2012 Tennessee Senate election

For related races, see 2012 United States state legislative elections.

Not to be confused with 2012 United States Senate election in Tennessee.

The 2012 Tennessee State Senate election was held on November 6, 2012, to elect 16 of the 33 seats for the Tennessee's State Senate. The elections coincided with the Presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and State House elections. The primary elections were held on August 2, 2012.^[1]

2012 Tennessee Senate election

← 2010 November 6, 2012 2014 →
16 of the 33 seats in the Tennessee State Senate 17 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Ron Ramsey Jim Kyle Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat 4th district 28th district Seats before 20 13 Seats won 26 7 Seat change 6 6 Popular vote 704,393 302,714 Percentage 69.94% 30.06%
Results by gains and holds Results by winning party vote share Results:      Republican gain      Republican hold      Democratic hold      No Election Vote Share:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      >90%      >90%
Speaker before election Ron Ramsey Republican Elected Speaker Ron Ramsey Republican

Republicans gained 6 seats, getting a supermajority in the Senate chamber.^[2][3]

Retirements

Five incumbents (4 Democrats and 1 Republican) did not run for re-election in 2012. Those incumbents are:

Democrats

1. District 10: Andy Berke retired to run for mayor of Chattanooga in 2013.
2. District 16: Eric Stewart retired to run for Tennessee's 4th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
3. District 20: Joe M. Haynes retired.
4. District 24: Roy Herron retired.

Republicans

1. District 18: Kerry Roberts retired.

Incumbents defeated

In the primary election

Democrats

1. District 30: Beverly Marrero lost renomination to Jim Kyle.

In the general election

Democrats

1. District 22: Tim Barnes lost to Mark Green

Results summary

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	15	704,393	69.94%	20	9	15	26	6
	Democratic	10	302,714	30.06%	13	7	1	7	6
Total			1,007,107	100.00%	33	16	16	33
Source:

Popular vote Republican   69.94% Democratic   30.06%

Senate seats Republican   78.79% Democratic   21.21%

Closest races

Three races were decided by a margin of under 10%:

District	Winner	Margin
District 22	Republican (gain)	6.16%
District 20	Republican (gain)	8.16%
District 10	Republican (gain)	8.64%

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Governing[4]	Safe R	October 24, 2012

Detailed results by State Senate District

District 2 • District 4 • District 6 • District 8 • District 10 • District 12 • District 14 • District 16 • District 18 • District 20 • District 22 • District 24 • District 26 • District 28 • District 30 • District 32

District 2

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 2^[5]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Doug Overbey (incumbent)	11,334	61.0
	Republican	Scott Hughes	7,260	39.0
Total votes			18,594	100
General election
	Republican	Doug Overbey (incumbent)	60,517	100
Total votes			60,517	100
	Republican hold

District 4

Republican primary

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ron Ramsey (incumbent)	12,183	100.00%
Total votes			12,183	100.00%

General election

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 4^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ron Ramsey (incumbent)	55,913	100.00%
Total votes			55,913	100.00%
	Republican hold

District 6

Republican primary

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Becky Duncan Massey (incumbent)	7,260	100.00%
Total votes			7,260	100.00%

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Evelyn Gill	1,479	100.00%
Total votes			1,479	100.00%

General election

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 6^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Becky Duncan Massey (incumbent)	49,744	68.7
	Democratic	Evelyn Gill	22,691	31.3
Total votes			72,435	100
	Republican hold

District 8

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 8^[8]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Frank Niceley	7,021	44.6
	Republican	Cynthia Bundren Jackson	5,432	34.5
	Republican	Jeffrey Brantley	1,817	11.5
	Republican	Hobart Rice	1,483	9.4
Total votes			15,753	100
General election
	Republican	Frank Niceley	43,687	100
Total votes			43,687	100
	Republican hold

District 10

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 10^[9]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Andrae McGary	4,302	61.6
	Democratic	David Testerman	1,705	24.4
	Democratic	Quenston Coleman	979	14.0
Total votes			6,986	100
	Republican	Todd Gardenhire	8,022	50.1
	Republican	Greg Vital	7,982	49.9
Total votes			16,004	100
General election
	Republican	Todd Gardenhire	36,557	54.32%
	Democratic	Andrae McGary	30,745	45.68%
Total votes			67,302	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 12

Republican primary

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ken Yager (incumbent)	18,037	100.00%
Total votes			18,037	100.00%

