Next month, millions of Americans will head to the polls for the first major election since the divisive 2016 presidential election. Historically, midterm election turnout has always been significantly lower than general election turnout. In 2014, midterm voter turnout was the lowest it had been since World War II, with only 36.4 percent of eligible voters heading to the polls. In contrast, the 2008 election boasted the highest voter turnout since 1968, at 61.6 percent.
When voters enter the polling booth on Nov. 6, they will find a variety of public offices on their ballot. This year, Tennesseans will elect a new governor and senator, and fill 33 vacancies at the state legislature. Our state has not seen this many state office vacancies since the Reconstruction era.
Since the 2016 presidential election results were tallied, Democrats have been promising a “Blue Wave” in 2018. In today’s political climate, next month’s election will act as an unofficial referendum on the two major parties and the direction of the country. Previously, Tennessee had been considered a “safely red” state; Tennessee’s state government has been a Republican supermajority since 2012.
To confirm your voter registration status, locate your polling place, or view a sample ballot, visit the Secretary of State’s election information website at govotetn.com or download the GoVoteTN app.
___
U.S. Senate
In the race for Tennessee’s first Senate vacancy since 2007, former Governor Phil Bredesen (D-Nashville) and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood) have been neck and neck in the polls for the duration of their campaigns. In August, Bloomberg identified Tennessee as one of their eight top Senate races to watch. As it currently stands, the Republican Party holds a 51-member majority in the 100-member upper chamber. If Republicans lose one or more seats during the midterm elections, their strength in the Senate will be diminished. On Sept. 24, President Trump announced that he will return to Tennessee for the second time in four months to stump for Rep. Blackburn’s bid for the U.S. Senate.
Last month, Rep. Blackburn and Bredesen held the first debate in their battle for the vacant Senate seat. In the opening question, both candidates were asked to discuss what they viewed as the most pressing issue for Tennesseans today and their plans to address it. Rep. Blackburn stated that in her experience, Tennesseans are most concerned about maintaining the state’s economy and their favorability for tax cuts. For former Gov. Bredesen, Tennesseans’ concern about the dysfunctionality in Washington D.C. is the most pressing issue in the state today.
“So many issues that affect Tennesseans . . . are stalled in many ways because of the lack of ability of Washington to engage with issues,” Bredesen said. “It’s become hyperpartisan. It’s become almost impossible to actually get things done and move forward.”
Rep. Blackburn did not skip any opportunities to take jabs or attacks against her opponent. While discussing tax cuts in her opening question, Rep. Blackburn remarked that Bredesen had stated he would not have voted for the tax cuts, calling them “crumbs.” Much of Rep. Blackburn’s strategy for the evening seemed to be identifying her opponent as a placeholder for Sen. Chuck Schumer. Overall, Rep. Blackburn compared Bredesen to the Senate Minority Leader three times in the opening question and 11 times overall.
Despite the flurry of attacks from his opponent, Bredesen stuck to his message and the theme of his entire campaign; Congress has become dysfunctional through partisan politics and Tennessee needs representation that is not afraid to work with both parties. During the 15-question debate, Rep. Blackburn maintained her key priorities in between political jabs: maintaining and developing the economy, reducing tariffs and increasing broadband access to rural areas.
Blackburn first ran for Congress in 1992, but lost to incumbent Congressman Bart Gordon. In 1998, Blackburn joined the Tennessee Senate, representing District 23 of Williamson County. In 2002, Rep. Blackburn ran against Democrat Tim Barron for the 7th Congressional District and won with 70.7 percent of the vote. She has held the seat for 15 years and currently serves as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Communications and the Internet.
Bredesen first entered politics in 1987, when he was a candidate for the mayor of Nashville. Although Bredesen lost in 1987, coming in second out of ten candidates, he ran again in 1991 and won. As mayor of Nashville, Bredesen brought the Nashville Predators and the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans to the state’s capital. He is the last Tennessee Democrat to win in a statewide election. During his 2006 gubernatorial reelection campaign, Bredesen won all of Tennessee’s 95 counties with 90 percent of the vote. The 2018 Senate race will be Bredesen’s first competitive election since his first campaign for governor in 2002.
___
Tennessee Governor
The race to the governor’s mansion began January 2017, when state Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) was the first to announce his candidacy for the soon-to-be-vacant executive office. During his campaign, Sen. Green was tapped by the president to serve as Secretary of the Army, but later withdrew his name and declined to resume his gubernatorial race. Former Nashville mayor Karl Dean (D-Nashville, pictured left) was second to announce his candidacy for the office and has been fundraising and campaigning since January 2017. By the April filing deadline, 10 candidates from across the state had announced their run for the seat.
During the August primary races, voters selected Dean and business owner Bill Lee (R-Franklin) for the candidates for office of governor. Dean defeated his primary opponent, Tennessee House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) with 75.2 percent of the total 373,390 votes. Lee secured his party’s nomination amongst five opponents with 36.8 percent of 792,888 total votes.
Both Lee and Dean were attacked by their opponents with negative campaigning during the primary races. Dean’s opponent, Rep. Fitzhugh, attempted to weaponize Dean’s response to the Nashville Flood of 2010. Fitzhugh alleged that Dean had misappropriated federal funds for flood recovery by spending the earmarked funds on the construction of the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville. The Dean campaign asserted that Dean’s administration directed their own funds towards assisting homeowners affected by the flood before the federal government provided any assistance. His campaign noted that the former mayor’s actions actually jump-started the recovery process in Nashville. After three years, Dean’s administration, the Metro Council, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the reappropriation of funds directed towards the riverfront development project.
