Tennessee voters went to the polls Thursday in a primary that could decide who gets the Republican governor's nomination and who gets the first nod in a newly redrawn Memphis congressional district. The race to replace term-limited Bill Lee now centers on U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, four-term U.S. Rep. John Rose and state Rep. Monty Fritts, while Memphis voters are choosing nominees under a map that split the city into three Republican-dominated districts.
That makes the Tennessee election results especially important today because the governor's race is not just an open seat, but one that comes in a state that has not elected a Democratic governor in 20 years. Five Democrats are also running for governor, including Memphis City Councilwoman Jerri Green, while Bill Hagerty is on the Republican primary ballot alone as he seeks a second term in the U.S. Senate and faces five Democrats in November.
In Memphis, the new 9th District has become the sharpest test of the map lawmakers approved in May. Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen had held the current Memphis-based district for 20 years, but he ended his reelection bid after the map was adopted, and now State Rep. Justin Pearson, State Sen. London Lamar and former healthcare and nonprofit executive Jim Torino are seeking the Democratic nomination there. Pearson was expelled from office in 2023 over a gun control protest in the chamber before winning his seat back four months later.
The Republican field in the new 9th District includes State Sen. Brent Taylor, state Rep. Todd Warner, retired Army sergeant and volunteer firefighter Jeremy Thompson and conservative activist Charlotte Bergmann. Taylor has outraised the rest of the combined field and has Donald Trump's endorsement, a notable edge in a district where voters backed Trump for president in 2024 with about 60% of the vote. That contrasts with the current district, which Vice President Kamala Harris carried with about 71% in 2024, showing how much the map and the electorate changed at once.
There is one more layer to the governor's race that hangs over the day. Trump backed both Blackburn and Rose in previous campaigns, but he has stayed out of the governor's primary, leaving Republican voters to settle a contest that was already expected to be decided between the two higher-profile candidates and Fritts. The next test comes in November, when the Senate race and the newly nominated district candidates move into the general election and Tennessee learns whether this map and this field deliver the result lawmakers intended.
