As early voting winds down Thursday, here are a few state races to watch this election season.
One to watch
Tennessee House District 50: west Davidson County
Nashville is often referred to as a blue island in a red state, represented at the Tennessee State Capitol by a cluster of liberal lawmakers. However, House District 50 in west Davidson County has historically been competitive.
Democrat Rep. Bo Mitchell was first elected to the seat in 2012, by a margin of just 156 votes over Republican Charles Williamson. Mitchell won several hard-fought victories over the next few elections, eventually converting District 50 into a securely Democratic seat. So secure, in fact, that he ran unopposed in the 2020 and 2022 general elections.
This year, Mitchell does have an opponent: Republican Metro Councilmember Jennifer Frensley Webb.
More: Who’s on the ballot in Middle Tennessee? Brush up on your candidates with WPLN’s voter guide
Webb is a Goodlettsville native who supports incentives for small businesses, harsher penalties for crime, cracking down on illegal immigration and defending the Second Amendment.
Webb also supports Tennessee’s abortion ban, which Mitchell has called “dangerous” for women in Tennessee.
During his time in office, Mitchell has supported increased penalties for domestic violence and child neglect, tuition assistance for military children and reducing sales tax on food. He is also in favor of increasing public school funding, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, abortion access and the passage of red flag measures, which prevent people deemed dangerous to themselves or others from possessing a gun.
Newcomers
Tennessee House District 60: Donelson, Hermitage and Old Hickory
Shaundelle Brooks' campaign Shaundelle Brooks
Shaundelle Brooks has been a fierce advocate for gun reform, since her son Akilah DaSilva was killed in the 2018 Waffle House shooting. A fixture at the Capitol, she’s joined forces with Covenant moms spurred to action by last year’s deadly school shooting.
Brooks supports youth development programs, increased pay for teachers, assistance for first-time homebuyers, improving rural healthcare, abortion access, affordable childcare options, support for men’s mental health and LGBTQ rights.
She will face Chad Bobo, a former aide to House Speaker Cameron Sexton who supports vocational training for high schoolers, improving transportation and cutting back on regulations for small businesses.
Bobo also supports exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion ban in the case of rape, incest or for the life of the mother.
Tennessee House District 49: LaVergne, Smryna and Murfreesboro
State Rep. Mike Sparks has represented District 49 since 2010. Now, he faces a challenger in the form of Luis Mata, an immigrant rights activist who would be Tennessee’s youngest lawmaker, and the first Latino elected to state office.
Sparks supports charter schools and the school voucher program, in addition to investing in public schools. He has said that Rutherford County’s overburdened school system has been caused by illegal immigrants.
In the past two years, Sparks has sponsored legislation to make gun sales tax-exempt, impose the death penalty on drug dealers who use fentanyl and increase protections for juvenile offenders during police interrogations.
Mata’s platform includes eliminating the state’s grocery tax, fixing roads, investing in job creation and funding public schools. He says these policies are designed to address the district’s growing population, as more people move out of Nashville’s urban core due to the increased cost of living.
Those demographic shifts could help Mata, with more historically Democratic voters moving into the district.
Tennessee House District 75: Montgomery County and a portion of Clarksville
Allie Phillips' campaign Allie Phillips
Incumbent, Rep. Jeff Burkhart, was elected to his seat in 2022 after serving as a Clarksville city councilmember for 12 years.
He is being challenged by Allie Phillips, who decided to run for office after she had to travel out of state for a medically necessary abortion.
Phillips has proposed adding an exception for fetal abnormalities for Tennessee’s abortion ban.
She’s named the proposed amendment Miley’s Law, after her unborn daughter.
Burkhart came under fire earlier this month for mailers featuring images of Phillips’ 7-year-old daughter taken from social media.
Incumbents, ousted
In the House
Former police chief defeated the famously pugnacious chair of the House Government Operations Committee
Oak Ridge Republican John Ragan lost his reelection bid in this year’s District 33 Republican primary to Rick Scarbrough, a former Clinton police chief. Ragan challenged the loss, claiming that Democrats had voted in the primary to help his opponent. That challenge was voted down overwhelmingly, 41 to 7, by the Tennessee Republican Party’s state executive committee.
Ragan was first elected in 2011 and had become known as a formidable — and sometimes combative — figure at the Capitol.
In his campaign, Scarbrough emphasized his law enforcement bonafides and how becoming a grandfather has shaped his decision to enter politics.
In the Senate
Bristol senator unseated by Trump-endorsed son of Trump-endorsed U.S. Congresswoman, despite big spending
Incumbent Sen. Jon Lundberg was defeated in the District 4 Republican primary by Bobby Harshbarger, son of U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger. Harshberger’s campaign emphasized his mother’s endorsement by former President Donald Trump. After he won the primary, he got his own Trump endorsement, which is featured front and center on his campaign website.
Harshbarger won 52% of the vote, compared to Lundberg’s 48%. That’s despite the incumbent receiving nearly half a million dollars from school voucher groups and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s political action committee, reports the Tennessee Lookout.
It was an upset that followed a contentious race, during which Harshbarger accused Lundberg of selling out to “Nashville elites” and Lundberg filed charges against Harshbager’s father for allegedly stealing and vandalizing his campaign’s yard signs based on video evidence.
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