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Tennessee's 8th Congressional District election, 2020 (August 6 Democratic primary)

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Tennessee's 8th Congressional District
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Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: April 2, 2020
Primary: August 6, 2020
General: November 3, 2020
Pre-election incumbent:
David Kustoff (Republican)
How to vote
Poll times: Varies by county
Voting in Tennessee
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican
Inside Elections: Solid Republican
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020
See also
Tennessee's 8th Congressional District
U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th
Tennessee elections, 2020
U.S. Congress elections, 2020
U.S. Senate elections, 2020
U.S. House elections, 2020

A Democratic Party primary took place on August 6, 2020, in Tennessee's 8th Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 3, 2020.

Erika Stotts Pearson advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 8.

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
April 2, 2020
August 6, 2020
November 3, 2020


Heading into the election, the incumbent was David Kustoff (Republican), who was first elected in 2016.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Tennessee utilizes a closed primary process; a voter must either be registered with a political party or must declare his or affiliation with the party at the polls on primary election day in order to vote in that party's primary.[1]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Tennessee's 8th Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Election procedure changes in 2020

See also: Changes to election dates, procedures, and administration in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020

Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.

Tennessee made no changes to its primary election.

For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.


Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 8

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Erika Stotts Pearson
Erika Stotts Pearson
 
51.1
 
14,510
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Savannah Williamson
 
20.4
 
5,788
Image of Lawrence Pivnick
Lawrence Pivnick
 
16.5
 
4,685
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Hollis Skinner
 
11.9
 
3,389

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 28,372
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+19, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 19 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Tennessee's 8th Congressional District the 42nd most Republican nationally.[2]

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.01. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.01 points toward that party.[3]

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Erika Stotts Pearson Democratic Party $19,272 $16,085 $4,137 As of December 31, 2020
Lawrence Pivnick Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Hollis Skinner Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Savannah Williamson Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.
*** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.


General election race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

  • Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
  • Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
  • Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[4]
  • Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[5][6][7]

Race ratings: Tennessee's 8th Congressional District election, 2020
Race trackerRace ratings
November 3, 2020October 27, 2020October 20, 2020October 13, 2020
The Cook Political ReportSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Inside Elections with Nathan L. GonzalesSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal BallSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ LexisNexis, "Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-7-115," accessed July 16, 2025
  2. ↑ Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
  3. ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
  4. ↑ Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
  5. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
  6. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
  7. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018


Tennessee's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Marsha Blackburn (R)
Bill Hagerty (R)
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
John Rose (R)
District 7
Vacant
District 8
District 9
Republican Party (9)
Democratic Party (1)
Vacancies (1)


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