Tennessee Primary Preview
Just hold your elections on a Tuesday like a normal state
TN-09 (Memphis)
Steve Cohen (i) vs. Kasandra Smith vs. Corey Strong vs. M. LaTroy Williams
Steve Cohen gets challengers every year, but none of them could really be described as “of note” since 2014. This year he faces three retreads: Memphis cop Kasandra Smith (2018), former Shelby County Democratic Chair Corey Strong (2022), and perennial candidate M. LaTroy Williams (2016/2024) have all lost badly to Cohen before. The results here will mostly be useful to see whether Cohen’s vote share is declining as he ages.
SD-30 (Memphis and suburbs)
Sara Kyle (i) vs. Erika Stotts Pearson
Sara Kyle, a two term state senator, more or less inherited the office from her husband after he resigned mid-term and the party nominated her to replace him in 2014. In that last decade she’s done a serviceable job in the office, but Tennessee has only five or six Democratic districts, and that means each senator has to really count. Erika Stotts Pearson, who runs a healthcare services company and has run for Congress twice before, could potentially be a more engaged senator, but it’s hard to say. She’s running on a boilerplate Democratic platform and doesn’t appear to have any grassroots or activist backing. The stakes of this election feel like a giant shrug.
HD-15 (Knoxville)
Sam McKenzie (i) vs. Dasha Lundy
Pro-school voucher PACS have spent over $50,000 to elect Dasha Lundy - $10,000 in direct contributions and $42,000 in independent expenditures - the only Democratic recipient of that money in the state. It doesn’t sound like they have some special bone to pick with incumbent physicist Sam McKenzie, which means they must really, really like physical therapist and Knox County Commissioner Dasha Lundy. Lundy, though she claims she supports “education equity”, plainly doesn’t. She’s publicly only “open” to expanding school vouchers in the state, but you don’t get $50,000 for fence-sitting; it’s obvious what she’s been telling people in private. This year, Tennessee nearly gutted their public education system in favor of a $145 million voucher system, but legislative gridlock prevented it from passing in the time constraints of the legislative term. Private school advocates were pushing for a much more ambitious $800 million program, and might get it next year, which is why they’re trying to buy as many allies as possible in the legislature, and installing a Democrat would be a huge win for them.
HD-28 (Chattanooga)
Yusuf Hakeem (i) vs. Demetrus Coonrod
Chattanooga City Councilmember Demetrus Coonrod is challenging incumbent Yusuf Hakeem, claiming to be a more vocal and proactive progressive, willing to fight the Republican supermajority in the legislature instead of just rolling over. If there’s anyone up to the job of defeating Yusuf Hakeem, it’s her - Coonrod entered the council after unseating Hakeem, then an incumbent, in 2016. We have to admit the image of Coonrod chasing Hakeem around from office to office, waiting until he’s elected to something new so she can take it from him, is pretty funny.
We’re just not sure if we actually want her to succeed, given that Hakeem is already the vocal progressive Coonrod claims she would be. Justin Pearson, known nationally as part of the Tennessee Three - Democrats expelled from the state house for taking part in a gun control protest, is campaigning for Hakeem, citing how he took the lonely position of standing up for UAW during their failed unionization drive. Coonrod’s big issue in this race appears to be reparations, which is a good cause, just clearly something that’s not going to happen in the ultra-Republican state house. And then there’s the fact she’s currently being investigated by the FBI. Though so far all the information released about the investigation is that an anonymous email alleged falsified records at the nonprofit she runs, the FBI taking an interest in the case clouds the entire election.
HD-56 (Nashville)
Bob Freeman (i) vs. Nick Forster-Benson
Bob Freeman narrowly flipped a southern Nashville state house district blue in 2018, and won by a wider 8% margin in 2020. In an attempt to win it back, the Republicans gerrymandering the state split his district in half, and put him in the much more Democratic half. Freeman's new district is much more urban, and includes Vanderbilt University. The former swing district moderate didn’t face a primary in 2022, but he will this year, thanks to Nick Forester-Benson, a senior at Vanderbilt. School may not be in session, but university neighborhoods are hotbeds of progressive activism regardless. The 22 year-old is endorsed by Middle TN DSA, and has run his entire campaign on a budget of about $1,500. He’s the underdog against monied and establishment-back Freeman, but Nashville has shown a willingness to vote more progressively recently, as neighboring district Reps. Aftyn Behn and Justin Jones show.
