Germantown resident Brandon Toney yesterday pulled a petition to challenge state Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, in the Republican primary, the Daily Memphian reports. Toney says Kelsey’s federal indictment on campaign finance charges fueled his decision to run. “He is embarrassing our party,” Toney said. “He’s embarrassing our state legislature. He is embarrassing all of us.” Toney owns Collierville small business First Fruit Collection and is a nurse practitioner. He wants to see the state put a better emphasis on health, noting Tennessee is consistently ranked among the unhealthiest of states. Toney currently serves on Germantown’s Economic Development Commission. “I’m not a politician. I’m just an everyday guy that wants to go and serve his community,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, yesterday announced he’ll be running for a third term in that state’s newly redrawn 7th Congressional District, the Tennessean reports. "As your representative in Washington, I will work to protect the rights of Tennesseans to govern themselves," Green said. The announcement comes just days after Gov. Bill Lee signed off on a set of new Senate, House and congressional district maps. According to the new map, the 7th District will now include downtown Nashville, northwest Davidson County and western Williamson County, in addition to Stewart, Montgomery, Robertson, Houston, Dickson, Cheatham, Humphreys, Hickman, Perry, Wayne and Decatur counties and most of Benton County.

Two new candidates have filed to run in the Republican primary for the newly redrawn 5th Congressional District, the Nashville Post reports. They are former State Department aide and Fox News personality Morgan Ortagus and attorney and retired brigadier general Kurt Winstead. The district, which traditionally has covered Nashville, will now cover portions of Davidson County, Williamson County and Wilson County as well as Lewis, Maury and Marshall counties. Ortagus, who recently moved to Nashville, works with health care investment firm Rubicon Founders. Winstead is an attorney with Rudy Winstead Turner in Franklin. They join businessman Baxter Lee and music video producer Robby Starbuck in the primary. On the Democratic side, longtime incumbent Rep. Jim Cooper is retiring while Odessa Kelly, who had already announced a primary challenge against Cooper, is considering a switch to another district.

Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a set of new Senate, House and congressional district maps yesterday, the Tennessean reports. In January, Lee told the Rotary Club of Nashville he believed state lawmakers "made every effort to follow the law" when crafting the new congressional districts. But Democrats have spoken out against what they call partisan gerrymandering designed to draw power away from booming Nashville. The Tennessee Democratic Party says it is "prepping a lawsuit."

Under redistricting maps approved by the General Assembly, a new 35th House district will cover Hendersonville, most of Gallatin, Bethpage, Castalian Springs and all of Trousdale County. The seat has already drawn interest from at least two candidates, Mainstreet Nashville reports. Deanne DeWitt, a Republican on the Sumner County Commission, has already announced her intention to run for the open seat while William Slater, dean of adult and online studies at Welch College, plans to formally kick off his campaign for the Republican nomination this weekend. DeWitt was elected to the commission in 2018. She will not seek reelection to that body. Slater worked in business consulting services for IBM for 16 years and was headmaster at Hendersonville Christian Academy for 21 years. In 2011, he ran unsuccessfully in a special election for the 18th District Senate seat now held by Ferrell Haile.

Johnson City criminal defense attorney Steve Finney is running for district attorney in the state’s 1st Judicial District, WJHL reports. Finney is currently running unopposed on the Republican ticket after current District Attorney Ken Baldwin announced he would retire. Finney was previously an assistant district attorney under David Crockett and Joe Crumley. He has practiced criminal defense law for 17 years. Finney said he’ll run his campaign on three major platforms: communication, commitment and experience. The 1st Judicial District covers Washington, Unicoi, Carter and Johnson counties. 

Rutherford County senior judicial commissioner Jacob Flatt is withdrawing as a Republican candidate for juvenile court judge, the Daily News Journal reports. The move leaves Travis Lampley, who is running as a Republican, and Andrae Crismon, who is running as an independent, to seek the seat being vacated by Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport, who announced in January that she would not seek re-election. Lampley is an assistant district attorney for the 16th Judicial District and works on cases involving children and adults in Cannon County. A graduate of the Appalachian School of Law, Lampley started his career as a prosecutor in the Davidson County District Attorney's Office and as general counsel for the Department of Children’s Services. Crismon recently left Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands where he worked for nearly 15 years, serving eight years as managing attorney and finally as director of the Volunteer Lawyers Program.

When the Tennessee legislature voted to combine Knoxville’s two Democratic-leaning state House districts, they effectively carved Rep. Gloria Johnson’s home out of the district she currently represents. Johnson now says she is moving to the newly created District 90 to run again, Knoxnews reports. Much of her current District 13 will be part of the new district. Johnson says she did not want to challenge Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie, the region’s lone Black representative in the General Assembly, in a redrawn District 15 so moving was the best option.

Nashville businessman Baxter Lee has announced he will run for Congress in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, which is being relinquished by longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, after the state legislature revamped its boundaries. Lee is one of several Republican candidates reportedly interested in the new district, which will include parts of Davidson, Wilson and Williamson counties, plus several rural counties to the south, the Nashville Post reports. Lee filed campaign papers with the Federal Election Commission today. Other Republicans said to be eyeing the seat are music video producer Robby Starbuck, who launched his campaign before the redistricting changes were made, and former U.S. Department of State aide Morgan Ortagus who moved to Nashville last year to work with a health care investment firm. Former president Donald Trump has endorsed Ortagus though she has not yet officially announced her candidacy.

Rutherford County Commissioner Robert Stevens has announced his candidacy in the Republican primary for the new 13th district of the Tennessee House of Representatives, the Murfreesboro Post reports. The county will gain a fifth seat in the House as a result of redistricting. The new district includes portions of Blackman, Eagleville, Rockvale, LaVergne and Smyrna. Stevens earned his law degree from the University of Memphis Law School and has owned and operated a law practice in the county since 2009. He is the current president of the Smyrna Rotary Club and a graduate of Leadership Rutherford.