4 races to watch in next month’s primaries for the Tennessee legislature

Early voting for the Aug. 4 state primaries starts Friday. All 99 seats in the Tennessee House of Representatives and half of the 33 seats in the state Senate are on the ballot. In many cases, incumbents are a lock to win their primary and proceed on to November.

But there are still a few races worth watching. Here’s what you need to know about them — and about the state legislature in general.

First, why are statehouse races so important?

Everything from driving your car to opening a business puts you in direct contact with state law, says Johns Hopkins University’s Benjamin Ginsberg, yet a poll from 2018 found fewer than 20% of Americans could name their state representative.

“Most people say they like their state leaders, and a large majority even remembers learning about state government in school,” said Ginsberg’s colleague, Jennifer Bachner. “Despite this, most people are not aware of who exactly represents them and the significant decisions made by their state government.”

And now, state elections are more important than ever! That may seem like a cliche a politician would use, but it’s true. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear in recent rulings that it intends to leave more decisions up to the states, a long-time goal of conservative organizations like the Federalist Society and the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Nowhere is that more clear than the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned decades of abortion law and handed control over reproductive rights back to state lawmakers.

So what about some of these races. There’s already been intrigue in Nashville after Democratic state Sen. Brenda Gilmore announced her retirement. That triggered something called the state’s Anti-Skulduggery Act of 1991. What happened, and how has that affected the race?

The purpose of the Anti-Skulduggery Act is to keep incumbents from trying to pass off an office to a successor by withdrawing at the last minute. Gilmore withdrew right at the deadline, leaving one candidate on the ballot, Keeda Haynes, a former public defender who’s been active in politics.

So, Gilmore’s action meant the filing deadline was extended, and five people entered the Democratic race. You’ve got a couple of former Metro Councilmembers, Jerry Maynard and Ludye Wallace; Charlane Oliver, who co-founded the Equity Alliance; Barry Barlow, who has run for a couple of local offices previously without success; and Rossi Turner, a newcomer.

Haynes dropped out, but it still has the potential to be a very close and interesting race.

In the House, there’s another interesting race in the Democratic primary in Nashville. Justin Jones, who’s a well-known political activist, is taking on Delishia Porterfield, a Metro Council member. What can you tell us about those candidates?

Jones has been an outspoken advocate calling for an end to police brutality, repeal of voter ID laws and the removal of Confederate monuments, including the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest that was once at the Tennessee State Capitol. He was arrested during the summer of nationwide protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, when he was a leader of the People’s Plaza protest on War Memorial Plaza.

Delishia Porterfield, meanwhile, has been on the Metro Council member since 2019. She’s also positioned herself as a progressive and served as state co-chair for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Both attended recent protests over the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and they’re part of a national trend that’s playing out here in Tennessee. With more establishment Democrats retiring, we’re seeing progressives moving in with the goal to shift the center of gravity in the Democratic caucus toward the left.

The Republicans are firmly in control of the state legislature, and they have a lot of incumbents who are expected to win easily. What race on the GOP side should we be watching most closely?

House District 63, which is in Williamson County. This is former House Speaker Glen Casada’s old district. He’s leaving politics after two decades at the legislature.

There are three candidates in this race, and the best-known is Laurie Cardoza Moore. She first came to prominence more than a decade when she tried to block construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro. Since then, she’s been prolific poster on social media, where she’s criticized Black Live Matter and COVID vaccinations. Cardoza Moore was named to the State Textbook Commission recently.

The question is whether her stances are in line with Williamson County voters or if she’s too extreme. And if there are people voting against her in the Republican primary, whether they’ll coalesce around one of the other contenders, Jake McCalmon or James Sloan.

One of the big stories this year has been gerrymandering, and that includes at the state legislature. Over in Knox County, we saw a very vocal Democrat, Gloria Johnson, on the verge of being drawn out of the state legislature. What happened there?

Johnson has represented House District 13 off and on over the last decade, and when the lines were redrawn, Republicans tried to put her in District 15. That would’ve meant she would have to run against a Black incumbent Sam McKenzie. Johnson said she would absolutely not do that, not just because McKenzie a colleague, but it’s a historically Black district and felt Republicans were trying to force to pit him against.

So she has moved houses to run in the neighboring District 90, which Republicans had moved all the way across the state from Shelby County after the 2020 Census. Johnson is running unopposed in the Democratic primary but does face a Republican, realtor David Pozy Poczobut, in the general election.