Tennessee State Election Update

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During a wild and unpredictable election year, for some it was easy to forget the other candidates on the ballot. Nevertheless, the entire Tennessee House of Representatives and half of the Tennessee Senate was also up for election last week. The Tennessee General Assembly will see most of the same legislators return in January with essentially the same number of Republicans and Democrats. There will still be some new faces on Capitol Hill, along with some new folks in leadership.

Tennessee’s Federal Elections

Donald Trump easily carried Tennessee as expected, taking 61% of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 35%. Neither of Tennessee’s Senate seats were on the ballot. Of Tennessee’s nine congressional seats, eight were reelected easily. The ninth saw Republican David Kustoff win the West Tennessee seat vacated by the retiring Stephen Fincher. Every winner cruised to victory by double digit margins, with lowest performing one carrying 62% of the vote.

State Senate

Every incumbent won reelection to their Senate seat, including Republicans Todd Gardenhire and Steve Dickerson. They were considered the most vulnerable senators this year, but both still ended up winning by double digits margins. One new edition to the Senate will be Republican Jon Lundberg, who won the senate seat vacated by retiring Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey. Lundberg gave up his state house seat to run for the senate seat, and he didn’t have a general election opponent after beating three other candidates in the August primary. With Lt. Gov. Ramsey’s retirement, the presumptive new lieutenant governor is speculated to be Sen. Randy McNally, the current chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

State House of Representatives

The Tennessee House will have eleven new representatives when it reconvenes in January. Republicans added one seat to their super majority after defeating one Democratic incumbent, winning one seat vacated by a retiring Democrat, but then seeing one Republican incumbent unexpectedly lose his seat. The Republican super majority now sits at 74 with Democrats having 25 seats. House Republicans expect to see a shake-up in their leadership. Speaker Beth Harwell will be challenged by Rep. Jimmy Matlock for the speakership. Rep. Gerald McCormick announced several weeks ago he would not seek reelection to majority leader. Rep. Shelia Butt and Rep. Mike Carter have publicly announced their intention to run for the post, with current caucus chairman Glen Casada and Rep. Cameron Sexton also rumored to be vying for the position. Rep. Kevin Brooks has publicly announced his intention to seek the caucus chairmanship after previously serving as assistant majority leader.

New state representatives:

District 1 – John Crawford (R) (vacated by Jon Lundberg to run for state senate)

District 9 – Gary Hicks (R) (won election after being appointed to the seat when Rep. Mike Harrison resigned)

District 15 – Rick Staples (D) (vacated by Rep. Joe Armstrong who resigned)

District 34 – Tim Rudd (R) (vacated by Rep. Rick Womick who did not seek reelection)

District 43 – Paul Sherrell (R) (defeated incumbent Rep. Kevin Dunlap)

District 65 – Sam Whitson (R) (defeated Rep. Jeremy Durham in the primary who was expelled from the House this fall)

District 69 – Michael Curcio (R) (vacated by Rep. David Shepard who did not seek reelection)

District 92 – Thomas Tillis (R) (vacated by Rep. Bill Spivey who did not seek reelection)

District 94 – Ron Gant (R) (vacated by Rep. Jamie Jenkins who did not seek reelection. Rep. Jenkins was appointed after Rep. Leigh Wilburn resigned one year into her term)

District 95 – Mark Lovell (R) (defeated Rep. Curry Todd in the primary)

District 96 – Dwayne Thompson (D) (defeated Rep. Steve McManus in the general election)

For complete results on last week’s elections in Tennessee, visit the election results page of the Tennessee Secretary of State's website.

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