Tennessee election results: Blackburn wins governor’s seat, constitutional amendments pass

Longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn will make history as Tennessee’s first female governor without the majority of the vote.

Democrat Victoria Broderick ousted the Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais in Tennessee’s 4th District.

Broderick is a logistics and technology professional in Lincoln County. She ran on a platform of housing affordability, protecting rural hospitals, responsible gun laws, limiting government surveillance and voluntary pre-K available to all kids regardless of family income.

It was Broderick’s second time facing DesJarlais. In 2024, DesJarlais won by more than 100,000 votes, capturing nearly 70 percent of the results. Tuesday night, state officials declared Broderick the winner in final unofficial results with a lead of 280 votes.

The Tennessee legislature redrew the state’s Congressional map to favor Republicans earlier this year. The new 4th District includes part of southeastern Nashville and stretches almost to Chattanooga.

DesJarlais had held the seat since 2011, when he and other tea party Republicans swept into office. That’s when the state’s U.S. House delegation flipped from 5-4 in favor of Democrats to 7-2 for the GOP. In more recent years, Republicans have reworked districts around the state in hopes of flipping those last two Democratic seats.

U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps has won re-election one year after winning a special congressional election to replace longtime District 7 Congressman Mark Green.

Van Epps beat Nashville businessman Darden Copeland to win his first full, two-year term in Washington. State officials declared Van Epps the winner in final unofficial results with 50.27 percent of the vote.

Last year, Van Epps beat state Rep. Aftyn Behn by single digits in a district Green previously won by 22 percentage points in 2024. Since then, lawmakers redrew the 7^th Congressional District to eliminate the state’s remaining Democratic seat in Memphis.

The district still includes much of Nashville, although it’s shifted to include parts of North Nashville and Belle Meade.

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican, has defeated Democrat Marquita Bradshaw to secure a second term in Washington.

The race was a rematch of a 2020 contest in which Hagerty, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, won with some 62 percent of the vote to Bradshaw’s 35 percent. 

Hagerty has backed the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and support of coal and nuclear energy. Before becoming a senator, he served in the administration of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam as commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development. He was an ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term.

Bradshaw, the Democratic challenger, runs the environmental nonprofit Sowing Justice, and had campaigned on affordable housing and healthcare, as well as protecting Tennessee’s natural resources. The last time the state elected a Democratic senator was in 1990 with Al Gore.

State Rep. Johnny Garrett has won Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District over Democrat and veteran Mike Croley.

Garrett and his fellow GOP lawmakers redrew Tennessee’s congressional districts at the behest of President Donald Trump to give Republicans an edge in the midterms. The 6th Congressional District now covers wide swaths of midtown and East Nashville.

Current District 6 Congressman John Rose chose not to run for re-election to prioritize his failed congressional bid.

In the statehouse, Garrett has sponsored legislation to expand worker’s comp for law enforcement, raise taxes on hemp-derived THC and bring Trump’s federal immigration policies to the state level.

Garrett’s bill allowing schools to deny students based on their immigration status failed in the Tennessee House over concerns it could jeopardize federal education funding.

Tennesseans voted to add more victims’ rights to the state constitution, passing Amendment 3, known as Marsy’s Law.

Tennesseans overwhelmingly approved Amendment 1 on Tuesday, supporting changes to the state Constitution on how judges determine the release of defendants ahead of trial.

The amendment, which passed with more than two-thirds of votes in support, expands the types of crimes for which a judge can deny bail. With its passage, judges will be able to require pre-trial detention for those charged with more than 70 crimes, an option currently limited to people facing a charge of first-degree murder.

The amendment, supported by Republican leadership in the Tennessee legislature, was touted as a public safety measure that would give judges more discretion in certain serious cases and reduces the risk that defendants might endanger others while awaiting trial. Those who opposed the amendment argued it could infringe on due process rights or further strain county jails and court systems that face overcrowding and funding shortfalls.

For an amendment to pass, it must receive more “yes” votes than “no” votes — and it must have more “yes” votes than half the number of votes cast in the governor’s race.

Expanded list of no-bail crimes

The crimes that defendants could be denied bail for under the new amendment include first- and second-degree murder, aggravated rape, aggravated rape of a child, grave torture, acts of terrorism and any crime that requires a defendant to serve at least 85% of their sentence. That last category includes types of vehicular homicide, voluntary manslaughter and some serious and repeated drug offenses. Senate leadership shared a list of 71 total offenses, and Nashville-based research nonprofit ThinkTennessee estimated the number of applicable crimes could exceed 140.

Under Amendment #1, defendants are not bailable for those crimes when “proof is evident or the presumption great.” Judges still can choose to grant bail and they must record a reason for granting or denying bail.

As it stands, judges can deter bail release by setting a high bail amount. Those supporting the amendment argued the current system favors defendants with access to greater financial resources who could make bigger bail payments even when they pose a risk to others.

Some lawmakers who opposed the amendment were concerned that it instructed judges to deny bail as the default, rather than provide more options. Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, who sponsored the amendment legislation, disagreed with that reading. He said he anticipated that the types of cases that bail was denied for would be rare. As a result, he did not foresee a meaningful increase in costs for Tennessee county governments.

The amendment had support from the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association and the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference. The ACLU of Tennessee opposed Amendment 1.

At least three Democrats have flipped seats in the state legislature that had been held by Republicans. 

• In Knox County, Bryan Goldberg defeated the incumbent, Rep. Elaine Davis.
• In Montgomery County, northwest of Nashville, Allie Phillips came out ahead of Rep. Michael Lankford.
• And in Shelby County, Jesse Huseth beat Rep. John Gillespie.

It’s the first time in eight years that Democrats have gained ground in the statehouse, which has been dominated by a Republican supermajority.

More results are forthcoming.

The U.S. Department of Justice sent officers into Davidson County to oversee today’s elections.

It’s happening in all 50 states as people cast their ballots. It’s the first time the White House has directly monitored elections across the entire country.     

Live updates: Election results from WPLN News

The Department put 10 officers in Nashville today, according to John Richardson, the city’s administrator of elections. The move comes amid concerns over voter suppression and intimidation.

“There were five pairs of two, and they visited various locations,” Richardson told WPLN. “And much like when you do a checkup, when you go to visit your family doctor, they were there to inspect our officers to make sure that all the teams were properly doing their jobs in alignment with federal laws regarding voting.”

Richardson said voter turnout has been steady while voting conditions have been fairly smooth. A few locations lost power and water, but Metro Nashville’s emergency management agency was able to respond quickly.

Voting machines have battery backups for emergencies.

Polls are still open until 7 p.m. tonight, though people will still be able to vote if they are in line when polls close.

A group of attorneys and volunteers are monitoring polling sites in Nashville to report any signs of voter suppression or intimidation. They’re called Guardians of Democracy.