A close win by rising Democrat Shaundelle Brooks and the survival of Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles — despite an organized effort from inside his own party — headlined an otherwise sleepy Aug. 1 primary election in Davidson County. Abysmal voter turnout and unopposed races helped familiar faces cruise past the first hurdle of election season.
Single mother known for fierce gun control efforts wins battle for the Democratic Party in suburban Davidson County; plus more state and federal primary updates
Brooks, a single mother who turned to gun control advocacy after her son was killed in a 2018 mass shooting at an Antioch Waffle House, eked past fellow political rookie Tyler Brasher by 365 votes in the Democratic primary for Tennessee House District 60. Darren Jernigan has held the seat since 2012, when he upset Republican Jim Gotto by just 95 votes, but declined re-election, taking a job last year with Mayor Freddie O’Connell as a city liaison to the state legislature. The district includes Donelson, Hermitage and Old Hickory, purple suburbs between Nashville and Mt. Juliet that resemble battlegrounds eyed by Democrats across the state.
Republican Ogles, a far-right provocateur loaded with scandals who regularly takes aim at his own party, fought off a formidable challenge from Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston for his seat in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. Johnston’s campaign had just a few months of runway, but she earned the financial and political support of several prominent Tennessee Republicans who soured on Ogles’ trail of financial and ethical breaches. Johnston cleaned up in Davidson County but lost ground in the district’s counties outside Nashville. Ogles faces Democrat Maryam Abolfazli in the general election.
Despite money and establishment connections, Republicans fail to depose far-right incumbent in District 5
Gloria Johnson won Democrats’ primary contest and will officially take on incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in the Nov. 5 general election. Blackburn has kept her name in the public view with a new ad targeting trans athletes. While national Senate fundraising efforts are focused elsewhere, Johnson has put up big numbers herself — more than $5 million pre-primary with $2 million left to spend. Even so, Blackburn has nearly doubled her in fundraising and has the advantage of a national profile as a conservative pugilist built during her first term in the Senate. The seat will be an expensive uphill battle for Democrats but the first chance in several years to run a real statewide campaign.
Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry will remain on the campaign trail for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Barry faces U.S. Rep. Mark Green — a high-ranking Republican once considered for a position in former President Donald Trump’s cabinet — in November, another outside shot against a GOP incumbent. The district offsets a chunk of Nashville with a big swath of rural Tennessee that runs from the Alabama line to the Kentucky border near Clarksville.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose faces Democrat Lore Bergman, a political newcomer, in the general election for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, which includes parts of Davidson County. Bergman eked past Clay Faircloth and Cyril Focht in the Democratic primary.
The Knoxville representative will take on Marsha Blackburn in November’s general election
With the exception of District 60, Davidson County’s Democratic delegation in the state House will likely stay intact. Nashville Reps. Aftyn Behn (House District 51), Justin Jones (House District 52), Harold Love Jr. (House District 58), Bo Mitchell (House District 50), Jason Powell (House District 53), Vincent Dixie (House District 54), John Ray Clemmons (House District 55) and Caleb Hemmer (House District 59) move on to November after unopposed primary races. Rep. Bob Freeman cruised past minimal opposition in House District 56, which he has represented since 2018.
State Sen. Heidi Campbell will also defend her seat in November after running an uncontested primary. She will face Republican Wyatt Rampy, a real estate agent, in the general election for Senate District 20.
Across the state, Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal has become a central campaign issue this election cycle. In Kingsport, Trump-backed candidate Bobby Harshbarger, son of U.S. Rep. Diane Harshbarger, upset incumbent state Sen. Jon Lundberg, the governor’s key sponsor for voucher legislation in the state Senate. That race, for Senate District 4 in East Tennessee, drew Lee back to the campaign trail and earned him a shot from Trump, who called Lee a “RINO” (Republican in name only) in a victory-lap social media post on election night.
Last week, Trump called Lee a 'Republican in name only' — despite the governor's long list of terrible conservative bona fides
Outside Knoxville, pro-voucher ad spending helped Tom Hatcher seal his primary in an open state Senate race. The same group helped defeat Sen. Frank Niceley, a prominent Republican state senator in northeast Tennessee who has a track record of opposing voucher legislation. Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky survived his House primary challenge by just 656 votes.
Incumbent state Sen. Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican, easily beat back a challenge from Chris Spencer, a local conservative who has been at the center of Sumner County’s fracturing Republican Party. In Williamson County, first-time candidate Lee Reeves secured the Republican nomination for outgoing Rep. Sam Whitson’s House District 65 seat. Reeves beat Williamson County Commission Chair Brian Beathard — who had Whitson’s endorsement — and Michelle Foreman, who previously lost races for Nashville’s Metro Council in 2019 and state House District 59 in 2022.
Primary voters are a special breed. Voter numbers can double, triple, even quintuple a few months later during a November presidential election, whose candidates have already started flooding ad space online and on TV. Johnson’s outside shot at Blackburn may shape up to be Tennessee’s biggest race — the money is certainly there — while Democrats eye new ground in Clarksville and Murfreesboro in an attempt to shift the GOP’s stranglehold on state power.
Correction: A previous version of this story called Rep. Scott Cepicky "an anti-voucher voice." While Cepicky did criticize Gov. Bill Lee's voucher plan as "terrible," he sponsored the House's voucher legislation in the most recent session.
