It’s pretty remarkable that Allie Phillips answers her own emails, given the mother of two—and newly elected Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representatives—has been fielding media inquiries nonstop since last week’s midterm elections. In Nashville the weekend after her win, Phillips’s name was still plastered everywhere—from the Honky Tonk Highway entertainment district to the city’s oldest diner to venerable lesbian karaoke institution the Lipstick Lounge.
In an interview conducted over Zoom a few days later, I spoke to the staunch reproductive-rights advocate and self-described “regular, working-class mom” about turning trauma into action, campaigning while pregnant, and hitting the ground running with a full slate of legislative priorities. Read that conversation below.
Vogue: Congratulations! What did election night look like for you?
Allie Phillips: Election night had a pivot in it. I ended up having to leave the watch party for our county party and move over to another location because it was just so full. When I saw the early vote numbers hit, I was about 20% ahead, and within five minutes, a member of the Republican Party in Montgomery County called me and said, “Congratulations, Representative Phillips.” I was like, “None of the precincts have been reported yet,” and he said, “Your opponent would have to take 75% of the Election Day vote, and that’s just not going to happen, so congratulations.” I was like, “I’m going to wait until the last vote is counted, I don’t want to prematurely celebrate.”
I spent the night with amazing organizations like the Equity Alliance Fund, a Black-founded organization that works on expanding Black political engagement, and TIRRC, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition. They contributed to so much of my election-night win—they knocked on over 30,000 doors in my district—so being able to celebrate with them was incredible. When we shifted the watch party to a different location, I stood up on a chair in a restaurant in heels, no podium, no microphone, no media, just me and the people that got me over the finish line, and gave my speech that I wrote. It was probably the most down-to-earth, authentic thing that I think could have happened. I wouldn’t change it for the world, because as stressful as it was to have to pivot in the middle of election night, I did what I needed to do as a leader. It was hectic and chaotic, but we got to celebrate together, and that’s what mattered.
