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Tennessee Conservative News [By Paula Gomes] –
The recent August 6th primary and general elections saw Democrats flip school board and county commission seats across Tennessee.
In Anderson County, Democrats flipped two seats, doubling representation on the county commission.
In Hamilton County, Democrats flipped two seats on the county commission and one seat on the school board.
In District 8’s county commission race, Republican incumbent Mike Chauncey received 45 percent of the vote to Democrat Joshua Wichman who walked away with 55 percent.
In District 11, Republican incumbent Joe Graham suffered a similar defeat, receiving 44 percent of the vote to Democrat Montrell Besley’s 56 percent.
In the school board race, Democrat Katie Perkins won the District 8 seat from which Republican Larry Grohn is retiring. Perkins received 58 percent of the vote compared to her opponent’s 42 percent.
Thursday night’s election results also showed a close race between Republican incumbent County Mayor Weston Wamp, elected in 2022, and Democratic challenger Mark Herndon who ultimately lost by a margin of about 3,000 votes. Wamp ultimately walked away a winner with 52.5 percent of the vote with 33,840 votes. In contrast, 30,665 voters cast a ballot for Herndon.
In Montgomery County, Democrats have gained control of the county commission, having flipped four seats. Once evenly split among Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, the 21-member commission’s makeup is now 11 Democrats, 7 Republicans, and 3 Independents.
While Republicans flipped two seats from Independent candidates, Democrats also flipped two seats from independents, and two from GOP held seats.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board also lost one Republican seat. Four of the seven seats were on the ballot and Democrats won three which changes what had been a 5-2 Republican to Democrat board to now 4 to 3 Republicans to Democrats.
In Knox County, control of the school board was flipped to a 5-4 Democrat majority. Since 2022 when school board races became partisan, the board of education has been led by Republicans.
Republican candidate Bill Sofield lost to Democrat Brandy Jenkins in the District 9 race and will take the place of Republican school board chair Kristi Kristy who lost to GOP primary challenger Sofield in May.
The Knox County Commission also lost a Republican seat to Democrats.
Of note, while Republican Betsy Henderson won the Knox County Mayor’s race, it was only by 5 points, like Wamp in Hamilton County, down from a 55 percent Republican win just four years ago, and a whopping 66 percent since 2018.
In Rutherford County, Democrats gained a school board seat and now make up approximately a third of county commission, ending a GOP supermajority.
In Sumner County, Democrats won a county commission race in a county where no Democrat has occupied a seat on the commission in 20 years.
Washington County saw 3 county commission seats go to Democrats with a fourth seat ending in a tie.
The outcome of the race for the District 13 seat between Republican incumbent Kenneth Huffine and Democrat Cindy Humphrey will either be resolved through a runoff election, or the current county commission could have the final say.
Local Democrats are calling for a runoff election.
In wealthy Williamson County, Democrats also flipped a county commission seat and a seat on the school board.
And in Wilson County, Democrats flipped two county commission seats, where all were previously held by Republicans.
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About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