On the right side of the aisle, Congresswoman Diane Black campaigned against Lee during the final weeks before the primary race by drawing attention to Lee’s political donations to former Nashville mayor Meghan Barry. Randy Boyd, the former Tennessee Economic and Development Commissioner, also attacked Lee as he rose in the polls, citing his affiliation with an organization that supported permanent residence for undocumented workers. Despite the attacks from his opponents, Lee chose to not launch attack ads of his own. Once Lee came out against attack ads and negative campaigning, his rank in the polls rose from third place to first place.
Dean believes that the biggest mistake of the state legislature in recent years was failing to vote to expand Medicaid in 2015 with Gov. Haslam’s InsureTN proposal. He also considers increasing teacher pay, ensuring all school districts receive resources they desperately need, creating a thriving business environment in Tennessee and increasing access to health care in rural areas of the state as key priorities as governor.
If elected governor, Lee says his priorities would be to reduce the tax burden and restrictions on businesses to promote economic growth, increase school choice and transparency and stand with law enforcement to keep Tennessee’s communities safe.
Before joining the 2018 gubernatorial race, Karl Dean was best known for his two terms as mayor of Nashville. He was elected in 2007 and held office through 2015. During former Mayor Bill Purcell’s terms, Dean served as Nashville’s Director of Law. From 1990 to 2002, he served as the public defender for the city.
A political newcomer, Bill Lee stepped into the gubernatorial race in April 2017. After attending Auburn University to study mechanical engineering, Lee returned to Williamson County to join Lee Company, a home services and construction company his grandfather founded in 1944. Lee purchased the company from his father in 1992 and became its president. In addition to his role at Lee Company, Lee maintains involvement in his family’s fourth-generation cattle farm and served as the 7th Congressional District representative for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
Tennessee’s next governor will succeed Governor Bill Haslam, who is bound by term limits. Gov. Haslam was first elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. During his tenure as governor, Gov. Haslam pursued education reform, juvenile justice reform and combating opioid abuse in Tennessee as some of his administration’s top priorities. Perhaps most notably, Gov. Haslam led Tennessee towards a 55 percent college degree or certificate completion rate by 2025 with his Drive to 55 program. Components of the program included Tennessee Promise, Tennessee Achieves and Tennessee Reconnect. Tennessee Promise was the first program in the country to offer two free years of continued education, through either technical education or community college.
Gov. Haslam’s administration has also experienced its fair share of misfires. In February 2015, Gov. Haslam convened an extraordinary session, a specially called assembly of the state legislature to consider a Medicaid expansion bill that would have provided health care to the 250,000 most impoverished Tennesseans. The bill expansion would have launched a two-year pilot program initially funded by federal dollars, but over time the state would have covered the cost. Senators and Representatives considered the measure but ultimately rejected the proposal in committee. Since then, Representative Steve McDaniel (R-Parker’s Crossroads) noted that had the legislature passed Insure Tennessee, eight rural hospitals including Decatur General Hospital in Rep. McDaniel’s district, would not have been forced to close their doors.
___
U.S. Congress
Tennessee is divided into nine Congressional districts, each drawn based on population sizes. Rutherford County belongs to Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District, which spans across 16 counties in Middle and East Tennessee. From Maury County to Bradley County, over 700,000 citizens are represented in this district. For the last seven years, the Fourth District has been represented in Congress by Representative Scott Desjarlais (R-South Pittsburg).
Congressman Desjarlais has spent much of his tenure in Washington. Campaigning as a firm family-first candidate, Congressman Desjarlais is known as the pro-life Congressman that supported his first wife’s two abortions, had extramarital affairs with two of his patients and told one of those patients to seek an abortion. The Congressman cites border security and immigration enforcement, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and preserving the coal and nuclear energy industries as some of his top policy issues.
Rutherford County teacher and graduate of the Emerge Tennessee program, Mariah Phillips, is the Democratic challenger for the Fourth Congressional District race this year. A first-time candidate for public office, Phillps is campaigning on the platform of environmental conservation, improving funding for K-12 education and expanding rural broadband access. She is endorsed by Congressman Jim Cooper, Former Congressman Bob Clement, AFL-CIO, the People’s House Project and author Rachel Held Evans.
___
State Legislative Offices
Voters in Rutherford County will also see a state House of Representatives and a state Senate selection on their ballots. The “Heart of Tennessee” is divided into four state House districts and two state Senate districts. Senate District 14 has been filled by a special election, held in March, after former state Senator Jim Tracy left his legislative office to serve as state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office.
State House District 34
Republican: Tim Rudd (Incumbent)
Democrat: Jennifer Vannoy
State House District 37
Republican: Charlie Baum
Democrat: Deanna Debow Osborne
State House District 48
Republican: Dr. Bryan Terry (Incumbent)
Democrat: Matt Ferry
State House District 49
Republican: Mike Sparks (Incumbent)
Democrat: Chris Mayor
State Senate District 13
Republican: Dawn White
Democrat: Kelly Northcutt
Independent: Ginger Smith
