For the first time in over 20 years, a full slate of Democrats is running in all state House and state Senate races across Hamilton County.
“We talk a lot about moving the needle,” Rodney Strong, former chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said in an interview. “I’m tired of moving the needle. I want to win.”
Strong was in Hamilton County when Tennessee Democrats were influential in the state legislature, before the Republican supermajority took control of the Tennessee General Assembly, and has seen the power shift away from Democrats over the past few decades. He said he thinks recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights and public education prompted more Democratic candidates to challenge Republicans in the November general election.
Currently, state Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, is the only Hamilton County Democrat in the state House and is running for reelection against independent Dr. Thomas J. Brooks III. Hakeem is one of 24 state House Democrats in a sea of 75 Republicans.