No pink in sight
We would tend to agree with a Vanderbilt poll released this week that indicates the actions of our state legislature are not in line with many Tennessee voters on issues like gun rights, abortion and in vitro fertilization, but we don’t think the co-director of the poll is right when he says the disconnect has “begun to take a toll” and “hurt some of the Republicans.”
Indeed, we hope before it does that legislators will modify their stances on various hot-button issues. For instance, we don’t see the Volunteer State moving off its solid red status anytime soon, but we do believe a number of Republican voters would prefer some stiffer gun laws and additional abortion exceptions.
Meanwhile, The Tennessee Star, a conservative news blog, highlighted the fact that the poll’s methodology showed a disproportionate focus on registered voters from the Nashville area, one of the two most Democratic-leaning areas of the state. That, in turn, could have skewed the poll toward the conclusion of the co-director that “we’re not that red.”
If the state’s fifth congressional district, long held by Democrats but redistricted by the Republican legislature to be more favorable to Republicans after the 2020 census, returns to Democratic hands, we’ll believe the state is changing. Or when members of the supermajority Republican legislature are picked off even in a slow trickle, we’ll acknowledge the state’s red color is not so bold.