11 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Tim Nguyen's avatar

I'm not sure why but Tennessee's suburbs still generally remain obnoxiously red. But it's not as if Tennessee is any more evangelical or rural than say Georgia or North Carolina. Maybe Tennessee remains more largely rural and exurban, but Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville are all growing cities and from what I've read and heard they tend to attract young professionals with their culture and atmosphere. It may just be the voting history of the state still being ancestrally Republican vs North Carolina. Georgia by contrast, with Atlanta has a far larger metro of over 6 million people combined with a massive influx of Northern and younger professional transplants.

Expand full comment
Zero Cool's avatar

I guess we’ll just have to see how Gloria Johnson turns out voters.

I’d imagine we’ll also see decent turnout among Democrats even if we’re obviously not going to see Harris win TN.

Expand full comment
GoUBears's avatar

The eastern third's one of the most ancestrally GOP parts of the country, the western third's got roughly a 1:1 correlation of race and party, and the middle third's still got densely populated rurals to pair with burbs whose population is heavily of Southern origin.

Expand full comment
James Trout's avatar

East Tennessee supported the Union during the Civil War. Thus they have essentially always been hardcore Republican. Even when the Republican Party in most of the south was nonexistent due to the "Party of Lincoln" association.

Expand full comment
Mark's avatar

I think it's mostly because Tennessee is just like Florida, a sponge for tax-averse right-wing refugees from blue states. The same types of people moving to Fort Myers, Florida, are also moving to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Expand full comment
Zero Cool's avatar

Hmmm. That is a problem, especially considering TN is more red than FL.

On the other hand, Gloria Johnson has been focusing on meeting voters in all-99 county diners over a month ago. She’s certainly doing effective retail politics, even if Marsha Blackburn is heavily favored to win the race.

https://www.votegloriajohnson.com/events/

Expand full comment
IggySD's avatar

Agree, it’s within the realm of possibility that TN becomes the Republicans biggest “safe” state depending on TX and FL trends. That really doesn’t put them in a great position to win the presidency. Will be interesting to watch the trends of Nashville to see if it could ever become an Atlanta and make the state competitive.

Expand full comment
benamery21's avatar

I know a right wing retired Latino cop from LA who moved his family of 6 to Tennessee for exactly that reason. From social media the fairly moderate adult daughter married an undereducated local RWNJ and swung seriously rightward from the multiple degreed L.A. party girl I knew.

Expand full comment
benamery21's avatar

On the other hand, my fairly liberal “aunt” (who moved from WV to CA in the early 80’s) also sold her place in OC and moved back East to Tennessee in retirement, unfortunately she has since lost a long battle with cancer.

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

I'm sorry.

Expand full comment
Zero Cool's avatar

Is Governor Bill Lee running TN like Governor Ron DeSantis? Or have TN's tax incentives been in the state for a long time?

Expand full comment