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United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 9
- Early voting: Oct. 17 - Nov. 1
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 6
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required
- Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.[2]
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2020 →
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August 2, 2018 |
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The 2018 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Tennessee took place on November 6, 2018. Voters elected nine candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts.
Partisan breakdown
Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held seven of the nine congressional seats from Tennessee.
| Members of the U.S. House from Tennessee -- Partisan Breakdown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of November 2018 | After the 2018 Election | |
| Democratic Party | 2 | 2 | |
| Republican Party | 7 | 7 | |
| Total | 9 | 9 | |
Incumbents
Heading into the 2018 election, the incumbents for the nine congressional districts were:
| Name | Party | District |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Roe |  Republican |
1 |
| John Duncan, Jr. | Republican |
2 |
| Charles Fleischmann | Republican |
3 |
| Scott DesJarlais | Republican |
4 |
| Jim Cooper |  Democratic |
5 |
| Diane Black | Republican |
6 |
| Marsha Blackburn | Republican |
7 |
| David Kustoff | Republican |
8 |
| Steve Cohen | Democratic |
9 |
2016 Pivot Counties
Tennessee featured one congressional district that intersects with one or more Pivot Counties. These 206 Pivot Counties voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012.
The 206 Pivot Counties were located in 34 states. Iowa, with 31, had the most such counties. The partisan makeup of the 108 congressional districts intersecting with Pivot Counties was more Republican than the partisan breakdown of the U.S. House. Of the 108 congressional districts that had at least one Pivot County, 63 percent were held by a Republican incumbent, while 55.4 percent of U.S. House seats were won by a Republican in the 2016 elections.[3]
Candidates
District 1
General candidates
General election candidates
- Phil Roe (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Marty Olsen (Democratic Party)
- Michael Salyer (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Phil Roe (Incumbent) ✔
- Mickie Lou Banyas
- James Brooks
- Todd McKinley
Independents
- Michael Salyer[4] (Salyer also won the Libertarian nomination)[5]
District 2
General candidates
General election candidates
- Renee Hoyos (Democratic Party)
- Tim Burchett (Republican Party) ✔
- Jeffrey Grunau (Independent)
- Keith LaTorre (Independent)
- Greg Samples (Independent)
- Marc Whitmire (Independent)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Republican primary candidates
Did not make the ballot:
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Independents
Not on ballot
District 3
General candidates
General election candidates
- Charles J. Fleischmann (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Danielle Mitchell (Democratic Party)
- Rick Tyler (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
Independents
District 4
General candidates
General election candidates
- Scott DesJarlais (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Mariah Phillips (Democratic Party)
- Michael Shupe (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Scott DesJarlais (Incumbent) ✔
- Jack Maddux
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Independents
District 5
General candidates
General election candidates
- Jim Cooper (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Jody Ball (Republican Party)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- Jim Cooper (Incumbent) ✔
Republican primary candidates
Did not make the ballot:
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
District 6
General candidates
General election candidates
- Dawn Barlow (Democratic Party)
- John Rose (Republican Party) ✔
- Lloyd Dunn (Independent)
- David Ross (Independent)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Did not make the ballot:
Republican primary candidates
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Independents
District 7
General candidates
General election candidates
- Justin Kanew (Democratic Party)
- Mark Green (Republican Party) ✔
- Lenny Ladner (Independent)
- Brent Legendre (Independent)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
Independents
District 8
General candidates
General election candidates
- David Kustoff (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Erika Stotts Pearson (Democratic Party)
- James Hart (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- David Kustoff (Incumbent) ✔
- George Flinn Jr.
- Colleen Owens
Independents
District 9
General candidates
General election candidates
- Steve Cohen (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Charlotte Bergmann (Republican Party)
- Leo AwGoWhat (Independent)
Did not make the ballot:
- Nicholas Mantanona (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- Steve Cohen (Incumbent) ✔
- Isaac Richmond
- Kasandra Smith
Did not make the ballot:
Republican primary candidates
Independents
Withdrew
Wave election analysis
- See also: Wave elections (1918-2016)
The term wave election is frequently used to describe an election cycle in which one party makes significant electoral gains. How many seats would Republicans have had to lose for the 2018 midterm election to be considered a wave election?
Ballotpedia examined the results of the 50 election cycles that occurred between 1918 and 2016—spanning from President Woodrow Wilson's (D) second midterm in 1918 to Donald Trump's (R) first presidential election in 2016. We define wave elections as the 20 percent of elections in that period resulting in the greatest seat swings against the president's party.
Applying this definition to U.S. House elections, we found that Republicans needed to lose 48 seats for 2018 to qualify as a wave election.
The chart below shows the number of seats the president's party lost in the 11 U.S. House waves from 1918 to 2016. Click here to read the full report.
| U.S. House wave elections | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | President | Party | Election type | House seats change | House majority[9] | |
| 1932 | Hoover | R | Presidential | -97 | D | |
| 1922 | Harding | R | First midterm | -76 | R | |
| 1938 | Roosevelt | D | Second midterm | -70 | D | |
| 2010 | Obama | D | First midterm | -63 | R (flipped) | |
| 1920 | Wilson | D | Presidential | -59 | R | |
| 1946 | Truman | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1994 | Clinton | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1930 | Hoover | R | First midterm | -53 | D (flipped) | |
| 1942 | Roosevelt | D | Third midterm | -50 | D | |
| 1966 | Johnson | D | First midterm[10] | -48 | D | |
| 1974 | Ford | R | Second midterm[11] | -48 | D | |
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2018
- U.S. House primaries, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ In Tennessee, most polling places were open between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. All precincts closed at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and 7:00 p.m. Central.
- ↑ In Tennessee, most polling places were open between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. All precincts closed at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and 7:00 p.m. Central.
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Tennessee Secretary of State, "Petitions Filed for Governor as of April 5, 2018," accessed April 6, 2018
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia via email on June 28, 2018
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "WHITMIRE, MARC ROBERT," accessed October 24, 2017
- ↑ Lenny Ladner for Congress, "Home," accessed October 3, 2017
- ↑ Twitter, "Nicholas Mantanona," accessed October 3, 2017
- ↑ Denotes the party that had more seats in the U.S. House following the election.
- ↑ Lyndon Johnson's (D) first term began in November 1963 after the death of President John F. Kennedy (D), who was first elected in 1960. Before Johnson had his first midterm in 1966, he was re-elected president in 1964.
- ↑ Gerald Ford's (R) first term began in August 1974 following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (R), who was first elected in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972. Because Ford only served for two full months before facing the electorate, this election is classified as Nixon's second midterm.
