There are no consequences in deep blue districts and cities, or there haven't been forever, and this holds particularly true in Mayor O'Connell's case.

As much as one thinks of Tennessee as red, white, and blue country, Marsha Blackburn senator-type stuff, Nashville, for all the hick accents, is cobalt blue to the bone and has been. For the sixty years since the city incorporated with the surrounding county, there's only ever been Democratic mayors, nary a single Republican one.

Is that a remnant of the old Blue Dog Democrats, center-right Southern conservatives who still appealed to the working class but kept the 'D' label even as their party swung ever more left?

Maybe at first, but the city votes blue.

And that's how a guy who looks like Scott Wiener and espouses radical progressive ideology is elevated to the mayor's seat of a major city in the deep red mid-South. 

O'Connell did so in 2023 with the fervent backing of a group known as the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), which enthusiastically endorsed O'Connell for the post.

Immigrants and Refugees are Ready for Freddie!

I don’t need to tell you just what’s at stake in this year’s election. While Nashvillians are struggling to afford housing and find living-wage jobs, so-called leaders sell our neighborhoods to the highest bidder and turn their backs on our communities. Meanwhile extremists in the state legislature continue to exert authoritarian control by trying to take over our council and agencies.

It’s clear–the mayor’s race is too important to sit out. We need the next mayor of Nashville to hit the ground on day one delivering real solutions for immigrant and refugee families.

That's why we are endorsing Freddie O’Connell for the next mayor of Nashville. Freddie has demonstrated he has the experience, vision, and commitment to be a true partner to our movement who will champion policies that will give us all opportunities to thrive.

They lay out why Freddie was the 'immigrant' choice for Nashville.

...He has also demonstrated his deep commitment to immigrant and refugee communities. Freddie has a proven track record of being a champion for immigrant and refugee communities in Metro government, from voting Yes on a historic investment toward critical immigration legal services, voting No on License Plate Readers that harm Black and brown people, and sponsoring our Nashville Together ordinance to protect immigrant families during the attacks of the Trump era. Throughout his campaign, he has ensured immigrants and refugees were intentionally included through multicultural and multilingual outreach. 

Their tagline was #ImmigrantsVote.

And they helped get Nashville Freddie O'Connell, who, after eight years on the Nashville Metro Council, became mayor in September of that year.

Now, the Nashville mayor's office already had something called the Office of New and Indigenous Americans (MONIA), which O'Connell's pledge to reinvigorate helped earn him the coveted #ImmigrantVote endorsement. It's on a page that plainly heralds its diversity and inclusion.

Curiously, it has a really nifty tracking link for 'Metro Immigration Interactions', benignly labeled Executive Order 30 Open Data under the 'Helpful Resources' tab near the bottom of the page.

In case you're wondering what that looks like, here's what the mayor is helping people keep tabs on:

Literally an as-it-happens log of all immigration related stops in the city and the information regarding how it was done, etc. On the page for the Mayor's Office of New and Indigenous Americans.

OKAY

At the beginning of May, and coincidentally after some area ICE activity, O'Connell also announced the creation of something called The Belonging Fund, which would pool private and city resources to support 'immigrants' with everything but legal services.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) partnered with the Metro Nashville Government to launch a fund to support immigrants in the city following a weekend full of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainments.

The Belonging Fund aims to help immigrants meet their needs by providing financial aid to nonprofits offering emergency assistance.

“Our community’s strength lies in its diversity and the invaluable contributions of those who have chosen to make Nashville their home. Our immigrant neighbors power industries, enrich the city’s culture, and contribute to neighborhoods across the region. Yet, many face sudden and destabilizing challenges, often with little warning or support,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office shared.

So it should come as no surprise that when Tom Homan's crew came to town for enforcement raids about a week and a half after that, there was a huge kerfuffle and the mayor's nose was knocked severely out of joint.

He demanded the names of the 200 individuals who'd been scooped up, in order, he said, to ensure none had been detained 'by mistake' while also lambasting the DHS traffic stops for not sharing Nashville's 'safety values.'

...FREDDIE O'CONNELL: I want to be clear. We did not request this approach to safety. We do not support it.

ABRAMS: But he also says that the city has little power to intervene because only federal authorities can enforce immigration laws. Instead, O'Connell is trying to get the names of all the people arrested during the traffic stops.

O'CONNELL: There's a strong probability that people have been detained that are here legally that simply did not have documentation with them as they were driving on the streets in Nashville. And so we want to validate that.

O'Connell read off several sob stories of perfectly decent illegals he said had been scooped up inhumanely, and DHS fired back with some rap sheets. 

It was all the standard bluster until O'Connell took that last FA step over the FO line.

On the Metro Data page linked above - where they track all that immigration enforcement activity - somehow all the names of ICE, DHS, and other agents assisting in the actions were left in the entries.

The city of Nashville doxxed every last officer.

TAP DANCE TAP DANCE - TECHNICAL UPDATE

Holy smokes. The first stage of FO engaged.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn are slamming Nashville’s mayor after his office posted the names of ICE agents and Homeland Security Investigators.

FOX 17 News first reported this on Wednesday.

After our story aired, the mayor’s office removed those names and told FOX 17 News the names were “mistakenly included in the information posted online."

Critics of Mayor Freddie O’Connell say releasing the names was no mistake and puts federal agents at risk.

Supporters of Mayor O’Connell insist it was not malicious.

A state representative wants to know if any federal or state dollars were used to set up the city's little cheat sheet and is calling for an investigation to find out.

Mayors are not above complying with State and Federal law. The public safety of Nashvillians should be paramount, but unfortunately, that’s not the case under @freddieoconnell’s “leadership.” pic.twitter.com/3rXVrjxtyc

— Johnny Garrett (@JohnnyGarrett4) May 29, 2025

Meanwhile, local congressman Andy Ogles, was going ballistic.

💥 BOMBSHELL:

Thanks to the work of @KarenAFox17, my office has uncovered evidence that Mayor Freddie O’Connell publicly leaked the names of DHS and HSI officials working with Davidson County on immigration enforcement.

The information is posted on an official Nashville… pic.twitter.com/GwVLiEyW3B

— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) May 28, 2025

...The information is posted on an official Nashville government website — fully accessible to the public. 

MS-13 and other transnational gangs could easily use this as intel for their operations. 

It also includes details on how local officers are coordinating with federal agents, putting agents in serious danger and exposing local law enforcement to unnecessary scrutiny and targeting. 

Tell me how this isn’t a Democrat official deliberately trying to undermine President Trump’s efforts to save America.

O'Donnell had a press conference this morning, where he pinky swore it was all a horrible misunderstanding, and, in yet another phase of FO, why did DHS have to be all pissy and designate Nashville a sanctuary city? 

WAAAH!

The great thing about all of this is it ain't over. It's turning into the ugliest self-induced field of fire ever. O'Connell has incoming on all sides.

It is reckless, irresponsible & against the law for anyone to dox federal agents & law enforcement. We must get to the bottom of how this happened. I am asking @freddieoconnell & Metro government to explain how/why this happened, who approved this and whether Metro legal also…

— Speaker Cameron Sexton (@CSexton25) May 30, 2025

...I am asking @freddieoconnell & Metro government to explain how/why this happened, who approved this and whether Metro legal also signed off or voiced any opposition to the release of the agents’ names. TN law bans sanctuary cities & harboring illegal immigrants. Any violation puts the city at risk of losing state-shared tax dollars. @RepMarkGreen @AGTennessee @DHSgov

The ever-so-cool, 'Are you ready for Freddie' O'Connell may well wind up being Homan's poster blue boy for the FAFO chart.