Legislation that prevents Tennessee counties from switching to a caucus for local partisan elections passed a House vote Monday and now heads to Governor Bill Lee, despite pushback from Republican Party leaders.

The lawmakers are proposing legislation that ensures every county that currently uses a primary for local partisan races continues to do so and prohibits them from switching to a caucus or convention.

Tom Stinnett

Today voters across the state will decide the primary races for 16 State Senate seats along with all 99 State House seats. Very few of these seats are expected to be highly competitive in the November general election, so tonight’s primaries will have a big impact on the General Assembly that returns to Nashville next year.

Former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough continues to outraise Rep. John Ragan.

Senate district 4 challenger Bobby Harshbarger prominently lists supporting “anti-woke education” as one of his campaign priorities yet the fifth largest campaign donation he received this quarter came from the recently retired president of one of the country’s largest historically black colleges and universities.