A rainy Super Tuesday election on March 5 delivered Tennessee’s delegate haul to the race’s obvious front-runners: Donald Trump and Joe Biden. By the end of the evening, Trump victories across the country dispatched former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his only viable challenger, from the race, guaranteeing a Biden-Trump rematch in November. Down-ballot races gave voters a peek into state party politics and at least one local upset.
Trump matched his 2016 vote totals last week with just over 17,000 Davidson County votes (to Haley’s 10,200), up from 15,375 in 2020. Biden bagged 33,000 votes, roughly the same as his 2020 contested primary, when he beat Sen. Bernie Sanders (25,730), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (14,813) and billionaire Michael Bloomberg (12,164). This year, Biden’s biggest local opponent was “uncommitted,” an option chosen by 3,464 Nashvillians that is widely considered a protest vote against White House support of Israel during a military campaign that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. Tuesday’s sleepy turnout further obscures the biggest questions surrounding the 2024 election: How much of Nashville’s left will cohere around mainstream Democrats? And how many voters won’t turn out for Trump, who appears to be shedding centrist voters?
Those who did show up elected a slew of local officials. Vivian Wilhoite, a former mayoral candidate, defended her position as Davidson County Assessor of Property after a late challenge from Tomesia Day. Attorney Stephanie Williams walloped incumbent Stan Kweller, appointed in January 2023 by Gov. Bill Lee, by more than 20,000 votes en route to Davidson County’s Circuit Court Division IV judge seat, which oversees cases related to domestic law.
Several candidates cruised through school board primaries, including former Metro Councilmember Zach Young of Goodlettsville. Robert Taylor squeaked past LaTonya Winfrey and Dominique McCord-Cotton in District 1 — a large swath of Davidson County that includes Bordeaux, White’s Creek and Joelton. District 1 is also the only race with a Republican challenger, who will face Taylor in a general election.
Republicans use the Super Tuesday ballot to choose who to send to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer as state delegates. With voting already determined, the position puts a few dozen party insiders at the center of the GOP universe for a few days to schmooze and booze alongside national party figures. State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, U.S. Rep. Mark Green aide Steve Allbrooks, former state Sen. Mae Beavers and Chad Blackburn (son of Marsha) all snagged the highest delegate vote totals.
Stephanie Williams, Vivian Wilhoite win Democratic primary races
The uniquely American math of the electoral college ensures that November’s race will hinge on just a couple real presidential battlegrounds — North Carolina and Georgia are nearby toss-ups, along with national prizes Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Tennessee’s strong rightward slant makes a Trump victory here essentially guaranteed. Al Gore, Tennessee political scion and the state’s former U.S. senator, was the last competitive Democratic presidential candidate here when he lost the state to George W. Bush by four points in 2000.
Even with predictable local results, the 2024 election has activated Tennessee’s big partisan spenders. Philanthropist and private equity kingpin Andrew Byrd has spread more than $1 million across Democratic parties and candidates this cycle, surpassed only by real estate magnate (and Nashville Scene owner) Bill Freeman’s $1.5 million. Byrd gave $600,000 directly to the Biden campaign, while Freeman gave $1 million.
Trump megadonors include Lower Broadway baron Steve Smith, who funneled at least $100,000 toward the former president this cycle, and wealthy auto dealer Lee Beaman, who’s put at least $110,000 toward Trump and Trump-related PACs. Accusations of psychological abuse and sexual impropriety revealed in his divorce proceedings jeopardized Beaman’s position on boards for prominent educational and cultural institutions like Cheekwood, Montgomery Bell Academy, Belmont University and the Nashville Zoo. He cashed in his former downtown Toyota property for $110 million in 2021.
A lesser-known wealthy local, Michael Hodges, who founded extractive loan giant Advance Financial, has sunk more than $1.5 million into the Trump campaign, related PACs and Republican congressional races. The billionaire Haslam family has supported the GOP with at least $600,000 this cycle, followed by four- or five-figure donations from CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger, Carl’s Jr. CEO (and Trump ally) Andrew Puzder, powerful Republican strategist Ward Baker, Anglophile billionaire heir Orrin Ingram II, health care exec Chris Redlich and the Waltrip family of NASCAR fame.
Stuart McWhorter, currently serving in the Lee administration as Tennessee’s commissioner of economic and community development, showed a break with Tennessee voters in his staunch support for Haley. According to campaign finance documents, McWhorter and his wife poured nearly $50,000 into Haley’s challenge to Trump over the past eight months, including $12,200 in last-minute donations days before Haley dropped out.
