Early voting is underway for the Aug. 3 election in Davidson County. Voters will cast a ballot for mayor, vice mayor, and district and at-large Metro Council seats. The special general election for state House District 52 and the Democratic and Republican primaries for state House District 51 also will be on the ballot. For those who want to vote absentee, the deadline to request a ballot is July 27. Find polling places, hours and other election information.

The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance recently gave former state Senate candidate Gary Humble extra time to provide proof that his campaign did not coordinate illegally with Tennessee Stands, a nonprofit entity he controls. Humble now has until October to provide documentation on contributions and spending by his campaign, Tennessee Lookout reports. Registry members subpoenaed Humble’s information in January after opening an audit of the campaign in 2022. He was supposed to have provided the information by March. Humble barely lost to Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in the 2022 Republican primary. He has denied that he coordinated with Tennessee Stands. Shortly after the registry’s extension, a Humble supporter filed a complaint against Johnson alleging he engaged in illegal coordination with three groups.

Tennessee Democrats have taken in a wave of campaign cash since Republicans removed two House members who protested the majority’s positions on gun violence, the Associated Press reports. State Rep. Justin Pearson says he raised about $860,000 through some 31,700 campaign donations, the vast majority of which came in during the days between being removed from office and being reinstated. While out of office, both Pearson and fellow expelled lawmaker Justin Jones achieved national notoriety and were able to fundraise on that momentum. While Jones’ campaign has not released the total funds it received, it benefited from a fundraising pitch from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and an effort by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, who raised more than $605,000 to split between Pearson and Jones.

Preliminary results in the House District 3 special election show that Timothy Hill of Blountville won the Republican primary election with 81% of the votes, according to unofficial results from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office. Hill is filling the seat recently vacated by Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, who resigned after an internal investigation by a state subcommittee in late March found that he violated a discrimination and harassment policy. Hill will face Democrat Lori Love of Kingsport in the general election on Aug. 3.

The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators held the first of four town halls on Thursday in Hamilton County. The Chattanoogan reports that the lawmakers answered questions about new third-grade testing requirements, juvenile justice and marijuana. Next, caucus members will travel to Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, was joined Thursday by caucus members and Memphis Democrats Sen. Raumesh Akbari, Rep. Joe Towns, Rep. Antonio Parkinson and Rep. Jesse Chism, as well as caucus Chair Rep. Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville. The Black Caucus is a nonpartisan group, though there have been no Republican members join yet, Akbari said Thursday.

Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, have both won their special primary elections after being ousted from the state House of Representatives in April for their roles in gun violence protests. WKRN caught up with Jones after he voted. “Quite frankly, it’s a waste of taxpayer money," Jones said. "But it is part of the process to undo what happened on April 6th.” The general election will be held in August.

Two main candidates are emerging to succeed the late state Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, who died earlier this month. The Nashville Post reports that former Metro Council Member Anthony Davis could be appointed by the council as soon as next week to temporarily fill the vacancy, a move deemed necessary in the event that a special legislative session on gun control moves forward as planned in August. Davis also will run in the special election to fill the remainder of the term while Nashville organizer Aftyn Behm also has declared her candidacy. The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 3, on the same ballot as the mayoral and Metro Council elections. The general election will be held Sept. 14, when Metro runoffs are scheduled. The qualifying deadline for the race is June 22.

The Brennan Center for Justice has released a new report noting that State Reps. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville, were the first state or federal lawmakers in more than a century to be expelled for their viewpoints or speaking without permission. According to The Daily Memphian, the report argues that the expulsions of Pearson and Jones were discriminatory, unconstitutional and without recent precedent, and the Tennessee House’s actions, showed “all the hallmarks of suppressing speech based on its viewpoint.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a declared candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. president, will give the keynote address at this year’s Tennessee GOP Statesmen’s Dinner in Nashville. The dinner will take place at the Music City Center on July 15, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

A special primary election will be held Aug. 3 to fill the House District 51 seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, the Tennessean reports. The Davidson County Election Commission today set that date and Sept. 14 for the general election. Beck, a Nashville lawyer and longtime Democratic state representative died after suffering a heart attack on Sunday. He was 61.