The wealthy Nashville suburb of Franklin roundly rejected what is likely the most controversial mayoral candidate in its history, deciding Gabrielle Hanson’s myriad scandals—including several instances in which she cozied up to white supremacists—were too much to stomach.
The local real estate developer lost with just 20 percent of the vote, records showed, keeping the city of 85,000’s longtime incumbent, Ken Moore, in office another four years.
Other MAGA candidates in the city fared largely the same, with a trio of alderman hopefuls supported by what Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 described as a “far-right” PAC called Williamson Families sent packing by voters.
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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.
Hanson, at the time a city alderman, first grabbed national headlines this spring when she tried to block a Pride event in Franklin, arguing that the attire of attendees was a threat to children. Hanson was unable to shut down the event, but the stunt earned her street cred with the city’s conservatives.
Soon after, Hanson announced her plans to run for mayor against Moore, who was first elected to the position in 2011. She quickly notched an endorsement from the Williamson Families PAC, whose founder, Robin Steenman, is also the chair of the local Mom’s For Liberty chapter.
Hanson 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’s outlandish comments brought more eyes on Franklin—a quiet city that scores of country music stars and other wealthy Tennesseans call home.
Later in her campaign, the controversies surrounding Hanson became less about her policy ambitions—like “restoring traditional values and protecting our families”—and more about her personal life.
In September, Nashville’s News Channel 5 revealed that Hanson was arrested in college for promoting prostitution in Texas—a crime she insisted was only a misdemeanor and misunderstanding, but was later revealed to have been a felony conviction.
A week later, the same news station revealed another bombshell. Hanson, who so vehemently fought against a local Pride event because of the attendees’ attire, had once cheered her husband on as he donned nothing but an American flag Speedo and sandals at a Chicago Pride parade in 2008. The report, written by Phil Williams, included a photo of the scantily-clad Tom Hanson, who was then a congressional candidate in Illinois’s 5th District.
“I thought how was I going to make an impact in the parade? I’m a Republican, nobody’s going to want to listen to me," he told the Windy City Times about the Speedo stunt. “So it just came to me. I said maybe I’ll wear an American-flag Speedo and my wife said, “If you do that, I’ll hold you to it.’”
From there, Hanson’s scandals came hard and quick. On Sept. 27, the same day news broke about Tom’s Speedo photo, Hanson’s supporters formed a blockade to keep Williams from entering a campaign forum, with one Hanson supporter taking a swipe at him. Inside the event, a journalist recorded Hanson saying, “No Channel 5. They have to leave.”
At Hanson’s next forum, she was escorted inside by a pair of white supremacists who are part of the Tennessee Active Club—an organization also deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Other club members stood on guard outside, telling reporters they were Hanson’s security detail.
Despite calls from local politicians, 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.”
In an Oct. 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.”
Alderman Beverly Burger, who held the same position as Hanson, called her out and asked: “Is it your mission to divide our city? Because you’re doing a bang-up job of it right now.”
Hanson pushed back hard against rumors that she is a white supremacist herself. Her recent posts suggest that she didn’t agree with some of her Active Club pals being labeled as a hate group, however. She posted a PragerU video on Saturday with a banner that read, “The SPLC’s hate list has become a weapon for taking individuals and groups they disagree with and tarring them with ugly accusations.”
Gaffes by Hanson’s team continued into its final days. A fundraising text that was blasted out to her supporters along with a link to donate on Oct. 11. Instead of linking to the website williamson-families.org, the text mistakenly linked to “williamsom-families.org.” One enterprising opponent purchased the misspelled domain name and turned it into a website that displayed Tom Hanson’s infamous Speedo picture.
Just an hour after polls opened on Election Day, Hanson decried that voting machines were malfunctioning—a claim that was quickly corrected by a local election official who insisted that all polling locations were operating as normal.
In a statement posted to Facebook and Instagram, Hanson implored voters to snap a photo of their ballots before submitting them—an act that is illegal in Tennessee. If caught, voters could have been slapped with a Class C misdemeanor. After people commented to correct her campaign’s mistake, Hanson quietly edited her post to tell voters to contact poll workers if they had any trouble.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note that Moms for Liberty’s Franklin chapter did not endorse Hanson.
