Tennessee Voted. Here Are the Races That Matter Next.

The Aug. 6 election chose nominees for governor, Congress and the General Assembly while settling local races from Knoxville to Memphis

The Aug. 6 election chose nominees for governor, Congress and the General Assembly while settling local races from Knoxville to Memphis

By The Redemption Project Newsroom
Elections Desk

Tennessee’s Aug. 6 election did not produce one political story.

It produced several.

Marsha Blackburn won the Republican nomination for governor. Jerri Green won for Democrats. Bill Hagerty and Marquita Bradshaw will meet again in a U.S. Senate race. A sitting congressman lost his primary. Memphis voters entered a newly redrawn congressional landscape. Legislative candidates advanced toward November, while county and school-board elections actually put people into local office.

The easiest way to understand Thursday is to separate what ended from what began.

For governor, U.S. Senate, Congress and the Tennessee General Assembly, Thursday selected party nominees. The general election is Nov. 3.

For many county and school-board races, Thursday was the final election.

Those are very different consequences.

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Blackburn won. Now she has to unify Republicans.

Blackburn defeated U.S. Rep. John Rose and state Rep. Monty Fritts for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Green emerged from a five-candidate Democratic field. Thirteen independent candidates have also qualified for November.

Blackburn enters the general election as the favorite in a state Republicans have dominated statewide for years.

But her primary produced another question.

Rose and Fritts together represented a substantial bloc of Republican voters who deliberately chose someone other than Blackburn. November will test whether those voters simply return to the Republican nominee, stay home or consider Green or one of the independent candidates.

Winning the primary gave Blackburn the nomination.

Building the November coalition is the next job.

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Hagerty and Bradshaw get a rematch

Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty advanced without primary opposition and will face Democratic nominee Marquita Bradshaw in November. The matchup repeats their 2020 contest, when Hagerty won decisively. Republicans have won every Tennessee U.S. Senate election since 1994.

That makes Bradshaw’s challenge less about winning the Democratic argument and more about changing Tennessee’s statewide political math.