Incumbent Republican Mark Green has retained his seat in the U.S. House for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District after his Democratic opponent, Odessa Kelly, conceded the race.
Green goes on to start his third term as congressman of the 7th Congressional district. Kelly’s campaign had attracted national attention. If she had won, she would have been the first openly gay Black woman elected to Congress.
Until this year, the 7th District had been made up of rural counties across Middle and West Tennessee, making it safely a Republican seat. But redistricting injected some uncertainty into the race after Republicans redrew boundaries to include a large portion of Davidson County. It was part of a strategy to break up the Democratic stronghold.
This will be the first time Davidson will go without Democratic representation in Congress. Odessa Kelly is worried the Democrats in the districts won’t have accurate representation.
“I’m not going to lay down and take this, and neither should you and neither should anyone else who believes in the fundamental ideas of America where everyone has a right to their voice and a right to be heard. Because that’s essentially what they took away,” Kelly said.
The county does have more representation than before, going from one to three congressmen — something that state House Speaker Cameron Sexton thought would benefit the area.
“I think Davidson will gain more representation,” Sexton said. “It never hurts to have more people in Washington fighting for you.”
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