Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in West Bend, Wis., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) NASHVILLE - Tennessee Republican and Democratic officials have chosen their respective slate of presidential electors who will cast votes in the Electoral College on behalf of their party nominee should he or she carry the Volunteer State on Nov. 8.
Chattanooga activist Annie Hall and Nashville's Andrea Conte, former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's wife, are among the 11 electors named by the state Democratic Party's Executive Committee to cast votes for Hillary Clinton should the Democratic nominee carry the state in November.
The 11 electors selected by Republican State Executive Committee members to cast their votes for GOP nominee Donald Trump include Joey Jacobs of Brentwood, president and CEO of Acadia Healthcare, and Jason Mumpower of Bristol, deputy to state Comptroller Justin Wilson and a former state House Republican leader. No one from the Chattanooga area was named.
The Volunteer State has 11 electoral votes based on its two U.S. senators and nine members of Congress. Tennessee electors account for 2.2 percent of the total 538 electoral votes from the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and territories that elect the president. It takes 270 votes to win.
They represent the statewide will of millions of Americans who will cast votes on Nov. 8. Tennessee is one of 48 states with "winner takes all" rules, based on which presidential candidate gets the most votes. Winners in these states get all the electoral votes regardless of whether it's a majority or a plurality.
A Democratic presidential candidate hasn't carried Tennessee since 1996, when Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore of Tennessee, carried the state by a plurality. In 2000, Gore famously lost Tennessee to Republican George W. Bush.
Brent Leatherwood, the state GOP's executive director, said Democrats have "zero" chance of carrying Tennessee in November.
State Democratic Party spokesman Spencer Bowers said Clinton "has put in the hard work and sweat equity it takes to win a state like Tennessee."
Republicans named businessman Jacobs as a statewide delegate along with Nashville's Beth Scott Clayton Amos, a State Executive Committee member. Those chosen along congressional district lines are:
- Congressional District 1: Jason Mumpower (Bristol)
- Congressional District 2: Susan Mills (Maryville)
- Congressional District 3: Liz Holiway (Harriman)
- Congressional District 4: Lynne Davis (Lascassas)
- Congressional District 5: Tom Lawless (Nashville)
- Congressional District 6: Mike Callahan (Monterey)
- Congressional District 7: Pat Allen (Clarksville)
- Congressional District 8: Shannon Haynes (Alamo)
- Congressional District 9: Drew Daniel (Memphis)
Democrats named Richard Eskind of Nashville and Gale Jones Carson of Memphis as statewide electors representing Tennessee's two U.S. Senate seats. Those chosen along Congressional district lines are:
- Congressional District 1: Nancy Fischman (Johnson City)
- Congressional District 2: Roy Cockrum (Knoxville)
- Congressional District 3: Annie Hall (Signal Mountain)
- Congressional District 4: John T. Bragg Jr. (Murfreesboro)
- Congressional District 5: Andrea Conte (Nashville)
- Congressional District 6: Aubrey T. Givens (Lebanon)
- Congressional District 7: Michael T. Cartwright (Franklin)
- Congressional District 8: Michael McWherter (Dresden), son of the late Gov. Ned McWherter
- Congressional District 9: State Rep. Raumesh Akbari (Memphis)