2014 Tennessee Senate election

For related races, see 2014 United States state legislative elections.

Not to be confused with 2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee.

The 2014 Tennessee State Senate election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect 18 of the 33 seats for the Tennessee's State Senate. The elections coincided with the Governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and State House elections. The primary elections were held on August 7, 2014.^[1]

2014 Tennessee Senate election

← 2012 November 4, 2014 2016 →
18 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 30th district Seats before 26 7 Seats won 28 5 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 463,829 170,534 Percentage 71.20% 26.18% Swing 1.26% 3.88%
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%      80–90%      >90%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Speaker before election Ron Ramsey Republican Elected Speaker Ron Ramsey Republican

Republicans gained 2 seats, expanding their Senate Supermajority.^[2]

Retirements

Three incumbents (3 Democrats) did not run for re-election in 2014. Those incumbents are:

1. District 15: Charlotte Burks retired.
2. District 21: Douglas Henry retired.
3. District 27: Lowe Finney retired.

Incumbents defeated

In the primary election

Democrats

1. District 29: Ophelia Ford lost renomination to Lee Harris.

Republicans

1. District 7: Stacey Campfield lost renomination to Richard Briggs.
2. District 25: Jim Summerville lost renomination to Kerry Roberts

Results summary

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	17	463,829	71.20%	26	11	13	28	2
	Democratic	9	170,534	26.18%	7	6	4	5	2
	Green	1	9,366	1.44%	0	0	0	0
	Constitution	1	1,139	0.17%	0	0	0	0
	Independent	4	6,558	1.01%	0	0	0	0
	Write-in	1	38	0.01%	0	0	0	0
Total			651,464	100.00%	33			33
Source:

Popular vote Republican   71.20% Democratic   26.18% Other   2.62%

Senate seats Republican   84.85% Democratic   15.15%

Closest race

Many of the senators running in this election ran unopposed or had an uncompetitive election. This race was the closest in the Senate election:

District	Winner	Margin
District 27	Republican	25.3%

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Governing[3]	Safe R	October 20, 2014

Detailed results by State Senate District

District 1 • District 3 • District 5 • District 7 • District 9 • District 11 • District 13 • District 15 • District 17 • District 19 • District 21 • District 23 • District 25 • District 27 • District 29 • District 30 (special) • District 31 • District 33

Source:^[4]

District 1

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Steve Southerland (incumbent)	19,911	100
Total votes			19,911	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 1^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Steve Southerland (incumbent)	29,698	100
Total votes			29,698	100
	Republican hold

District 3

Republican primary

Republican Primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rusty Crowe (incumbent)	23,205	100
Total votes			23,205	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 3^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rusty Crowe (incumbent)	32,508	100
Total votes			32,508	100
	Republican hold

District 5

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Randy McNally (incumbent)	19,393	100
Total votes			19,393	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 5^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Randy McNally (incumbent)	37,302	100
Total votes			37,302	100
	Republican hold

District 7

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 7^[8]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Richard Briggs	14,056	69.8
	Republican	Stacey Campfield (incumbent)	4,864	24.2
	Republican	Mike Alford	1,204	6.0
Total votes			20,124	100
General election
	Republican	Richard Briggs	27,942	65.3
	Democratic	Cheri Siler	14,880	34.7
Total votes			42,822	100
	Republican hold

District 9

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Bell (incumbent)	20,368	100
Total votes			20,368	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 9^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Bell (incumbent)	31,748	100
Total votes			31,748	100
	Republican hold

District 11

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bo Watson (incumbent)	21,336	100
Total votes			21,336	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 11^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bo Watson (incumbent)	37,386	100
Total votes			37,386	100
	Republican hold

District 13

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bill Ketron (incumbent)	12,495	100
Total votes			12,495	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 13^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bill Ketron (incumbent)	29,489	100
Total votes			29,489	100
	Republican hold

District 15

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 15^[12]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Paul Bailey	13,141	48.4
	Republican	Matt Swallows	12,577	46.3
	Republican	Gary Steakley	1,453	5.3
Total votes			27,171	100
General election
	Republican	Paul Bailey	33,674	73.3
	Democratic	Betty Vaudt	10,263	22.3
	Independent	William Draper	2,022	4.4
Total votes			45,959	100
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 17

