All of a sudden, election season has arrived.
Both major parties have chosen their candidates for the November ballot, notching a few surprises in the process and clearing senior U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s path to the governor’s mansion. Tennessee will send at least two rookies to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2027 after Republican voters tossed out scandal-ridden right-winger Andy Ogles in the 5th Congressional District and John Rose decided to run for governor rather than seek another term in the 6th. Democrats turned out in Davidson County at the highest level since 2020 — a trend that Democratic underdog Darden Copeland will need to capitalize on in order to upset vulnerable incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, who won the 7th Congressional District seat in December’s special election. Republican state lawmakers’ choice to redraw many districts in May, just two months before early voting began, cracked Memphis’ majority-Black, heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District seat, while creating new races across West and Middle Tennessee — each with their own voter calculus and campaign paths.
Marsha Blackburn's election night event at the Knoxville Convention Center
Republicans’ next few months will be an expensive game of musical chairs. State Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) likely won his spot in Washington, D.C., besting Van Hilleary in the Aug. 6 Republican primary for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, vacated by longtime U.S. Rep. John Rose. Garrett celebrated at Sammy B’s in Lebanon surrounded by family and friends — and hangers-on hoping for face time with Middle Tennessee’s next member of Congress. (One conspicuous absence was Garrett’s campaign treasurer, House Majority Leader William Lamberth.) Garrett, a pugnacious partisan who helped architect Republicans’ expulsion of the “Tennessee Three” in 2023, slammed Democrats in his pre-written victory speech.
“ I’m going to D.C. to help President Trump crush the Democrat socialists,” Garrett told the cheering dining room. “I wanna thank President Trump for changing the direction of this country, and reminding Americans that the government serves you. It’s certainly not the other way around.”
Garrett’s platform praised Trump, who is constitutionally term-limited from the presidency through 2028, and slung arrows at trans athletes and Democrats’ left-most candidates. Garrett even fashioned his own “MAKE AMERICA TENNESSEE” campaign cap in Vols-orange block letters, à la Trump’s red MAGA hat, the spoils of the $1.2 million in personal funds Garrett loaned to the campaign. Projections now show Democrats retaking the House in November, likely landing Garrett in the future minority party.
“ There’s a lot of evidence that the Democrats hate America,” Garrett continued on election night, riling supporters. “ One thing I’ve learned by being in the General Assembly for the past eight years is that America doesn’t need folks to run this country that hate America. If you hate America, you should absolutely leave it, period.”
Amid a crowded field, Mike Croley — a U.S. Navy veteran, Vanderbilt graduate and nonprofit founder — captured the 6th District’s Democratic primary nomination. Croley supports the legalization of recreational marijuana use, affordable healthcare and raising the federal minimum wage to $20 per hour, waging an uphill battle with the campaign slogan, “Better choices, brighter future.”
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, seeking his ninth term in Congress, breezed through Thursday’s primary to earn the Republican nomination in the 4th Congressional District. DesJarlais has survived several personal scandals and three rounds of redistricting since voters first sent him to D.C. during 2010’s populist Tea Party backlash against President Barack Obama and corporate-friendly GOP politics. The district’s new boundaries stretch southeast from Antioch to the Chattanooga outskirts, capturing Murfreesboro, Manchester, Sewanee and McMinnville. Victoria Broderick overcame a crowded field including District 4 Metro Councilmember Mike Cortese to secure the Democratic nomination in the 4th. The tech professional was inspired to run in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, unleashing a wave of harsh anti-abortion restrictions in Tennessee and other red states.
Rose — observing a self-imposed eight-year limit in Congress, which he says he modeled after George Washington — spent $5 million in his bid for governor only to lose to Blackburn by about 10 percentage points. Christian nationalist state Rep. Monty Fritts of Kingston came in third place with 23 percent of the vote. Blackburn faces nominal opposition in Memphis City Councilmember Jerri Green, Democrats’ pick, and will likely choose her own Senate successor from the state’s GOP bench to fill out the rest of her term. Term-limited Gov. Bill Lee swooped into Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District just days before the primary to endorse his former Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Hatcher. Hatcher knocked off Ogles by about 4,500 votes in the redrawn district that favors rural voters.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder won the Democratic primary in the 5th Congressional District and will face Hatcher in November. Molder modeled his campaign as an ouster of Ogles, who has been weakened by years of reputational damage, legal probes and shoddy bookkeeping. Hatcher has none of that baggage, shifting the gerrymandered district even further toward Republicans.
At the completion of his first term, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty was unopposed in his party primary. The Trump administration’s former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Hagerty was elected in 2020 over Memphis Democrat Marquita Bradshaw and has remained a loyal Trump ally. Bradshaw once again won the Democratic nomination for the seat and will give us a general-election rerun by challenging Hagerty — who defeated the Memphis activist by 27 percentage points just six years ago.
Chaz Molder announces his campaign for Tennessee's 5th Congressional District, Sept. 4, 2025
State Rep. Justin Pearson handily won Dems’ nomination in the state’s expansive 9th Congressional District, which stretches from Memphis’ suburbs to Williamson County. Pearson is a rising star in Tennessee and nationally, in part thanks to Garrett and Lamberth’s harsh retribution in 2023 that turned him into a symbol of Democratic defiance alongside state Reps. Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson — with the trio labeled the “Tennessee Three” in state and national media. Pearson faces Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor in November.
With most Davidson County state House and Senate seats held by Democrats who were unopposed in the primary and will be unopposed in the general, little will change in that arena come November. Except, that is, in state House District 59. Former Tennessee highway patrolman Mark Proctor edged out attorney Angie Lawless by fewer than 100 votes in the district, which is on the border of Davidson and Williamson counties. Democrats must now put a messy primary behind them if they want to protect a rare Nashville-area toss-up seat from well-connected Republican challenger Bill Hancock.
D. Patrick Rodgers contributed reporting.
