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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

School voucher voter polls vary wildly in Tennessee as many legislative candidates skirt the issue

Staff photo by Olivia Ross / "I Voted" stickers sit in a bucket at the Election Commission on Nov. 3, 2022. Tennessee holds primary elections for its state legislative seats on Aug. 1 and general elections on Nov. 5. All 99 seats in the House and half of the Senate's 33 seats are on the ballot this year.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / "I Voted" stickers sit in a bucket at the Election Commission on Nov. 3, 2022. Tennessee holds primary elections for its state legislative seats on Aug. 1 and general elections on Nov. 5. All 99 seats in the House and half of the Senate's 33 seats are on the ballot this year. Staff photo by Olivia Ross / "I Voted" stickers sit in a bucket at the Election Commission on Nov. 3, 2022. Tennessee holds primary elections for its state legislative seats on Aug. 1 and general elections on Nov. 5. All 99 seats in the House and half of the Senate's 33 seats are on the ballot this year.


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While Gov. Bill Lee’s universal school voucher proposal is clearly a key issue this election year, there is less agreement on where Tennessee voters stand on the contentious education policy, incentivizing many state legislative candidates to avoid discussing the matter.

Numerous voter polls have generated wildly different results this year, depending on which organization was behind the survey and how the questions were asked.

As a result, rural Republican candidates, whose legislative votes would be pivotal in deciding the issue, aren’t generally trumpeting their positions on what would amount to a major policy change.