Tennessee voters went to the polls Thursday, August 6, in a primary that set the November 3 general election ballot for governor and all nine U.S. House seats — the first election held under a congressional map that Republican state lawmakers redrew earlier this year. Results below are based on unofficial returns; as of publication, statewide totals reflected 91 of 95 counties reporting.
Governor: Blackburn and Green advance
“Blackburn and Green will face off November 3 to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee.”
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican nomination for governor, finishing with 43.5% (308,967 votes) to U.S. Rep. John Rose’s 33.0% (234,435) and state Rep. Monty Fritts’s 23.4% (166,213). The Associated Press called the race at 8:31 p.m. CDT. Blackburn had led the race throughout, though her polling advantage narrowed over the summer after she declined to debate her primary opponents, did not secure a formal endorsement from President Trump, and faced criticism over campaign transparency.
Memphis City Council member Jerri Green won the Democratic nomination with roughly 69% of the vote, defeating Carnita Atwater (17.8%), pastor Kevin Lee McCants (5.3%), and the remainder of the field. Green, an attorney who currently serves as Shelby County’s interim chief public defender, campaigned on eliminating the state’s grocery tax, increasing public school funding, and addressing medical debt.
Blackburn and Green will face off November 3 to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee. Tennessee has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2006, and Donald Trump carried the state by close to 30 points in 2024, making the general election a steep climb for Green regardless of the primary result.
Congress: a new map gets its first test
“Thursday’s primaries were the first held under a congressional map drawn to give Republicans a shot at sweeping all nine seats.”
Thursday’s primaries were the first held under a congressional map Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature approved in a special session in May — part of a wave of mid-decade redistricting that began with Texas last year and was encouraged by President Trump as Republicans sought to protect their narrow U.S. House majority ahead of the midterms. The new map redrew all nine Tennessee districts with the goal of giving Republicans a clean sweep of the delegation, most notably by breaking up the Memphis-based, Black-majority 9th District that had been the state’s only Democratic-held seat. Longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who had held the 9th since 2007, announced he would not seek reelection once the new lines took effect.
District 9 (Memphis area): State Rep. Justin Pearson — one of the “Tennessee Three” lawmakers briefly expelled from the state House in 2023 after a gun-control protest — won the Democratic primary with just under 65% of the vote, defeating state Sen. London Lamar, community activist M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, and healthcare executive Jim Torino. On the Republican side, Trump-endorsed state Sen. Brent Taylor won with 46.0% (30,045 votes), beating state Rep. Todd Warner (26.3%), retired Army sergeant Jeremy Thompson (20.0%), and Charlotte Bergmann. Taylor and Pearson will meet in November in a district redrawn to favor Republicans, though Pearson’s national profile has drawn attention to the race regardless.
“The old Democratic anchor in Memphis is gone. November will provide the first real-world test of what replaced it.”
District 5 (Nashville-to-Columbia): In the year’s most notable upset, Trump-backed incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles lost his primary to Charlie Hatcher, a former state agriculture commissioner endorsed by Gov. Bill Lee — an unusual split between the president and the state’s Republican governor. Hatcher won 53.2% (36,544 votes) to Ogles’s 46.8% (32,091). Ogles, who had drawn criticism during his term for comments about Muslims and immigrants as well as past homophobic remarks, becomes the latest sitting Trump-endorsed incumbent to lose renomination this cycle. Hatcher advances to face Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder, who won a crowded Democratic primary with 40.5% of the vote.
“Trump endorsed the incumbent. Gov. Bill Lee backed the challenger. Tennessee Republican voters chose Hatcher.”
District 6 (Nashville-to-Cumberland Plateau, open seat): With Rose vacating the seat to run for governor, state Rep. Johnny Garrett won a four-way Republican primary with 43.6% (37,371 votes), defeating Rose’s former chief of staff, ex-Rep. Van Hilleary (29.8%), and two others. Garrett will face Democrat Mike Croley, a former park ranger who won a crowded Democratic field with 28.9% of the vote, in a district Trump carried by more than 26 points in 2024.
District 4: Incumbent Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais won renomination comfortably, taking 65.9% (39,491 votes) against three challengers. He will face Democrat Victoria Broderick, who won her party’s primary with 37.9% (12,422 votes) over Mike Cortese and Joyce Neal, in November.
Other Democratic primaries were largely uncompetitive in the state’s remaining, heavily Republican districts. Kristi Burke won District 1 (76.6%) and Darden Copeland won District 7 (39.9%), both confirmed race calls. Unofficial returns also showed Anna Golladay well ahead in District 3 (79.6%) and Heidi Kuhn ahead in District 8 (51.8%), though Election Desk has not confirmed those two with a formal race call as of publication.
Turnout note
Early Democratic turnout grew faster than Republican turnout compared with the state’s last open governor’s race in 2018 — Democratic early voting rose roughly 7% while Republican early voting was essentially flat — a shift some analysts have tied to heightened attention around redistricting, particularly in counties split between districts under the new map.
“The primary settled the candidates. November will test the map.”
What’s next
The general election is November 3. Beyond the marquee Blackburn-Green governor’s race, the 9th and 5th Congressional Districts are likely to draw the most national attention as tests of how the new map performs in a general election, and as data points in the broader fight over mid-decade redistricting playing out in multiple states this cycle.
This is a developing story based on unofficial returns. Election Desk will update with certified results once available from the Tennessee Secretary of State.
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