A rural Tennessee region was rocked this week after thousands of homes received mailers encouraging them to join the local Young Republicans chapter with a campaign platform including “No wars for Jews.”
Tennessee
Alabama at Tennessee by the numbers: Kalen DeBoer enters the third Saturday in October
No. 7 Alabama (5-1, 2-1) at No. 11 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1)
2:30 p.m. CDT Saturday (ABC)
Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee
1 Alabama coach in the SEC era has won five of his first six games with the Crimson Tide – current coach Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer is the first first-year Alabama coach with a 5-1 mark since Frank Thomas started his 15-season tenure with the Tide by going 9-1 in 1931, two seasons before the SEC’s first campaign. Red Drew in 1947, Ray Perkins in 1983, Bill Curry in 1987 and Nick Saban in 2007 were 4-2, Bear Bryant in 1958 was 3-2-1, Gene Stallings in 1990, Mike DuBose in 1997 and Dennis Franchione in 2001 were 3-3, Mike Shula in 2003 was 2-4 and Ears Whitworth in 1955 was 0-6 after his first six games.
3 Teams rank in the top 10 in scoring offense and defense and total offense and defense nationally, including Tennessee. By per-game average, the Volunteers are No. 9 in points scored, No. 4 in points allowed, No. 9 in yards gained and No. 2 in yards allowed. Texas is No. 7 in points scored, No. 1 in points allowed, No. 7 in yards gained and No. 1 in yards allowed. Ohio State is No. 6 in points scored, No. 5 in points allowed, No. 6 in yards gained and No. 5 in yards allowed.
4 Victories and six losses for Alabama coaches in their first game against Tennessee in the SEC era. Red Drew in 1947, Bill Curry in 1987, Gene Stallings in 1990 and Nick Saban in 2007 won against Tennessee in their first season with the Crimson Tide. Ears Whitworth in 1955, Bear Bryant in 1958, Ray Perkins in 1983, Mike DuBose in 1997, Dennis Franchione in 2001 and Mike Shula in 2003 lost to the Vols in their first season as Alabama’s coach. Kalen DeBoer will be guiding the Tide against Tennessee for the first time on Saturday. DeBoer will be the second first-year Alabama coach to lead a ranked team against the Volunteers, the seventh in a row to face a ranked Tennessee team and the first to open against the Vols in a ranked-vs.-ranked game. On Oct. 15, 1983, Perkins’ No. 11 Tide lost to unranked Tennessee 41-34. Since then, the Volunteers have been ranked for every meeting with a first-year Alabama coach, with Curry upending No. 8 Tennessee 41-22 in 1987, Stallings upsetting No. 3 Tennessee 9-6 in 1990 and Saban defeating No. 20 Tennessee 41-17 in 2007.
6 Consecutive games with at least one rushing touchdown for Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson, who ran for three TDs in the Volunteers’ 23-17 overtime victory against Florida on Oct. 12. Sampson is the first Tennessee player with a rushing TD in six straight games since Montario Hardesty in 2009. Sampson has run for 15 TDs in 2024, the most by a Tennessee player in one season since Tony Thompson ran for 16 in 1990. The only other Volunteers with more rushing TDs in a season are Gene McEver with 18 in 1929 and Reggie Cobb with 17 in 1987.
7 Starts have been made by QB Nico Iamaleava for Tennessee. The Volunteers have a 6-1 record and have outscored their opponents 288-64 during Iamaleava’s starts. He’ll seek to become the first true or redshirt freshman quarterback to start a Tennessee victory against Alabama since Erik Ainge in 2004.
11 Rushing TDs by Alabama’s Jalen Milroe in 2024, two short of the school single-season record for a quarterback established by Jalen Hurts in 2016 with 13. Milroe has 24 rushing TDs during his Alabama career, one more than Hurts had during his time with the Crimson Tide.
12 Alabama-Tennessee games have been played on Oct. 19. Each team has won six.
SEC TOP 10 FROM WEEK 7
13 Victories in 15 games against teams ranked in the AP Poll by Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer. Among active NCAA FBS coaches, DeBoer ranks seconds for victories over ranked opponents behind the 17 of Georgia’s Kirby Smart. Third on the list is Tennessee’s Josh Heupel with 10 victories over ranked opponents.
