.com)