| Tennessee's 3rd congressional district | |
|---|---|
.svg)  Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 | |
| Representative | |
| Distribution |
|
| Population (2024) | 809,872[2] |
| Median household income | $74,530[2] |
| Ethnicity |
|
| Cook PVI | R+18[3] |
The3rd congressional district of Tennessee is acongressional district inEast Tennessee. It has been represented by RepublicanChuck Fleischmann since January 2011. The third district has been centered on Chattanooga since before theCivil War.[4]
In terms of density, the district is sparsely populated, as much of it is located within theAppalachian Mountains. Almost half of the district's population lives inHamilton County.
The district comprises two halves, joined through a narrow tendril inRoane County nearTen Mile. The lower half bordersNorth Carolina to the east andGeorgia to the south. For the118th and successive Congresses (based on redistricting following the2020 census), the district contains all or portions of the following counties and communities:[5]
HamiltonCounty(19)
McMinnCounty(7)
MonroeCounty(7)
MorganCounty(7)
PolkCounty(7)
RoaneCounty(6)
ScottCounty(3)
Due tocounty island parcels nearSweetwater, Tennessee, the district (although geographically contiguous) entirely-surrounds three exclaves ofTennessee's 2nd congressional district.
| Year | Office | Results[6] |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | President | McCain 62% - 37% |
| 2012 | President | Romney 65% - 35% |
| 2016 | President | Trump 65% - 30% |
| 2018 | Senate | Blackburn 59% - 40% |
| Governor | Lee 64% - 35% | |
| 2020 | President | Trump 65% - 33% |
| Senate | Hagerty 67% - 31% | |
| 2022 | Governor | Lee 69% - 29% |
| 2024 | President | Trump 67% - 31% |
| Senate | Blackburn 67% - 31% |
The 3rd district is on the dividing line between counties and towns that favored or opposed Southern secession in theCivil War.George Washington Bridges was elected as aUnionist (the name used by a coalition of Republicans andWar Democrats) to theThirty-seventh Congress, but he was arrested byConfederate troops while en route toWashington, D.C., and taken back to Tennessee. Bridges was held prisoner for more than a year before he escaped and went to Washington, D.C., and assumed his duties on February 23, 1863; serving until March 3, 1863.
During much of the 20th century, southeastern Tennessee was the only portion of traditionally heavilyRepublicanEast Tennessee whereDemocrats were able to compete on a more-or-less even basis. The Chattanooga papers—the moderate-to-progressiveTimes and the archconservativeFree Press (now consolidated into theChattanooga Times Free Press)—printed diametrically opposed political editorials. The northern counties have predominantly voted Republican since the 1860s, in a manner similar to their neighbors in the present1st and2nd districts. However, Democrats have received some support incoal mining areas (dating from theGreat Depression). Also, in the years sinceWorld War II, the government-founded city ofOak Ridge, with its activelabor unions and a population largely derived from outside the region, has been a source of potential Democratic votes.
This balance showed signs of changing beginning in the late 1950s, when rural and working-class whites began splitting their tickets in national elections to supportDwight Eisenhower andBarry Goldwater. In later years, the district warmly supportedGeorge Wallace in his third-party run for president in 1968, and gave equally strong support toRichard Nixon andRonald Reagan, as well asGovernorsWinfield Dunn andLamar Alexander. The district has only supported a Democrat for president twice in the last half century, in 1956 and 1992. Even in those cases, that support was almost entirely attributable to the presence of native sons asvice presidential candidates. In 1956, SenatorEstes Kefauver, who had represented the 3rd from 1939 to 1949, was the Democratic vice presidential candidate. In 1992, SenatorAl Gore wasBill Clinton's running mate, but even with Gore's presence, the Democrats only carried the 3rd by 39 votes out of 225,000 cast.
Even as the district became friendlier to Republicans at the national level, Democrats still held their own at the local level. This trend was broken when RepublicanBill Brock won the congressional seat in 1962, ending a 40-year run by Democrats. He handed the seat to fellow RepublicanLaMar Baker in 1971. However, conservative DemocratMarilyn Lloyd (the widow of a popular television news anchorman in Chattanooga) regained it in 1974 and held it for 20 years. As late as the early 1990s, area Democrats held at least half the local offices in the region, particularly in the southern portion.
