United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee, 2012

The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the nine U.S. representatives from the state of Tennessee, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election and an election to the U.S. Senate. Primary elections were held on August 2, 2012.

These elections were the first under Tennessee's new congressional map after redistricting was completed by the state government. Following the 2012 elections, no seats changed hands, leaving the Tennessee delegation at a 7-2 Republican majority.

Overview

By district

District 1

The redrawn 1st district will represent Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties, and parts of Jefferson County. The most populous city in the district is Johnson City, and the district will continue to be anchored by the Tri-Cities area. Republican Phil Roe, who has represented the 1st district since 2009, ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Phil Roe, incumbent U.S. Representative

Primary results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Alan Woodruff, attorney

Primary results

General election

Endorsements

Results

District 2

The redrawn 2nd district will represent Blount, Claiborne, Grainger, Knox, and Loudon counties, and parts of Campbell and Jefferson counties. The most populous city in the district is Knoxville; as before, the district is largely coextensive with that city's metropolitan area. Republican Jimmy Duncan who has represented the 2nd district since 1988 ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Jimmy Duncan, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Nick Ciparro, musician and full-time student
* Joseph Leinweber, Jr., U.S. Air Force

Primary results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Troy Goodale, professor of Political Science at Tusculum College

Primary results

General election

Results

District 3

The redrawn 3rd district will represent Anderson, Hamilton, McMinn, Monroe, Morgan, Polk, Roane, Scott, and Union counties, and parts of Bradley and Campbell counties. The most populous city in the district is Chattanooga. Republican Chuck Fleischmann, who has represented the 3rd district since January 2011, ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Chuck Fleischmann, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Ron Bhalla, businessman;
* Scottie Mayfield, president of Mayfield Dairy;
* Weston Wamp, founder of a public relations firm and son of former U.S. Representative Zach Wamp

=Withdrawn

=
* Jean Howard-Hill, former professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and candidate for this seat in 2008 and 2010

=Declined

=
* J.B. Bennett, attorney
* Savas Kyriakidis, businessman, Command Judge in the U.S. Army and independent candidate for this seat in 2010
* Robin Smith, health care consultant and former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party and candidate for this seat in 2010
* Tres Wittum, a policy and research analyst for state senator Bo Watson

Primary results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Mary Headrick, emergency room and acute care physician

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Bill Taylor, businessman,

=Declined

=
* Brenda Freeman Short, candidate for this seat in 2010

Primary results

Independents

Candidates

* Matthew Deniston, Army Veteran and former Ranger

=Withdrawn

=
* Topher Kersting, web designer

=Declined

=
* Savas Kyriakidis, businessman, Command Judge in the U.S. Army and independent candidate for this seat in 2010

General election

Endorsements

Results

District 4

The redrawn 4th district represented Bedford, Bledsoe, Franklin, Grundy, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Meigs, Moore, Rhea, Rutherford, Sequatchie, and Warren counties, and parts of Bradley, Maury, and Van Buren counties. The most populous city in the district was Murfreesboro, which had previously anchored the 6th District. Republican Scott DesJarlais who had represented the 4th district since January 2011 ran for re-election.

Republican primary

State senator Bill Ketron, a Murfreesboro resident, had been rumored to be considering a run for the 4th; he was chairman of the redistricting committee and reportedly drew Murfreesboro into the district to facilitate a run. However, on January 22, 2012 he announced he would not run.

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Scott DesJarlais, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Shannon Kelley, pilot

=Declined

=
* Bill Ketron, state senator
* Jim Tracy, state senator

Primary results

DesJarlais won the Republican Party primary on August 2, 2012, with about 76% of the vote, besting his opponent, Shannon Kelley, by 35,057 votes to 10,779 in a preliminary count.

Democratic primary

State senator Eric Stewart announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge DesJarlais in late 2011. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made his candidacy their top priority in the South in early 2012. Stewart won the Democratic party endorsement.

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Eric Stewart, state senator

Primary results

General election

Campaign

The general election was characterized by a series of controversies involving the incumbent. Stewart agreed to three debates, but DesJarlais told the media that he would not participate. The incumbent was "open to revisiting the question later in the campaign", accusing Stewart of "lack of clarity on the issues" as a reason to avoid debating him. Stewart responded that DesJarlais was avoiding the voters. The local media were critical of the congressman's stance on the debate issue: the ''Chattanoogan'' asked, "Why Won't Desjarlais Debate?" and the ''Times Free Press'' called it "No good reason to avoid debates".

In October 2012, DesJarlais silenced two Democratic representatives on the floor of Congress. DesJarlais was Speaker of the House ''pro tempore'', in a ''pro forma'' session to prevent "President Barack Obama from making recess appointments without congressional consent". Stewart accused DesJarlais of neglecting the district's farmers by not passing the Farm Bill.

The media reported in mid-October 2012 on DesJarlais divorce of his first wife, Susan, from 2001. During their divorce proceedings, Susan DesJarlais alleged that her ex-husband engaged in "violent and threatening behavior". Court filings revealed that he had an affair with a female patient, and pressured her to have an abortion after she became pregnant. In response to the news, Stewart called him a "pro-life hypocrite", contending that "DesJarlais can't be trusted". The DesJarlais campaign did not challenge the truth of the allegations, but replied that "This is old news...." Stewart parried in a news conference that:

After all that, DesJarlais "lashed out at Stewart", stating "there was no pregnancy, and no abortion", blaming his opponents and ex-wife for "dredging up details from his past".

