FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Where do Gabrielle Hanson, the controversial candidate for Franklin mayor, and her husband really live?
A NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that you may get a different answer depending upon where you ask the question.
The story that Hanson tells about how she ended up moving from Chicago to Franklin is a story of how, she claims, God personally spoke to her in a time of financial crisis.
"And God said, 'You’re moving to Franklin, Tennessee,'" Hanson says in a video on her campaign website.
"And I said, 'What? Franklin, Tennessee? I’ve never even been to Franklin Tennessee. I don’t know anybody, and I don’t have any money either.'"
Still, that's what Hanson says led her and husband to settle down in Williamson County.
It's a story that she repeats as she campaigns for mayor.
On a recently posted video from the Mill Creek View podcast, the host noted that "her husband Tom is in commercial real estate, and they reside in Westhaven."
Hanson did not correct him. In fact, when Gabrielle Hanson was sworn in as Franklin alderman in 2021, Tommy Hanson was there at her side.
But back in Illinois a few months later, Tommy Hanson - then a congressional candidate - had a different story.
"I live 35 miles from here in the southern tip of Illinois' 5th congressional district, River North off of Michigan Avenue," he said in a video obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Maggie McGonigal, who lost the Republican nomination to Tommy Hanson, noted that Gabrielle Hanson was "sitting right at a table right next to him recording him."
This is what @TommyHansonCong and @HansonforMayor were telling voters last year in Illinois - after she had been elected a Franklin alderman pic.twitter.com/mZ61X0opgc
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) September 15, 2023
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked: "And she's not standing up saying, no, no, you don't live here? She's playing along?
"She's playing along," McGonigal echoed.
In that campaign, Tommy Hanson pledged "to bring red-state politics to Illinois — the states you have dreamed of living in, like Florida, Texas and Tennessee."
It was his third straight campaign to represent parts of Chicago in Congress since Gabrielle Hanson had claimed they moved to Tennessee.
At one Chicago-area event, McGonigal says the couple was spotted in a car with "Historic Franklin" plates.
"When you register your car, that's your primary residency," McGonigal said.
We followed up: "And so he was showing up at campaign events in Chicago in a car with Franklin plates?"
"And with his wife — Gabrielle," McGonigal added.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed the paper trail, investigating how the Hansons went from being in deep financial straits to claiming a home in an affluent community in Franklin and a condo in downtown Chicago.
And the paper trail tells its own interesting story.
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In June 2015, records show Gabrielle Hanson took her name off their Chicago condo, quitclaiming (or transferring) her interest to him.
A year later in 2016, Tommy Hanson filed for personal bankruptcy. Her name was not listed in the petition.
Then 11 days later, Gabrielle Hanson bought the Franklin townhome that they would call home in her own name for $369,000 — most of it was mortgaged.
Voting records show she has voted in Williamson County since 2012. He has continued to vote in Chicago.
But McGonigal said she hired private investigators who concluded that the evidence was overwhelming that Tommy Hanson lives in Franklin.
"They definitely have some agenda behind them, but what is it?" McGonigal suggested.
Now, Gabrielle Hanson is running for Franklin mayor, with images of her husband at her side, while Tommy Hanson has recently been spotted in Chicago, wearing a Hanson for Congress pin on his lapel. McGonigal said he's collecting signatures to run again.
NewsChannel 5 noted, "From an election law perspective you can't live in two different states."
"No, you can't," McGonigal said. "I don't understand how he got away with it three times already and now a fourth time."
Whatever the explanation, Gabrielle Hanson says she's doing exactly what she think God wants her to do.
"He brought me to Franklin, Tennessee, and I'm not leaving until he tells me where else to go," she said in the campaign video.
Gabrielle Hanson has refused to answer NewsChannel 5's questions.
Still, we reached out to both husband and wife before the story aired.
Neither responded.
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