FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — As voters prepare to go to the polls in Franklin Tuesday, white supremacists once again make their presence known — and controversial mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson is refusing to distance herself from those figures.
Overnight, posters linked to the hate group, the Patriot Front, were plastered in parts of downtown Franklin, including at the offices of the newspaper, the Williamson Herald.
The posters denounce their perceived enemies, including this reporter.
Hanson, a current Franklin alderman, took to the right-wing Patriot Punkcast for her closing argument, including her claim that her white supremacist friends were just misunderstood.
"So the public can know that I am looking out for their best interests, their pocketbook and there will be no more shenanigans in City Hall in Franklin," Hanson said.
Election Day marks the end of a controversial campaign that included Hanson's admission to an arrest for promoting prostitution in Texas in the mid-90s, NewsChannel 5's revelation of her lifting social media images to falsely claim a group of women as her supporters and her husband's participation in a 2008 Pride event in Chicago despite her campaign against Pride events in Franklin.
But it was Hanson's association with white supremacists — who showed up at a campaign event in a show of support for her — that has captured national attention.
"And I'm just going to tell you, from what I've seen, I do not see white supremacists, and I do not see Nazi," Hanson told the podcasters.
The mayoral candidate insisted she didn't see white supremacy in Brad Lewis — the man with the Proud Boys tattoo on his face — or Sean Kauffman, the Hitler-saluting neo-Nazi who's made a habit of protesting local drag shows.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates caught up with Kauffmann and Lewis at that candidates' forum.
"He thought we were part of the Proud Boys, isn't that something?" Kauffmann told Lewis.
We noted to Lewis, "Well, you were part of the Proud Boys."
"I was before they turned f***ing qu***," he responded.
Kauffmann chimed in, "Bunch of fa****s."
Hanson's reaction to the controversy over their presence at the candidates forum?
"It was disheartening to see a community who was so judgmental based on the way somebody looked and to see that people were willing willing to make things up about someone else," she told the podcasters.
In fact, Lewis — who often poses on his Telegram social media channel in mocking dress as an Orthodox Jew — has described himself as "an actual literal Nazi."
In one image, Lewis salutes under the flag of the neo-Nazi Vinland Rebels.
His Telegram channel includes racist images and anti-Semitic images.
At the forum, Lewis posted an image of this reporter, calling me a "hair lip lying sack of sh*t for the international jew media," warning the "Day of the Rope" is real" and "you better run...run...run."
Lewis recently posted an image of me in blackface.
"Brad's just Brad — and I think that's what makes him such a cool guy," Hanson said, "because he doesn't care about what people think. He's just himself."
Hanson made it clear her real problem hasn't been her association with her white supremacist friends.
Instead, she singled out NewsChannel 5's reporting on her campaign scandals.
"He's now just gone on a flat-out rampage on me," she said. "I don't know if he is obsessed. I just don't know what it is. But it is not normal."
One thing that is definitely not normal is voter turnout.
Early voting ended Thursday.
So far, almost 17% of registered voters have cast their ballot — that's more than five times as many as the mayor's race four years ago.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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