After the primary elections, the race had been rated "Likely GOP" by RealClearPolitics. By July 13 FEC filings, DesJarlais had raised twice as much as Stewart, and had "$591,976 in the bank to Stewart's $152,712". Stewart's aim was to "blanket" the local airways with ads attacking his opponent's vote in favor of Paul Ryan's budget, while the incumbent would tie him to President Barack Obama, who is unpopular in the district. As of October 7, ''The Tennessean'' noted that comparing "money and recent history, DesJarlais has the advantage", due to incumbency, raising twice the funds as Stewart, and the GOP tilt of the district; however, "DesJarlais' edge is not as large as the ones held by his Republican peers in Tennessee, ... DesJarlais entered the election with low name recognition, and he cannot count on the wave of conservative voters that swept Republican candidates into Congress two years ago." Both candidates were running as "outsiders".

As of October 12, the Romney/Ryan campaign had removed DesJarlais's endorsement from their website as reported by the Associated Press. Local political analyst Pat Nolan said that, as of October 10, this probably would be in the news for only a few days, "but it may take longer than that for it to really sink in and for people to understand it". When it breaks and how much money they have to get their messages across are "key" for them. By October 14, it had become the "State's most contentious U.S. House battle hathas everyone talking". As of October 13, analysts stated that Stewart still had an uphill battle finding enough voters to back him.

On the eve of the election, November 5, the Associated Press called for Tennessee's 11 electoral votes to go to "Romney with ease." It also predicted an easy re-election for Senator Bob Corker. However, it noted "Tougher times for GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais after revelations he once discussed abortion with mistress."

Endorsements

Polling

Predictions

Results

DesJarlais won the election 126,751 to Stewart's 99,823, with 95% of the precincts in.

Aftermath

DailyKos noted that the race was one of the "few outliers" in 2012: "No Democratic challenger did quite so well in quite so red a district." Using regression analysis, Stewart's 44.24% tally was the second best of all Democratic candidates, compared to the 30.92% predicted share he would have gotten, all things being equal.

External links

Map of new District 4
on Govtrack.com

District 5

The redrawn 5th district will represent Davidson and Dickson counties, and most of Cheatham County. It is based around Nashville, all of which was restored to the district. Previously, a sliver of southwestern Nashville had been in the 7th District. Democrat Jim Cooper has represented the 5th district since 2003, and previously represented the 4th district from 1983 until 1995.

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Jim Cooper, incumbent U.S. Representative

Primary results

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Brad Staats, businessman and performing artist

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Justin Jones
* Bob Ries, business owner
* John Smith, deputy sheriff
* Tracey Tarum, avionics technician

=Declined

=
* Beth Harwell, speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives

Primary results

General election

Endorsements

Results

District 6

The redrawn 6th district will represent Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Robertson, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, White, and Wilson counties, and small northern parts of Cheatham and Van Buren counties. The most populous city in the district is Cookeville. Republican Diane Black who has represented the 6th district since January 2011 ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Diane Black, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Lou Ann Zelenik, business owner and candidate for this seat in 2010

Primary results

General election

Endorsements

Results

District 7

The redrawn 7th district will represent Chester, Decatur, Giles, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lewis, McNairy, Montgomery, Perry, Stewart, Wayne, and Williamson counties, and parts of Benton and Maury counties. The most populous city in the district is Clarksville. It is significantly more compact than its predecessor, which stretched for 200 miles from east to west but was only two miles wide in some areas of the eastern portion. Republican Marsha Blackburn who has represented the 7th district since 2003 ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Marsha Blackburn, incumbent U.S. Representative

Primary results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Credo Amouzouvik, founder and CEO of the Homeffa Foundation(a humanitarian organization for Togo)

=Withdrawn

=
* Chris Martin

Primary results

General election

Endorsements

Results

District 8

The redrawn 8th district will represent Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Haywood, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, Obion, Tipton, and Weakley counties, and parts of Benton and Shelby counties. The most populous city in the district is Jackson. The new district is significantly more Republican than its predecessor; the legislature pushed it further into the heavily Republican Memphis suburbs. Republican Stephen Fincher, who has represented the 8th district since January 2011, ran for re-election.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Stephen Fincher, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Annette Justice

Primary results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Timothy Dixon, auto industry manager

=Eliminated in primary

=
* John Bradley
* Christa Stoscheck

=Declined

=
* Roy Herron, state senator and nominee for this seat in 2010

Primary results

General election

Results

District 9

The redrawn 9th district will represent most of Shelby County, and is based around Memphis. Democrat Steve Cohen, who has represented the 9th district since 2007, ran for re-election.

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* Steve Cohen, incumbent U.S. Representative

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Tomeka Hart, Memphis City Schools board member

=Withdrawn

=
* Thomas Long, Memphis City Court Clerk

Primary results

Republican primary

Candidates

=Nominee

=
* George Flinn, radiologist, radio magnate and candidate for the 8th district in 2010

=Eliminated in primary

=
* Charlotte Bergmann, business manager and nominee for this seat in 2010
* Ernest Lunati
* Rollin Stooksberry

Primary results

General election

Endorsements

Results

See also

* 2012 Tennessee elections
* 2012 United States elections

References

External links

Elections
at the Tennessee Secretary of State

United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee, 2012
at Ballotpedia

Tennessee U.S. House
from OurCampaigns.com

Campaign contributions for U.S. Congressional races in Tennessee
from OpenSecrets

Outside spending
at the Sunlight Foundation

{{United States elections, 2012

2012
Tennessee
2012 Tennessee elections