Tennessee Democrats Pick Up Six State Legislative Seats

Yes, the so-called “blue wave” made it to Tennessee.

During Tuesday’s midterm elections, a surge of support for Democrats flipped the U.S. House and Senate along with a litany of governorships and legislative races nationwide.

While other traditionally red states saw more movement, Tennessee netted the same number of Republican congressional seats, a Republican candidate for governor barely squeaked by, and the Republicans maintained a supermajority in the state legislature.

But Democrats in Tennessee flipped six state house races and pulled off a few other upsets, giving the party its first major wins in well over a decade.

“You’ve seen Democrats win nationwide since 2008, but you didn’t see that in Tennessee. This election was obviously different,” Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), chairman of the state’s House Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday morning. “

Tennessee Democrats have not converted multiple legislative seats since 1996 and have had to scrap to even maintain their superminority since partisan control flipped in 2012. Now, they will be down 69-30 instead of 75-24. 

The 30-year rut was largely broken by growing suburbs where the party has sworn it would find success with changing populations but had come up short for multiple legislative cycles. 

On Tuesday, those areas in Montgomery County, Rutherford County, Shelby County and Knox County finally delivered, unseating six Republican lawmakers:

• Brett Windrow beat Rep. Robert Stevens (R-Smyrna) 51.44 percent to 48.56 in District 13.
• Bryan Goldberg beat Rep. Elaine Davis (R-Knoxville) 55.04 percent to 44.95 in District 18.
• Owen Farnsworth beat Rep. Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) 51.96 percent to 48.04 in District 34. 
• Connie Casha beat Rep. Mike Sparks (R-Smyrna) 55.07 percent to 44.93 in District 49. 
• Allie Philips beat Rep. Michael Lankford (R-Clarksville), who served for less than a year after being appointed to replace the late Rep. Jeff Burkhart, 55.01 percent to 44.99 in District 75. 
• Jesse Huseth beat Rep. John Gillespie (R-Memphis) 56.95 percent to 43.05 in District 97.

Rutherford County provided proof of concept for this long-awaited suburban surge by flipping three state-level seats and, in the biggest upset of the night, narrowly flipping the 4th Congressional District, with two-time challenger Victoria Broderick unseating embattled longtime Congressman Scott DesJarlais.

While Clemmons joked that anyone who said they saw Broderick’s win coming is “fibbing,” Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Rachel Campbell said she wasn’t surprised to see any of the party’s victories because they had been a long time coming. 

“I knew that there was movement happening all across the state. I knew that you know if we won anything, it wouldn’t be an accident,” Campbell said, noting that the party also won 33 local elections in August. 

Several other state house and senate races, plus the governor’s race narrowly won by Republican Marsha Blackburn, came close enough that Democrats believe they can be flipped in upcoming election cycles. 

Clemmons and Campbell said planning and recruitment for 2028 will start immediately in order to capitalize on the momentum from this election. 

But there could be more tangible immediate impacts when the new legislative session starts in January now that Democrats have more butts in seats, even though they don’t have enough to crack the majority. 

Most notably, the increase will make it harder for Republicans to shut out Democrats by letting bills die for lack of a second, which is sometimes used to prevent the minority party from even having formal public discussion on some policies. 

“Now we have six more seats. That’s six more members of committees that have to be spread around,” Clemmons said. “So there shouldn’t be any subcommittees or committees without at least two Democrats. So we have a motion and a second.”

Clemmons also noted that the caucus now needs fewer Republicans to try to kill unpopular legislation by blocking a quorum. 

“If [Governor-elect Marsha Blackburn] tries to bring some crazy radical legislation or tries to expand vouchers, we just need to find four Republican friends to help us kill the quorum, and that’s a much easier task than finding 10,” Clemmons said.

Asked if he thought the momentum would encourage Republican lawmakers to work across the aisle or move toward the center, Clemmons hedged. 

“I’ve given up on predicting what they will do or how they will react to any given situation; it’s not always rational,” Clemmons said, noting that he would be happy to work with “smart” Republicans who choose to be collaborative on issues like infrastructure and affordability.

On the other hand, Republican lawmakers have already hinted at redistricting state legislative districts in 2027, which could be used to attack Democratic seats or at least defend Republicans who are potentially vulnerable in 2028, making it harder for the Democrats to pierce the supermajority. 

While both Clemmons and Campbell attributed much of the party’s success to ground game — door knocking, phone banking, etc. — both also bemoaned a lack of investment in Tennessee Democrats.

Clemmons said that Tennessee Democratic donors need to focus their races on the state now that there’s momentum, and he hopes that national Democratic organizations will take Tennessee seriously and invest as they did in Texas, Georgia and other states that actually managed to flip control. 

“They’re getting $50 million budgets, right? I mean, Tennessee last night flipped six state house seats. I’ve broke records by raising over just over $1 million the last two cycles. So we’re doing a lot with less,” Clemmons said, later adding “We flipped six seats last night with a million dollars. Give me $50 million and just watch what we can do.”

Campbell said she would similarly focus her efforts on selling the party’s success this year to secure funding for future elections.

“I will be making the case for more funding, for more resources, for more programming, for more support from anyone who will give it to me,” Campbell said. “And if they won’t give it to us, we’re going to win anyway.” 

Campbell doubled down on that, saying she believes the party will win four more seats in 2028, breaking the supermajority ahead of the previous goal of 2030, noting similar suburban areas like her native Hamilton County, which could follow trends in Rutherford and Montgomery. 

“It will be 2028. We will win in 2028,” Campbell insisted.

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