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 17^[13]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mae Beavers (incumbent)	16,177	59.3
	Republican	Clark Boyd	11,104	40.7
Total votes			27,281	100
General election
	Republican	Mae Beavers (incumbent)	35,454	100
Total votes			35,454	100
	Republican hold

District 19

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 19^[14]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Thelma Harper (incumbent)	10,520	86.2
	Democratic	Brandon Puttbrese	1,685	13.8
Total votes			12,205	100
General election
	Democratic	Thelma Harper (incumbent)	23,235	75.3
	Republican	Sterlina Inez Brady	4,701	15.2
	Independent	George Thomas	2,899	9.4
	Write in	Rueben (Dock) Dockery	38	0.1
Total votes			30,873	100
	Democratic hold

District 21

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 21^[15]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jeff Yarbro	6,830	56.7
	Democratic	Mary Mancini	5,217	43.3
Total votes			12,047	100
	Republican	Diana Cuellar	2,960	61.3
	Republican	Quincy McKnight	1,523	31.5
	Republican	Mwafaq Aljabbary	346	7.2
Total votes			4,829	100
General election
	Democratic	Jeff Yarbro	25,402	66.6
	Republican	Diana Cuellar	12,714	33.4
Total votes			38,116	100
	Democratic hold

District 23

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jack Johnson (incumbent)	18,985	100
Total votes			18,985	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 23^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jack Johnson (incumbent)	45,732	83.0
	Green	Amy Balderrama	9,366	17.0
Total votes			55,098	100
	Republican hold

District 25

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 25^[17]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Kerry Roberts	9,832	42.2
	Republican	Joshua Evans	8,819	37.8
	Republican	Jim Summerville (incumbent)	3,701	15.9
	Republican	Wayne White	968	4.2
Total votes			23,320	100
General election
	Republican	Kerry Roberts	29,337	70.4
	Democratic	Tony Gross	12,316	29.6
Total votes			41,653	100
	Republican hold

District 27

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 27^[18]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ed Jackson	11,136	58.9
	Republican	Brandon Dodds	7,763	41.1
Total votes			18,899	100
General election
	Republican	Ed Jackson	23,331	60.2
	Democratic	Randy Lamb	13,515	34.9
	Constitution	Tim York	1,139	2.9
	Independent	James Baxter	779	2.0
Total votes			38,764	100
	Republican gain from Democratic

District 29

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 29^[19]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Lee Harris	10,517	42.5
	Democratic	Ricky Dixon	6,882	27.8
	Democratic	Ophelia Ford (incumbent)	6,756	27.3
	Democratic	Herman Sawyer	611	2.5
Total votes			24,766	100
	Republican	Jim Finney	3,111	82.0
	Republican	Anthony Herron, Jr.	682	18.0
Total votes			3,793	100
General election
	Democratic	Lee Harris	27,707	81.9
	Republican	Jim Finney	6,123	18.1
Total votes			33,830	100
	Democratic hold

District 30 (special)

A special election was called for November 4, 2014, following the resignation of Jim Kyle, who was elected as a Shelby County Chancery Court judge. Sara Kyle defeated George Flinn Jr. in the election. Kyle was elected to serve the remaining two years of Kyle's four-year term

General special election

2014 Tennessee Senate special election, District 30^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Sara Kyle	18,377	69.9
	Republican	George Shea Finn	7,044	26.8
	Independent	David Vinciarelli	858	3.3
Total votes			26,279	100
	Democratic hold

District 31

Republican primary

Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Kelsey (incumbent)	23,703	100
Total votes			23,703	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 31^[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Kelsey (incumbent)	39,646	100
Total votes			39,646	100
	Republican hold

District 33

Democratic primary

Democratic primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Reginald Tate (incumbent)	16,037	100
Total votes			16,037	100

General election

2014 Tennessee Senate election, District 33^[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Reginald Tate (incumbent)	24,839	100
Total votes			24,839	100
	Democratic hold

See also

• 2014 Tennessee elections
• 2014 Tennessee House of Representatives election