Lauren Egan
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
Okay, how many people actually live in Davidson County? All right, okay. Now, who lives in Justin's district? All right, all right. You've got some constituents in the room, okay. Well, thanks everyone for being here. Thank you for being here. I wanna start off with just what's been going on in the state over the past few weeks.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
The ICE raids, I'm sure most of you in the room have heard about those. Talk to me about what happened in your district a few weeks ago and what your initial reaction was when you got that first phone call that there was these ICE raids going on, about 500 people get pulled over, 200 arrested. What was your reaction?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
We'll get to that, too. We will get to that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
You mentioned Andy Ogles. And the other Justin mentioned his press conference that he had over the holiday weekend. And I want to read this tweet that he posted. He tweeted, and this is at our mayor, Freddie O'Connell, who, of course, he's now saying he wants a congressional investigation into how the mayor handled these ICE raids.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
He tweeted, if you're helping violent gangs destroy Tennessee by obstructing ICE, you belong behind bars. What can local officials do in this situation to help the immigrant community when you have someone like Ogles tweeting that at our mayor?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
You mentioned that democratic power in the South. We're sitting in the South right now, and I think everyone in this room probably knows something very interesting has been going on in the South over the past few years. There are a lot of people moving to the region. I'm a transplant. You are a transplant. We love a good transplant in Nashville.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
But that's going to have political ramifications for the country. In the coming years, the whole South is going to probably gain a few congressional seats. And that means that if Democrats ever want to control the House again, if a Democratic president ever wants to get elected after the 2030 census, they're going to have to make some real serious inroads in the South.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
So I guess my question for you is, how screwed are Democrats?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
I want to dig into that a bit more because... In case you all weren't aware, Donald Trump won this state by 900,000 votes. You could literally drop another Memphis or Nashville in the state, and he would still win. So what is the state's party, and what do you think Democrats in this state should be doing to broaden the base statewide? Because there are a lot of rural voters here.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
There are a lot of conservative voters here. There are a lot of independent voters here. And I think the reality is that if Democrats want to compete statewide, they're going to have to get some of those voters to come into their camp.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
In the meantime, before Democrats win back Tennessee at some point, in the meantime, the reality is that Republicans control pretty much everything in the state. You have to work with Republicans if you wanna get anything done. How do you approach your relationships with the state Republicans that you have to see when you're in session?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
And how do you think about reaching across the aisle when that's really the only option to get any bills passed right now?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
So given that... Is there actually any path forward to getting something like gun legislation passed, or is that just kind of not going to happen right now?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
I've got one more question for you and then we'll invite our friends back up. But when you got kicked out, that was obviously a moment for you to, you had this huge national profile, you had this ability to raise money on the national level.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1054: Adam Serwer, Lauren Egan, and Justin Jones: The Attack on Knowledge
How have you thought about leveraging that new national profile and using that to really build up the Tennessee State Party to support other candidates locally? How do you view your role now in the state party?