The 2024 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Tennessee voters have chosen electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Tennessee has 11 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state neither gained nor lost a seat.[2]
Prior to the election, all major news organizations once again considered Tennessee a safe red state; the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 2000, including by double-digit margins since 2004.
On election night, Tennessee voted Republican for former president Donald Trump by a wide margin for the third time in a row, with him winning the state by 29.7%, a considerable increase from his 23.2% victory in 2020 and to a lesser extent his 26% victory in 2016.[3] He received more than 1.96 million Tennessee votes which was a record for votes cast for any candidate in state history.[4] This is the best performance from a Republican candidate for a presidential election in Tennessee since Richard Nixon's 37.9% victory in 1972.
The Tennessee Democratic primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. President Biden won the state in a landslide, earning all 63 pledged delegates
The Tennessee Republican primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Former president Donald J. Trump was challenged by Nikki Haley, the only other major candidate remaining in the Republican primaries. Trump won the state in a landslide, defeating Haley by 57.8 points and earning all 58 delegates.
In Davidson County, Kamala Harris received 62.7% of the vote. The county has not supported a Republican presidential candidate since George H. W. Bush in 1988. Notably, Donald Trump performed surprisingly well in some of Nashville's urban core. He lost Downtown Nashville, home to landmarks like Broadway and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, by only 7.9%—a significant improvement from his 24.6% loss there in 2020.[39][40] Trump's strongest performance in Davidson County came from its rural northern areas, such as Joelton. He also won in parts of southern Davidson County, including suburban areas like Forest Hills and Belle Meade.[41][42]
The surrounding suburban, exurban, and rural counties voted heavily for Trump. He received high raw vote totals in Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson counties, all of which ranked among the fastest-growing areas of Tennessee in 2023.[43] In Rutherford County, Trump carried the city of Murfreesboro by 15.4%.[44] Across the Nashville metropolitan area, Trump received 58.0% of the vote, while Harris received 40.5%.[45]
Hamilton County
Precinct results in Hamilton County
Trump
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
Harris
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
≥90%
Hamilton County, home to Chattanooga, voted somewhat comfortably for Donald Trump, who received 55.7% of the vote. The last Democrat to win the county was Harry S. Truman in 1948, although George Wallace did win a plurality in 1968.[46] Kamala Harris won Chattanooga’s city limits by a 14.2% margin of victory. However, this was a decline from Joe Biden’s 18.8% margin during the 2020 election. Trump improved on his previous performance in the county, returning it to a double-digit margin after winning by only a single-digit margin in 2020.
Trump’s strength came from the suburban and mainly rural areas of Hamilton County, which outweighed Democratic support in the city. Outside Chattanooga, he dominated nearly all precincts, with his strongest performance in the northern and eastern rural parts of the county, which contributed to his comfortable overall lead in the county.[44]
Knox County
Precinct results in Knox County
Trump
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
Harris
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
≥90%
Tie
No data
Knox County, home to Knoxville, voted comfortably for Donald Trump, who received 59.0% of the vote. This result continues the county’s long-standing Republican tradition, as it has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. Despite this Republican dominance, Kamala Harris won Knoxville’s city limits by a 11.4% margin of victory. However, this was a decline from Joe Biden’s 16.0% margin during the 2020 election.[44]
Trump's victory in Knox County was largely driven by his overwhelming support in the suburban and rural areas, which offset Harris’s strength in the urban core. Outside of Knoxville, Trump dominated nearly all precincts, with his strongest showing in the rural northern parts of the county. These regions played a pivotal role in securing his comfortable win.
Clarksville’s urban core, including its diverse neighborhoods and precincts, showed competitive support for Kamala Harris. However, other precincts outside the urban core offset that Democratic strength, helping Trump carry the city by a 6.2% margin, an improvement from his narrow 0.4% margin in 2020.[48] Most of the rural and suburban precincts outside Clarksville, such as Cunningham, Palmyra, Port Royal, and Sango, voted overwhelmingly for Trump, contributing to his comfortable overall lead in the county.[49]
Shelby County
Precinct results in Shelby County
Harris
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
≥90%
Trump
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
No data
Shelby County, home to Memphis, and the most populated county in Tennessee voted decisively for Kamala Harris, who received 61.8% of the vote. The county has not supported a Republican presidential candidate since George H. W. Bush in 1988. Harris’s win in the county was driven largely by the predominantly black, Democratic-leaning population of Memphis, which forms the county's urban core.
Trump performed best in Shelby County’s eastern white suburbs, including Bartlett, Collierville, and Germantown which tend to lean more conservative. He also did well in northern parts of the county, including Millington, reflecting the stark demographic and geographical divide.[50][42]
Analysis
A fast-growing Southern state in the heart of the Bible Belt, no Democrat has won Tennessee's electoral votes since Bill Clinton of neighboring Arkansas, who shared the ticket with favorite sonAl Gore, in 1996, nor has it been contested at the presidential level since 2000, when Gore narrowly lost his home state by less than 4 points. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win at least 40% of the state vote was Barack Obama in 2008, and Republicans have occupied all statewide offices in Tennessee since 2011.
Tennessee handed Republican Donald Trump a decisive victory, doing so by a margin of 910,600 votes, making it his third-largest state win in terms of vote count, following Texas and Florida, which are also in the South. This election marks the third consecutive cycle in which a presidential candidate secured over 60% of the Tennessean vote. Notably, Trump improved his margins in every county and gained significant support across all demographics, performing better in rural, exurban, suburban, and urban areas.[51]
Trump also came close to flipping majority-Black Haywood County, losing it by just 25 votes. Notably, Haywood County voted Republican in the Senate and congressional race on the same ballot. This was the closest the county has come to voting Republican in a presidential race since 1972.[52]
By Grand Division
Results by Grand Division Trump:50–60%60–70%70–80%
Trump won all three of Tennessee's Grand Divisions—West, Middle, and East Tennessee. Middle and East Tennessee are solidly Republican, while West Tennessee, owing to its high Black population, was formerly loyal to the Democrats. It has become competitive for Republicans in recent elections. In 2020, Trump had won it with 49.43% to Biden's 49.06%. Democrats had previously won West Tennessee in 2004, 2008, and 2012.[53][54]
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[1] 5.26 pp 
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