TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Feb 3, 2023

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) announced yesterday it will begin taking an active role in nonpartisan elections and will endorse candidates who run as independents in partisan races. “In the 2022 cycle, we had a lot of candidates running in nonpartisan races or running as independents we couldn’t support,” said TNDP Chair Hendrell Remus. The party has a longstanding practice of not being involved in nonpartisan races. Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University, says the move is likely a response to Republican legislation to increase the role of partisan elections. This year, bills have been introduced to make all state and local elections partisan, require Supreme Court judges to declare a party affiliation, and institute a closed primary system in which all voters must declare a party affiliation before voting. Tennessee Lookout has more on the story.