Candidates, political parties and special interests just spent billions to achieve a 2023 result that’s surprisingly similar to 2022. As the counting continued on Nov. 8-9, Republicans had 48 Senate seats, while Democrats had 47 with 5 still undecided. In the U.S. House, neither party had claimed the 218 seats necessary for a majority, although Republicans were leading.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson (third from left) with campaign team members after a day of door-knocking.
In Knox County, all incumbent legislators won re-election and Elaine Davis held District 18 (where Rep. Eddie Mannis did not seek re-election) for Republicans. We’ll have to drill down to the precinct level to get a better feel for Districts 18 and 90.
Meanwhile, we’ve ranked these wins based on unofficial returns:
Gov. Bill Lee (R) 79.9 % over Democratic nominee Jason Martin.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R) 60.1 %
over Democratic nominee Mark Harmon.
Other winners:
- Sen. Randy McNally (R) 100 %
- Sen. Richard Briggs (R) 62.3 %
- Rep. Michele Carringer (R) 100%
- Rep. Dave Wright (R) 74.6 %
- Rep. Sam McKenzie (D) 71 %
- Rep. Justin Lafferty (R) 66.2 %
- Rep. Jason Zachary (R) 64.4 %
- Rep. Gloria Johnson (D) 57.8 %
- And Rep.-elect Elaine Davis (R) 54 %
Congratulations to the winners, especially Gloria Johnson, who overcame redistricting designed to beat her and the usual negative ads, and Elaine Davis, who faced down opposition from all the Ds and a chunk of the Rs.
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today Inc.