Pre–1824 Prior to the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, political parties in Tennessee were really non-existent. Since Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796, Tennessee had only voted for the
Democratic-Republican Party in each Presidential Election from
1796 to
1820. the son of former President and founding father
John Adams. Both Adams and Jackson belonged to the same Party, and that Party had divided out into several different factions with Adams being the Northern faction's nominee and Jackson being the Southern faction's nominee. but voters in Tennessee backed the Whig Candidate,
Henry Clay in 1844 over Polk. Surrounded by loyal advisors, the Jacksonian Party was formed in 1826 when Jackson supporters began running under the Jacksonian Party. During this period, the party in Tennessee was still floundering as it did not have any formal party structure for the first few years, however that not matter as long as Jackson was in the
White House. When Jackson retired from the White House,
Vice President Martin Van Buren would be Jackson's handpicked successor in the 1836. In
1856, Tennessee would vote for a
Democrat for the first time since
1836, when Tennessee voted for
James Buchanan for
President. In that election, Tennessee would narrowly vote for the
Constitutional Union Party nominee,
John Bell due to a majority of Tennesseans supported preserving the Union. By June 1861, Tennessee voters would pass an Ordinance of Secession leading to Tennessee becoming the last
Southern state to join the
Confederacy. Lincoln would go on to win re-election for a second term, but his second term was cut short when
John Wilkes Booth shot and killed
President Lincoln at
Ford's Theater. Johnson is currently the last
Democrat from
Tennessee to be
President. When the Civil War ended, the political landscape had changed in
Tennessee. Tennessee had been under
military control since February 1862 when
Union forces captured the
State Capitol of
Nashville. During the years Republicans had control of the General Assembly, they expanded the right to vote to newly freed slaves, disenfranchised former Confederates, and passed a law that would allow the
Governor to declare
Martial Law in individual counties in order to combat the influence of the
Ku Klux Klan. Because of these laws passed after the end of Reconstruction, generations of African American citizens would face extreme racial discrimination in everyday life, the rise of lynching, and the rise of segregation. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, Tennessee voters would only elect and vote mainly for Democrats to the General Assembly, the Governor's office, and federal offices. As the 19th century faded into the new 20th century, Tennessee voters still preferred the Democratic Party. However, the new century would test that allegiance to voting straight Democratic. Around 1900 the Temperance movement had really started to gain momentum in the state, and by 1908 the prohibitionists were had a powerful ally in newspaper publisher
Edward Carmack. Carmack was challenging Democratic Governor Malcom Patterson who was against Prohibition, and the election was bitter until the very end when Patterson narrowly beat out Carmack.
Cordell Hull from
Pickett County Tennessee became
Secretary of State and was one of the architects behind the creation of the
United Nations.
1945–present The Democratic Party in Tennessee was still the dominant party throughout the
New Deal era, and gave rise to the
political bosses in both
Memphis and
Nashville. Since the late 1960s Republicans began to chip away at the control that the Democratic Party held in the state starting in 1967 when
Howard Baker was elected to the
US Senate, followed by
Bill Brock's election to the
US Senate Gore campaigned heavily throughout the state, but by the time the polls had closed George W. Bush had picked up the state's electoral votes. After 2000, the Democratic Party's control continued to slip, and the last time a Democrat won statewide was in 2006 when then Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen had won re-election. After 2011, the Democratic Party was fully out of power for the first time since
Reconstruction. ,
Justin J. Pearson, and
Gloria Johnson protest for gun reform on the floor of the
Tennessee House of Representatives in the wake of the
Covenant School shooting in
Nashville. On April 6, 2023, three Democrats
Rep. Justin Jones,
Rep. Gloria Johnson, and
Rep. Justin J. Pearson faced expulsion from the Tennessee House of Representatives, the first since Franklin Republican Jeremy Durham was expelled in 2016. It was over Jones, Pearson, and Johnson's protest for gun violence prevention and them standing in the well of the House. Speaker
Cameron Sexton of
Crossville compared their protest to the attack on the
US Capitol on
January 6, 2021. Republicans voted to expel both
Justin Jones and
Justin J. Pearson from the House, while voting to not expel Knoxville
Rep. Gloria Johnson. After
President Joe Biden decided to end his
re-election campaign, Tennessee's delegation to the
2024 Democratic National Convention became the first state delegation to endorse
Vice President Kamala Harris and her 2024
Presidential Campaign. ==Elected Democratic Officials==