19 Points are the most that have been scored against Tennessee in the Volunteers’ past seven games. It’s the longest stretch of games without any of Tennessee’s opponents reaching 20 points since a seven-game stretch in 1998 that included a 35-18 victory over Alabama. Tennessee hasn’t held more than seven straight opponents to fewer than 20 points since doing so in the final nine games of the 1985 season. Alabama has scored at least 20 points in 17 consecutive games and has at least 34 points in each of its past eight games against Tennessee.
25 Yards per reception have been averaged by Alabama WR Ryan Williams this season, the best in nation among players with at least 11 receptions. Williams has 23 receptions for 576 yards and six TDs. He has more receiving yards than any other freshman in the nation.
30 Victories and one loss for Tennessee under coach Josh Heupel when the Volunteers are ahead at halftime. The lone loss came on Oct. 21, 2023, in a 34-20 setback against Alabama, which Tennessee led 20-7 at halftime. Tennessee has outscored its opponents 149-12 in the first half this season.
42 Points have been averaged by Alabama and Tennessee this season. The Volunteers have scored 253 points and the Crimson Tide has scored 250 points in six games apiece. Alabama has exactly twice as many points as its opponents this season. Tennessee is a field goal short of having four times as many points as its opponents this season.
107 Football games between Alabama and Tennessee when they kick off on Saturday. The Crimson Tide leads the series 60-38-8 on the field. The teams have squared off annually since 1928 with the exception of the 1943 season. Alabama leads the series 13-9-1 when both teams are ranked, which is the case this season.
140 Alabama points have been the responsibility of QB Jalen Milroe, whose responsibility-average of 23.3 points per game is the second-highest in the nation this season. Milroe has 12 TD passes, 11 TD runs and one 2-point conversion pass. Miami (Fla.) QB Cameron Ward has 20 TD passes, three TD runs and two 2-point conversion passes for 142 points for a 23.7 average.
316 Games have been played by Alabama since it was most recently shut out. Alabama’s scoring streak is the third-longest in SEC history. Alabama’s most recent shutout loss came 9-0 to Auburn on Nov. 18, 2000.
699 Rushing yards for Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson this season, the most in the SEC. Sampson has averaged 5.9 yards and scored 15 TDs on 118 carries. Alabama’s rushing leader in 2024, RB Jam Miller, has 360 yards and five TDs on 51 carries.
1,350 Games for Tennessee when the Volunteers take the field against Alabama on Saturday. Tennessee has an on-the-field record of 881-415-53. Eight percent of the Vols’ games have come against Alabama, and the Crimson Tide is responsible for 14 percent of Tennessee’s losses.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
The flyers led to a dramatic showdown at a local GOP meeting, including a state lawmaker’s cry of “I am a Jew!” and a rejoinder from Austin Lee, the young man behind the flyers: “We will not fight wars for you.” Cops escorted the provocateur out.
“Let’s face it, we read about antisemitism and anti-Black or white nationalism, right?” the lawmaker, State Rep. Scott Cepicky, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We hear about this stuff, and people are like, ‘Well, you know, that’s over there, or that’s in another state, that’s not here.’ Let me tell you something. It came to Maury County.”
The mailers, which encouraged recipients to “support” Lee, also said “Stop the Great Replacement” (a reference to the antisemitic Great Replacement Theory), “Ban Islam and Hinduism” and “Men in charge.”
“Nonwhite foreigners have invaded our country and are replacing White Americans,” read the flyers, viewed by JTA and reportedly sent to around 2,000 households with young white men. “Efforts at mass deportations have failed. No one is coming to save us; we must solve this problem ourselves.”
The flyers were mailed mainly in Maury County, 50 miles south of Nashville, as well as some surrounding counties. In addition to Lee’s name and an invitation to join the Maury County Young Republicans, they contained the prominent logo of the Tennessee Young Republicans – invoking broader concerns that a younger generation of Republicans are trending toward antisemitic and white nationalist ideas.
Mailers reportedly sent out without permission
However, local Republican leaders told JTA the mailers were sent out without permission; that Lee holds no formal leadership role in the county GOP; and that the county’s Young Republicans chapter is currently inactive.
The county GOP chair strongly denounced the content of the mailers to JTA.
“It’s appalling that somebody would send this out,” Jason Gilliam told JTA about his reaction to the flyers. “This kind of thing really disgusts me. I mean, I have an Israeli flag on my bumper – not that that means anything.”
Gilliam said he first became aware of the flyers on Sunday, after households had begun receiving them. At a local GOP meeting the next day, Cepicky condemned the flyers by invoking his own Jewish ancestry.
