Another Election Live Blog

Hello and good evening. The polls close here in Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County in 15 minutes, and the crew at the Nashville Scene has you covered.

We've got Eli Motycka, Kelsey Beyeler and Stephen Elliott on the reporting front (and we may get a run-in from Alejandro Ramirez). D. Patrick Rodgers is in his usual position at the helm of the whole operation and I'm J.R. Lind, taking one last turn around the track.

As per tradition, please enjoy "Da Butt" by Experience Unlimited while you wait. New information at the top all night long. 

10:54 PM: Well, folks, that's gonna do it for tonight and that's gonna do it for me in my time at the Nashville Scene. --30--

10:30 PM: The Tennessee Democratic Party overcame it's greatest enemy — the Latin alphabet — as Jason Martin will win the party's nomination for governor. He has the distinct honor of facing Gov. Bill Lee in the fall.

10:15 PM: The election commission has dropped a big load of precincts so let's make some calls, shall we?

• Justin Jones is your winner for the Democratic nomination in State House District 52.
• Charlane Oliver will win the Dem primary in Senate District 19.
• Michelle Foreman will take the GOP nod in House District 59.
• And Kelsey Beyeler has the full rundown of the MNPS school board races (spoiler: Democrats won).

10:04 PM: RedState is couching this statement by Beth Harwell as a concession. I am leaving RedState's misspelling of Maury County, which I assume is based on how Harwell pronounced it, for all of us to mock and jeer.

“Again, I apologize. I don’t think we have enough to make up the defeat we took in Murray (sic) and Marshall Counties. We did well in Davidson County, but we are where we are. I tell you what, I couldn’t have a better group of people,” Harwell said.

9:39 PM: I am, generally, a patient and conservative decider of elections so even if a percentage looks substantial, if there are still boxes out and the vote numbers are tight, I keep my powder dry. That said, it does look Andy Ogles is going to take the 5th District Republican nomination as he currently has a several thousand vote lead. It does look like all four charter amendments are going to pass easily, as they tend to do without significant, organized and well-funded opposition.

8:39 PM: And just like that, the Davidson County Election Commission reports earlies and absentees. Quick hits:

• Beth Harwell indeed grabbed a haul of votes in her home county in the 5th District Republican primary, outpacing Ogles by more than 2:1. In fact, Kurt Winstead is running second place in Davidson County, though he too is well behind Harwell. 
• Justin Jones has a 55-45 lead on Metro Councilmember Delishia Porterfield for the Democratic nomination in State House District 52
• Jerry Maynard has a 400 vote lead on Charlane Oliver in Senate District 19's Democratic primary.
• It appears as though all four Metro charter amendments will pass safely.

8:23 PM: Andy Ogles appears to have a pretty chonky lead in the Fifth District GOP primary over Beth Harwell, but let's pump those brakes. Maury County, from whence Ogles hails, has reported a pretty good proportion of its vote. Davidson County, home of Harwell and also a lot of other people, some of whom will be voting in said primary, has reported none. The election commission is holding the release of the early vote as there are people still in line at a handful of precincts across the county. Does this mean Ogles won't win? Of course not! He may well, but let's not hold a body-snatching party yet.

8:02 PM: Briefly distracted from updates, because I noticed over on NewsChannel5's running list that State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver is losing her primary in District 40 to local funeral home director Michael Hale. Weaver is famous for singing and also being at the United States Capitol January 6. She's been in the State House for 14 years, notable because her first vote was the lone Republican vote for a recess during the infamous speaker's election of 2009. That recess allowed then-Democratic leader Gary Odom to bring his members up to speed on the machinations that followed. Essentially, Democrats nominated Republican Kent Williams to be Speaker and with his own vote and that of the 49 Democrats (clued in by Odom during the recess), Williams did indeed become speaker instead of actual Republican nominee Jason Mumpower. Based on a brief study of the issues of the 40th, neither her participation in a riot intent on disrupting the peaceful transfer of power nor her older procedural snafu are why voters are picking Hale. He's just as staunchly anti-abortion and pro-unfettered access to guns as she is, but he does wonder why, after Weaver's 14 years in the legislature, the roads in DeKalb and Smith counties still suck. Reasonable question.

7:22 PM: Many of you are asking "What happens if one of the judges in the retention election is defeated?". OK, literally no one is asking this and for good reason, because Tennessee voters have only voted to replace one (1) judge in the entire history of the retain/replace system (Supreme Court Justice Penny White in 1994). The retain/replace system is sort of goofy, but so am I. Also, Tennessee had a long time period where the Supreme Court was exempted from the system, because it turned out Gov. Winfield Dunn, a Republican, was going to be able to appoint five justices and the Democrats, which dominated the legislature at the time did not care for that so they engineered a plan. I know that this seems far-fetched in 2022, because in this story, Tennessee Democrats had a plan but, trust me, this happened. OK, so Democrats wanted to take the Supreme Court out of retain/replace and have them in just normal elections, because they'd win. Gov. Dunn, being a Republican who had a shot at appointing the entire Supreme Court, did not, so he vetoed the legislation. But the Democrats knew a bunch of East Tennessee Republicans (which were, except for Dunn, who was from Memphis, basically the only kind of Republicans in Tennessee in 1973) wanted a new public medical school at East Tennessee State in Johnson City, a proposal Dunn opposed (the University of Tennessee's med school was and is in Memphis, his hometown). Soooooo, Democratic House Speaker Ned McWherter got some Democrats to vote to override Dunn's med school veto and the Republicans from East Tennessee, in exchange, voted to override Dunn's Supreme Court veto. Anyway. None of that matters now, unless you were wondering how Johnson City ended up with a med school, because the Supreme Court is now subject to retain/replace, too.

So what happens if a judge is voted down? Gov. Bill Lee must appoint a replacement when the vacancy is perfected on September 1. Under state law, the legislature has 60 days (once it is in session, either via the speakers calling them back or just in the normal fashion when the General Assembly returns in January) to confirm the replacement in joint session. 

Here's Trick Daddy's "Let's Go."

6:53 PM: Team Andy Ogles is reading the tea leaves of online betting sites, which would indicate he's a hearty favorite to win the Republican nomination in the 5th District. Per TCA 2-19-129, " A person commits a Class C misdemeanor if such person makes any bet or wager of money or other valuable thing upon any election." FYI.