On Wednesday morning, everyone was Googling Victoria Broderick.
- Up until her shocking victory in Tennessee’s District 4 U.S. House race, she was a political unknown outside of a small pocket of Democrats in rural Lincoln County.
Why it matters: By unseating eight-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, Broderick delivered a victory that pundits, the political establishment and the media did not see coming. (Her campaign raised less than $100,000.)
- Everyone from the former governor to former Nashville mayors and state lawmakers had failed in the last 18 years to flip prominent Republican-held seats in Tennessee.
Yes, but: “I know it was a shock for the rest of the country, but it wasn’t a shock for our team,” Broderick tells Axios of her “surreal” win.
- As of Wednesday afternoon, the AP still hadn’t called the race for Broderick, but the secretary of state site had declared her the unofficial winner.
What she’s saying: Asked to describe her political identity, Broderick says she is a “progressive, working-class mom who’s been running for this seat for two-and-a-half years.”…