“I’m a Jew, I’m an Ashkenazi Jew,” Cepicky told the crowd at the GOP meeting in a video taken and later posted by Lee himself. “My family left Israel, moved to Central Europe. In the 30s, you know what happened in Central Europe with Jews. My family immigrated to the United States.”
After Cepicky threatened to “pursue the law on these individuals” who distributed the mailer, Lee, who was also in attendance at the meeting, identified himself.
Cepicky accused Lee of spreading rhetoric “espoused in Europe” in the 1930s. Lee responded, “It was right then, and it is right now. We will not fight wars for you.” Lee was later escorted from the event by law enforcement. Lee has on social media cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “war for Jews.”
Cepicky told JTA he felt compelled to denounce Lee’s antisemitism in part because he was standing in front of a replica of the preamble to the US Constitution at the meeting.
“It was behind me, and it spurred me to say, ‘That doesn’t say, “We the Christians,” or, “We the Jews,” or, “We the Islamics,” or, “We the men, we the women.” It doesn’t say that,’” he said. “It says, ‘We the people.’”
Cepicky told JTA that he is a practicing Christian who discovered his Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on 23andMe. He said his family arrived sometime after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He made his first trip to Israel in 2024, to visit the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and helped found the Tennessee Israel Caucus in the state legislature shortly thereafter.
Gilliam and Cepicky both described Lee to JTA as an infrequent attendee at county GOP meetings who holds no leadership role with the party, and said the county Young Republicans chapter was inactive. They added that they would be pushing for an investigation into what they said was his unauthorized use of the county and state Young Republicans’ name on his mailers.
In social media posts and other interviews following the meeting, Lee continued to assert that he was the president of Maury County Young Republicans. He also referred to Cepicky multiple times as “Jewish Representative Scott Cepicky.”
“I took over that chapter,” Lee said in an interview on Wednesday with a local radio station, claiming he had used a “process” to reactivate the local Young Republicans group. He declined to answer questions about who funded his mailers.
In a statement to media, the statewide Tennessee Young Republicans said the use of their logo “was not authorized” and said the group “did not, and does not, authorize, endorse, or support the recent communications published by the Maury County Young Republicans.”
Young Republicans chapters across US plagued with antisemitism
As of press time, the Tennessee Young Republicans list Maury County as an active chapter on their website. Efforts by JTA to contact the group’s statewide director were unsuccessful. In recent months, official Young Republicans chapters across the country have become embroiled in antisemitism controversies.
Whether Lee has any more solid connections with local GOP officials was a matter of dispute. Gilliam claimed he had first been introduced to Lee by Aaron Miller, a local elected GOP county commissioner with whom Gilliam has since had a falling-out over unrelated matters. Asked about his relationship to Miller on the radio, Lee declined to comment.
Reached by JTA on Friday, Miller denied he had any connection to Lee beyond that “we had beers a couple of times.”
“I don’t agree with his politics. I don’t agree with his approach,” Miller told JTA. “I got a mailer and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is interesting.’”
Lee did not respond to a JTA request for comment.
Miller did say that young men, feeling unrepresented by the current Republican Party, are seeking out “alternatives to liberal democracy.” He has advocated for the county GOP to reach out more to the population, he said.
“Anything where you’re going to approach an entire group of people with a blanket mindset, I think that’s wicked,” he said. “We’re all made in God’s image.”
Gilliam and Cepicky told JTA that, in addition to the antisemitism, they strongly objected to the mailers’ anti-immigrant rhetoric and misogyny. At a time of Republican-led immigration crackdowns on the national level, and as national figures including Vice President JD Vance have downplayed the rise of antisemitism within the party, these local GOP leaders loudly insisted such forces should be stamped out.
“This kind of stuff is absolutely not going to be allowed. I will not stand for it,” Gilliam said. “If you don’t cut the head off the snake, it’s going to come back, right? It’s not going to stop. It’s only going to fester. It’s going to grow. And this kind of thing, the roots need to be yanked out of the ground.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — FOX 17 News issued a Code Red alert for heavy rain and storms on Saturday.
Rain is expected to start Saturday morning across the area. The heaviest rain will fall along and north of I-40, where flash flooding could happen.
A flood watch is in effect through Sunday morning for areas north of I-40. Those areas could see between 2 to 3 inches of rain, with some spots getting even more.