As the 1990s wore on, Democrats slowly began losing even county and local offices that they had held for generations. This trend actually began as early as 1992, when Lloyd barely held onto her seat against RepublicanZach Wamp. Lloyd retired in 1994, and Wamp narrowly won the race to succeed her as part of that year's massive GOP wave. Wamp was handily reelected in 1996, and the Republicans have held it without serious difficulty since then. Indeed, the Democrats have only cleared 40 percent of the vote twice since Lloyd retired. Redistricting after the 2010 census consolidated the Republican hold on the seat, and it is now one of the most Republican districts in the nation.
Democrats still remain competitive in some local- and state-level races, particularly in Chattanooga and Oak Ridge. Chattanooga also sends some Democrats to the state legislature. However, even moderately liberal politics are a very hard sell, and most of the area's Democrats—particularly outside Chattanooga—are quite conservative on social issues. The 3rd district is home to severalEvangelicalProtestant denominations and colleges, contributing to the area'ssocial conservatism.
After Wamp's January 2009 announcement that he would run for governor in 2010 instead of seeking re-election, several candidates announced campaigns for the seat. As of March 2010, the Republican field included former state party chairwoman Robin Smith, Air ForceCaptain Rick Kernea, Tommy Crangle, Chattanooga attorneyChuck Fleischmann, Bradley Countysheriff Tim Gobble, Art Rhodes, Van Irion, andBasil Marceaux. Fleischmann won the August 5, 2010 primary with about 28% of the total vote.[7][8] Democratic candidates as of October 2009 were Paula Flowers of Oak Ridge, a former member of GovernorPhil Bredesen's cabinet, and formerLibertarian Party member Brent Benedict, who won the 2006 Democraticprimary for the seat but lost the general election to Wamp.[9][10][11] Both of those Democrats later abandoned their campaigns, but four other candidates placed their names on the ballot for the August 2010 Democratic primary: Alicia Mitchell of Oak Ridge, Brenda Freeman Short of East Ridge, and Brent Staton andJohn Wolfe of Chattanooga. Wolfe was the winner in the August 5, 2010 primary.[12] Six independents also filed petitions to appear on the November 2010 ballot: Don Barkman, Mark DeVol, Gregory C. Goodwin, Robert Humphries, Mo Kiah and Savas T. Kyriakidis.[13] Republican nomineeChuck Fleischmann won the general election in November 2010 with 57% of the vote, trailed by DemocratJohn Wolfe with 28%, and independent Savas Kyriakidis with 10%.[14]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 157,830 | 61.5 | ||
| Democratic | Mary Headrick | 91,094 | 35.4 | ||
| Independent | Matthew Deniston | 7,905 | 3.1 | ||
| Total votes | 256,829 | 100 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 97,344 | 62.3 | |
| Democratic | Mary M. Headrick | 53,983 | 34.6 | |
| Independent | Cassandra J. Mitchell | 4,770 | 3.1 | |
| Total votes | 156,097 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 176,613 | 66.4 | |
| Democratic | Melody Shekari | 76,727 | 28.9 | |
| Independent | Rick Tyler | 5,098 | 1.9 | |
| Independent | Cassandra Mitchell | 5,075 | 1.9 | |
| Independent | Topher Kersting | 2,493 | 0.9 | |
| Total votes | 266,006 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 156,512 | 63.7 | |
| Democratic | Danielle Mitchell | 84,731 | 34.5 | |
| Independent | Rick Tyler | 4,522 | 1.8 | |
| Total votes | 245,765 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 215,571 | 67.3 | |
| Democratic | Meg Gorman | 97,687 | 30.5 | |
| Independent | Amber Hysell | 5,043 | 1.6 | |
| Independent | Keith Sweitzer | 1,990 | 0.6 | |
| Write-in | 8 | 0.0 | ||
| Total votes | 320,299 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 136,639 | 68.3 | |
| Democratic | Meg Gorman | 60,334 | 30.1 | |
| Independent | Rick Tyler | 1,736 | 0.8 | |
| Independent | Thomas Rumba | 1,121 | 0.5 | |
| Total votes | 199,830 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Chuck Fleischmann (incumbent) | 236,519 | 67.51% | |
| Democratic | Jack Allen | 102,841 | 29.36% | |
| Independent | Stephen King | 5,848 | 1.67% | |
| Independent | Jean Howard-Hill | 5,120 | 1.46% | |
| Total votes | 350,328 | 100.00% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
35°45′42″N84°30′34″W / 35.76167°N 84.50944°W /35.76167; -84.50944
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