General election

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 12^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ken Yager (incumbent)	51,076	100.00%
Total votes			51,076	100.00%
	Republican hold

District 14

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 14^[11]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jim Tracy (incumbent)	11,174	86.7
	Republican	Matt Randolph	1,707	13.3
Total votes			12,881	100
General election
	Republican	Jim Tracy (incumbent)	50,235	100
Total votes			50,235	100
	Republican hold

District 16

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 16^[12]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jim Lewis	2,937	27.60
	Democratic	Steve Roller	2,902	27.27
	Democratic	Justin Walling	2,878	27.04
	Democratic	Kevin Lawrence	1,256	11.80
	Democratic	Jeff Bottoms	670	6.30
Total votes			10,643	100.00
	Republican	Janice Bowling	8,162	60.1
	Republican	Ron Stolzfus	2,280	16.8
	Republican	Eric Chance	2,277	16.8
	Republican	Rod McClellan	866	6.4
Total votes			13,585	100
General election
	Republican	Janice Bowling	40,139	62.9
	Democratic	Jim Lewis	23,636	37.1
Total votes			63,775	100
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 18

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 18^[13]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ferrell Haile	8,627	48.2
	Republican	Jeff Coker	7,527	42.1
	Republican	J. H. Tony Allers	1,370	7.7
	Republican	Brock Ewell	367	2.1
Total votes			17,891	100
General election
	Republican	Ferrell Haile	49,472	69.2
	Democratic	Maria Brewer	21,970	30.8
Total votes			71,442	100
	Republican hold

District 20

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 20^[14]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Phillip North	5,148	74.3
	Democratic	James Baxter	1,784	25.7
Total votes			6,932	100
	Republican	Steven Dickerson	5,378	48.5
	Republican	David Hall	3,325	30.0
	Republican	Rob Mortenson	2,379	21.5
Total votes			11,082	100
General election
	Republican	Steven Dickerson	46,254	54.08%
	Democratic	Phillip North	39,280	45.92%
Total votes			85,534	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 22

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Tim Barnes (incumbent)	3,869	100.00%
Total votes			3,869	100.00%

Republican primary

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mark Green	4,849	100.00%
Total votes			4,849	100.00%

General election

Results by county

County	Green	%	Barnes	%	Total
Houston	1,317	45.23%	1,595	54.77%	2,912
Montgomery	28,197	53.66%	24,348	46.34%	52,545
Stewart	2,449	51.42%	2,314	48.58%	4,763

County results
Green:      50–60%
Barnes:      50–60%

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 22^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mark Green	31,963	53.08%
	Democratic	Tim Barnes (incumbent)	28,257	46.92%
Total votes			60,220	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 24

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 24^[16]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	John Stevens	5,419	60.9
	Republican	Danny Jowers	3,476	39.1
Total votes			8,895	100
General election
	Republican	John Stevens	38,667	56.5
	Democratic	Brad Thompson	29,807	43.5
Total votes			68,474	100
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 26

Republican primary

Republican primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dolores Gresham (incumbent)	12,179	100.00%
Total votes			12,179	100.00%

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Meryl Rice	5,073	100.00%
Total votes			5,073	100.00%

General election

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 26^[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dolores Gresham (incumbent)	42,990	60.4
	Democratic	Meryl Rice	28,131	39.6
Total votes			71,121	100
	Republican hold

District 28

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 28^[18]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Joey Hensley	12,589	76.6
	Republican	Dean Dickey	3,847	23.4
Total votes			16,436	100
General election
	Republican	Joey Hensley	37,361	55.2
	Democratic	Tyler Cobb	30,375	44.8
Total votes			67,736	100
	Republican gain from new constituency

District 30

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 30^[19]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jim Kyle (incumbent)	7,368	55.4
	Democratic	Beverly Marrero (incumbent)	5,931	44.6
Total votes			13,299	100
General election
	Democratic	Jim Kyle (incumbent)	47,822	100
Total votes			47,822	100
	Democratic hold

District 32

2012 Tennessee Senate election, District 32^[20]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mark Norris (incumbent)	26,592	88.9
	Republican	Woody Degan	3,319	11.1
Total votes			29,911	100
General election
	Republican	Mark Norris (incumbent)	69,818	100
Total votes			69,818	100
	Republican hold

See also

• 2012 Tennessee elections
• 2012 Tennessee House of Representatives election