2026 Tennessee Primary Preview
This is a short one due to the lack of meaningful Democratic primaries in Tennessee, and an oddly-timed one because of Tennessee's Thursday primaries. However, I still have an all-write-in primary for you, and how often do you see that?
Hawaii's preview will be out Saturday, followed by Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Connecticut's previews on Monday or Tuesday morning. The paywall will go up on Sunday, so you should at least start a free trial by then if you want the August 11 previews!
SD-33
Southeast Memphis | Harris+65.3
London Lamar (i) vs. Tamika Abrum
State Sen. London Lamar faces a challenge from Tamika Abrum, who appears to have raised and spent less than $100. She should have no trouble tonight.
HD-59
Southern Nashville, Forest Hills, Belle Meade, Oak Hill | Harris+2.5
Rick Ewing vs. Angie Lawless vs. Mark Proctor vs. Beth West
Four Democrats are fighting for the nomination to succeed retiring state Rep. Caleb Hemmer, and one of them is head-and-shoulders above the others. Democratic activist Beth West is backed by leading state House progressives Aftyn Behn and Gloria Johnson, and is realistic about the (nonexistent) chances of working with the GOP supermajority. Hemmer, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, and other Nashville-area Democratic luminaries are backing gay state highway patrolman Mark Proctor, who has a financial advantage. Attorney Angie Lawless shares Proctor’s focus on gun control in the wake of the 2023 Covenant school shooting in this area. And Rick Ewing, the husband of a Nashville councilwoman, is a philanthropist with ties to moderate-ish former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.
HD-80
Jackson, Brownsville | Harris+7.3
Andrea Bond-Johnson vs. Shelia Godwin vs. Bethany Miller
It's a little surprising Tennessee Republicans didn’t bother to chop up the state’s lone rural VRA state House seat when they did the same to the state’s lone VRA congressional district, but they left HD-80 alone, and so rural Black Tennesseans will still have a voice in the state capitol, assuming the nominee here can hold this right-trending district. The contest to succeed retiring state Rep. Johnny Shaw may turn out to be purely geographic, however: this is a three-county district, and Andrea Bond-Johnson is from Haywood County, Shelia Godwin is a Madison County Commissioner, and Bethany Miller is a Hardeman County Commissioner, giving each candidate an obvious geographic base (and probably a leg up to Godwin, since Madison County should cast the most votes thanks to the city of Jackson.)
HD-84
Southeast Memphis | Harris+75.7
Joe Towns Jr. (i) vs. Kyler Gilkey
Former DNC delegate and congressional aide Kyler Gilkey is challenging state Rep. Joe Towns Jr., who is concurrently the Democratic nominee in today’s general election for Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk (which he should win, as Shelby County, Tennessee is a very Democratic jurisdiction.) Gilkey has endorsements from the mayor of Memphis, outgoing U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, and area state Sen. Raumesh Akbari in his challenge to Towns, and plenty of money to work with as well. He doesn't seem progressive, but he seems better than Joe Towns Jr., whose Facebook is full of antisemitic and homophobic AI slop conspiracies.
HD-86
Riverfront Memphis | Harris+44.8
Justin Pearson (i) vs. David Page
David Page is a perennial phantom candidate who has never gotten a double-digit percentage of the vote. Maybe that’ll change from voters miffed by Justin Pearson’s simultaneous campaigns for Congress and reelection, but I doubt it.
HD-91
South-central Memphis | Harris+70.3
Torrey Harris (i) vs. Arriell Gipson-Martin
State Rep. Torrey Harris has had some negative stories brewing in the background for a while—a dispute with his ex-boyfriend that turned into an arrest, rumblings of improprieties with a PAC he set up in 2024, taking the shine off Harris's once-bright political star (he got into office by turfing out an awful conservative Democratic incumbent.) That is the fuel that Arriell Gipson-Martin is hoping will propel her into elected office from years of behind-the-scenes roles in Shelby County government, after Gipson-Martin’s campaign for county clerk came up short this spring. Gipson-Martin has won over Run for Something and Indivisible Tennessee, meaning that Harris is losing his own progressive one-time allies here (and that ideologically, Gipson-Martin is probably a lateral move at worst.)
HD-93
Central and East Memphis | Harris+53.3
T.J. Hardaway (i) (write-in) vs. Lashanta Rudd (write-in) vs. Britney Thornton (write-in)
State Rep. T.J. Hardaway was appointed by the Shelby County Commission to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of his father, the late state Rep. G.A. Hardaway—leaving the race without any candidates on the ballot after the filing deadline. So, T.J. is running a write-in campaign for his father’s seat, hoping to meet the legal requirement of getting 5% of registered voters in order to win as a write-in—meaning 1,787 votes is the floor. Unfortunately for T.J., he’s not the only Democrat mounting a write-in bid: outgoing County Commissioner Britney Thornton and her just-elected successor-to-be Lashanta Rudd (Rudd is the only candidate on the ballot for Thornton’s commission seat) have also filed with the county elections commission to run as write-ins.
HD-96
North Memphis to Cordova | Harris+46.3
Gabby Salinas (i) vs. Telisa Franklin
Progressive state Rep. Gabby Salinas first won her seat two years ago, narrowly edging out entrepreneur Telisa Franklin in a four-way race. Now Franklin, and only Franklin, is back for a rematch, with at least some support from corners of the Memphis political world—state Rep. Antonio Parkinson has given to Franklin’s campaign and is promoting her on social media along with some allies. Salinas, the first Latina Democrat and LGBT woman in the Tennessee House, has progressives and much of organized labor (such as it exists in the South) backing her for another term.