Most of Middle Tennessee is under a small risk for severe storms Saturday afternoon into the evening. Damaging wind will be the main threat, and there’s a very low chance for tornadoes.
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The storms will clear out by Saturday evening. After that, attention turns to a heat wave building in next week.
Heat dome vs heat wave: What’s the difference and why it matters
Heat wave or heat dome? Here’s the difference — and why some extreme heat lasts longer and feels more dangerous.
A “significant” heat wave is on the way.
According to the latest forecast from the Weather Prediction Center, dangerous heat is expected across much of the country, including Tennessee, beginning June 28, and lasting into next week.
The National Weather Service is anticipating temperatures in the 90s to low 100s.
“These hot temperatures combined with high humidity will lead to heat indices of 100-110 degrees and locally as high as 115,” wrote the weather service in a June 25 statement. “Low temperatures only dropping into the 70s will provide little overnight relief.”
Here’s what to know.
What is a heat dome?
Heat domes, also called ridges of high pressure or death ridges, are large bulges of sinking warm air that can stretch up to 1,000 miles in summer, driving temperatures 30 degrees above normal and creating hazardous, drying conditions that often lead to deadly, multi‑day heat waves, Weather.com said.
According to climatecheck.com, the term describes the “oppressive” high-pressure atmospheric systems that cause warm air to be pushed to the Earth’s surface and trapped there for long periods of time.
“The dome traps high-pressure air in one place, like the lid on a pot,” the website said. “These large zones of hot air result in a combination of blistering temperatures, devastating wildfires, and drought conditions.”
How long will the heat dome last?
The period of extreme heat is expected to stretch through Independence Day weekend, lasting until July 6.
High to moderate extreme heat risk is expected across much of the central and eastern U.S. from July 3–4, with a broader slight risk extending through July 6. Heat indices of 100–110 degrees and warm nights in the 70s and 80s may limit relief over the holiday weekend, the weather service reported.
How hot will it get?
NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center said hot weather will be the story this coming weekend from the Plains to the Ohio Valley, with widespread above-average temperatures expected thanks to a strong upper-level ridge of high pressure (aka heat dome) developing.
Highs in the 90s are expected as far north as the Great Lakes and Minnesota, and 100s for much of Texas, USA TODAY reported.
Heat indices approaching 110 degrees are possible from the mid-South to the central Gulf Coast where the combination of heat and high dew points will be greatest.
Overnight lows will also be quite warm, with some record high minimums possible.
For much of next week, the core of the heat dome is likely to be centered on the Ohio Valley, the middle portion of the Mississippi Valley and the Tennessee Valley, according to AccuWeather. At times, the heat will expand outward and reach parts of the Plains, the Great Lakes, the East and the Gulf Coast.
How will the heat dome impact Tennessee?
According to the National Weather Service Nashville office, “oppressive” heat and humidity will bring triple digit heat indices from Sunday onward.
“Look for our rain chances to abate from Sunday onward, just as the first bonafide heat wave of the season settles in for the long haul,” wrote the weather service in its morning discussion June 26.
“While rain chances next week will be nearly non-existent, temperatures across the bulk of the mid state west of the Cumberland Plateau will top out in the mid to upper 90s every day at least through Friday.”
This will result in heat indices reaching the 100s across most areas, with heat advisory criteria likely to be met on multiple days, added the service.
All of Tennessee is expected to receive major heat, while portions of Middle Tennessee and all of West Tennessee will face extreme heat.
According to the weather service, major heat can affect anyone without proper cooling and hydration, as well as strain health systems and industries, while extreme heat involves rare and or prolonged high temperatures with little to no overnight relief, impacting anyone without adequate cooling or hydration.
How to stay safe during periods of high, dangerous heat
Extreme heat can lead to heat-related illnesses and even death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heat-related illness occurs when the body is unable to properly cool itself. Older adults, young children and people with chronic medical conditions are at especially high risk.
The CDC reports that more than 700 people die from extreme heat each year in the United States.
The CDC recommends the following during periods of extreme heat:
- Stay in an air-conditioned indoor location as much as you can.
- Drink plenty of fluids even if you don’t feel thirsty.
- Schedule outdoor activities carefully and pace yourself. Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing and sunscreen.
- Take cool showers or baths to cool down.
- Check on a friend or neighbor and have someone do the same for you.
- Never leave children or pets in cars.
- Check the local news for health and safety updates.
Contributing: USA TODAY
Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com.
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