The 9:01: GOP wins bigly in the 2018 Tennessee midterm election
The outcome of the midterm elections last night in Shelby County and Tennessee, and across the nation, surprised everyone by being so very unsurprising.
With few exceptions, and despite some close calls, Republicans and Democrats won the seats they were supposed to win. In Tennessee, which President Donald Trump won by 26 points in 2016, that means Republican Bill Lee won the governor’s race by a landslide, breaking the decades-old tradition of the parties trading the office, and Republican Marsha Blackburn became the first woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.
That Republicans won bigly in Tennessee is only surprising because, in our political moment, we have come to expect the unexpected.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the midterms in Tennessee is that, for the first time in a long time, Democrats ran competitive races — and almost won a few of them, thanks to aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts. Turnout was so high in Shelby County, which was inundated with voter registrations shortly before the deadline, that there was a shortage of “I voted” stickers and an influx of provisional ballots.
“We live in a tribal time where it’s hard to overcome the red vs. blue divide,” tweeted Jeff Yarbro, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, after the election. “Tennessee moved massively today from results just two years ago. It wasn’t enough tonight, but I so appreciate all of the candidates, volunteers & voters that made TN a battleground.”
Democrat Phil Bredesen, a throwback Democrat who ran a throwback campaign, lost to Blackburn by 10 points. Perhaps Democrats would have turned out in greater numbers for a younger, more progressive candidate, as they have elsewhere. Or maybe Bredesen would have been crushed by waves of Republican voters in an increasingly Republican state. Either way, Democrats mounted their best campaign since Gov. Bredesen’s 2006 reelection.
Closer to home, GOP Sen. Brian Kelsey, whose district in Germantown is traditionally a Republican stronghold, beat Democratic newcomer Gabby Salinas by fewer than 2,000 votes. Longtime GOP Rep. Jim Coley of Bartlett beat newcomer Allan Creasy by just over 2,000 votes.
Meanwhile, helped by the eastward migration of Memphis voters, Democrat Dwayne Thompson handily defeated a challenge from Republican Scott McCormick, a Shelby County Schools board member and former City Council member, in reddish Cordova.
In Memphis, the overwhelming defeat of all three referenda on the ballot could have long-lasting benefits — or consequences, depending on your point of view.
Now that voters have ruled out extended term limits, the three remaining veteran Memphis City Council members — Joe Brown, Kemp Conrad and Reid Hedgepeth — have no other option but to exit the council next year.
And now that voters have re-approved instant-runoff voting in singledistrict council races, the question now is whether state law allows the voting method.
A judge could decide that question in upcoming months, ahead of the 2019 election. Memphis approved the voting method in 2008, but it was never implemented.
Sadly, the tribalism mentioned by Yarbro — that deepening rift between the parties — was on full display in Memphis earlier in the day as Gibson’s Donuts, an East Memphis staple, caught flak for hosting Blackburn during a standard political meet-and-greet.
Blackburn’s caustic campaign style is partly to blame for the hard feelings that manifested themselves in the form of a boycott.
But the over-the-top outrage at a doughnut shop’s tacit endorsement of the Republican candidate leaves an unfortunate aftertaste — especially after Bredesen’s repeated calls for a return to civility in politics.
In the wake of Tuesday’s losses, Democrats have a choice.
They can either embrace the kind of moderate vision articulated by Bredesen in hopes of eventually turning the tide — or they can embrace the kind of tribalism that boycotts a doughnut shop.
Ryan Poe writes The 9:01 column, a morning news briefing that runs weekdays at 9:01 a.m. Reach him at poe@ commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.