HD-60 (Nashville)
Tyler Brasher vs. Shaundelle Brooks
This district only voted for Joe Biden by a 9% margin in the 2020 election, a bit below what we traditionally call a safely Democratic district. But it’s zooming left and Republicans don’t appear to be bringing their A game to this one, so we’re including it. Mostly that’s because Shaundelle Brooks is running. Brooks, a gun control activist supported by the Tennessee Three who sounds very much in line with their vocal, confrontational line of politics in the face of Republican extremism. Her opponent, accountant and Chamber of Commerce member Tyler Brasher, is the more passive type of Democrat that some in the party think is their path to expanding the majority. He nominally says he doesn’t have any disagreements with Brooks, but also wants to avoid “the big cultural issues”, which is a bigger tell than anything else. The race has turned into an internal party battle, with Black politicians largely supporting Brooks, who is Black, while the white establishment is (unofficially) backing Brasher, who is white.
Navy veteran John Parrish will also be on the ballot, but has unofficially withdrawn from the race.
HD-80 (rural West Tennessee)
Johnny Shaw (i) vs. Shelia Godwin vs. Jonathan Joy
Johnny Shaw is unambiguously the most conservative Democrat in the legislature now that all the rural white Demosaur politicians have finally washed out. His record of voting for Republican priorities includes everything from anti-trans bills to anti-immigrant bills, to pro-charter school bills, and some Democrats have finally had enough. His opponents are Bolivar (pop. 5,000) City Councilmember Jonathan Joy, twice indicted but never convicted for overbilling done by his HVAC installation company; and Madison County Commissioner Shelia Godwin, who previously attempted to run for Congress as an independent. Unfortunately, in addition to weak opponents, there are two of them, and Tennessee doesn’t have runoffs. A poor showing from Shaw could still convince another, stronger candidate to enter in 2026, or for him to just retire. And, honestly, one of them could even win - low turnout, retail politics elections like this can be hard to predict.
HD-84 (Memphis)
Joe Towns Jr. (i) vs. Vernell Williams
We can’t find any trace of Vernell Williams online, and he’s raised literally no money. It looks like Joe Towns will enter his fourth decade in the house essentially unimpeded.
HD-86 (Memphis)
Justin Pearson (i) vs. David Page
As mentioned above, Justin Pearson is now one of the most prominent Democrats in Tennessee after Republicans in the House expelled him and two colleagues for attending a protest in support of gun control. He won the special election to replace himself, and is now facing for reelection only David Page, a man running on an anti-crime message who Pearson defeated 95% - 5% in the aforementioned special election to succeed himself.
HD-93 (Memphis)
G.A. Hardaway (i) vs. Lashanta Rudd
Longtime lawmaker G.A. Hardaway is being challenged by political campaign staffer Lashanta Rudd. Rudd has raised no money and has no website, but her Facebook indicates she’s been campaigning with enough money for yard signs (hmmm…), and that she’s a supporter of TN-09 candidate M. LaTroy Williams. That association puts her on the fringes of Memphis politics, but for the life of us we can’t figure out if she’d actually govern any differently from Hardaway, who is very much an average legislator.
HD-96 (Memphis)
Eric Dunn vs. Telisa Franklin vs. Gabby Salinas vs. Orrden Williams Jr. vs. David Winston
This rare open seat in Memphis has turned into a legitimate four-way contest (party-agnostic perennial candidate Orrden Williams can be safely ignored) that may end up with a socialist in office. Gabby Salinas won primaries for SD-31 in 2018 and HD-97 in 2020 with the help of Memphis-MidSouth DSA, but lost both general elections by margins of 1%. Redistricted into HD-96, she’s now running for office for a third time, and has the support of retiring incumbent Dwayne Thompson, as well as a fundraising advantage. She would, incredibly, be the first Hispanic member of the legislature, as well as the first out LGBTQ woman. One potential obstacle on her path to victory is that this is a majority Black district, and she’s the only non-Black candidate.
Also running are Eric Dunn, a janitorial services company owner who has very successfully run for Memphis Council and Shelby County Commission before; motivational speaker and voiceover actor Telisa Franklin, who is primarily self-funding her campaign but has caught the attention of some Memphis progressives with her equity-focused campaign; and “Influencer in Cinema and Culture Education” David Winston, who doesn’t seem likely to win, but is at least seriously campaigning and could lower the threshold for victory even further.