Out of the 17 Tennessee state Senate races in 2022, the closest — a matchup in Knox County between Republican Richard Briggs and Democrat Bryan Langan — had a 24-point margin: 62% of the vote versus 38%, respectively.
Only three of the 99 state House races that year were close enough to be within 5 percentage points, and in many races, candidates were running unopposed in the general election. In 2023, Tennessee was among 28 states with a supermajority in the legislature, meaning there are enough lawmakers on one side of the political spectrum to override a veto by the governor and pass legislation without input from the minority party.
“This is a problem for democracy because you have to have competition between the two parties,” John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, said in a phone call. “Without it, the system tends to spin to either the left or right depending on the party. It doesn’t become responsive, and it doesn’t represent the public well.”
That isn’t an issue unique to Tennessee or Republicans, Geer said, but it does mean lawmakers are more apt to acknowledge the most extreme members of their party rather than the average voter. Without competitive candidates across the party aisle, the last thing a politician would want to do is suggest a policy that could result in them losing a primary.