Voters set new legislative lineup
East Tennessee voters spoke out with their votes Tuesday, Nov. 3, in 203 precincts across Knox County and the state.
In the state races, Republican nominees Sen. Dr. Richard Briggs of District 7 and House Rep. Jason Zachary kept their seats while the Republican District 5 state senate seat went to Jimmy Matlock.
“I’m humbled and grateful that people trusted me to represent them in this role,” Matlock said of the win. “[The Election Day] was a fun evening, and now we’ve got to get to work.
“While I’ve done this before in the House, this is a senate seat so I’ll have a chance to go back and serve the folks that I care greatly about,” he said.
Once he’s sworn in, Matlock said he will focus on infrastructure needed to meet the growth in East Tennessee.
“I’m going to try, in my particular case to work on how to help with that,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of road projects that we need to get finished.”
Matlock also plans to address education issues and “how best the state can help the family. It is a family-first emphasis and how the state role needs to be sustained.”
Matlock defeated Democratic candidate David Miller with 41,483 or 61.16% of the votes compared to Miller’s 26,347. However, Miller received the most votes in Knox County, 10,699 votes compared to Matlock’s 10,447.
As the returning senator of District 7, Briggs said the state legislature needs to “refocus on the basic kitchen table issues of affordability, inflation, education and healthcare.
“Hard-working families are struggling and the divisive culture wars need to be set aside and everyday problems addressed,” he said.
Briggs defeated Democratic opponent Bryan Langan with 33,498 or 52.72% of the votes compared to Langan’s 30,044 or 47.28%.
“I was not surprised that state and national elections showed gains by the Democrats,” Briggs said.
Still, he said he was shocked by “the magnitude of the Democratic wins across the country.”
In the District 14 House of Representatives race, Jason Zachary was re-elected, defeating Lindsay Young Honaker with 17,097 votes to Honaker’s 13,543 for 55.7% of the total votes.
Zachary could not be reached for comment.
In the gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn defeated Democratic nominee Jerri Green with 957,136 of the votes to Green’s 902,953 votes, making Blackburn the first woman to be elected governor in the state. She could not be reached for comment.
Still, Green captured a majority of Knox County’s votes, 76,116 votes to Blackburn’s 66,600 with 11,298 for Independent candidate David Hatley, who received 195,564 total votes.
In other races,
• Republican incumbent Bill Hagerty received 1,138,436 total votes for the U.S. Senate seat, defeating Democratic candidate Marquita Bradshaw, who received 886,974 votes, giving him another term. In Knox County, the margin was slimmer, 50.24% to 48.35%.
• Tim Burchett returns to represent East Tennessee in U.S. District 2 House of Representatives. He received 144,892 votes compared to Michaela Barnett’s 103,311. In Knox County, Burchett garnered 78,125 votes to Barnett’s 76,885. He could not be reached for comment.
• Sam McKenzie won 100% of Knox County’s votes in the House of Representatives District 15 seat with 10,925 total votes to earn re-election.
• In District 16, Republican Michele Carringer defeated Democratic opponent Eliza Boles with 12,947 votes to Boles’ 8,800.
Regarding the Constitutional amendments 1, 2 and 3, the vote for “Yes” garnered 95,276 votes for 61.81%; 97,426 votes for 63.59% and 112,615 votes for 73.47%, respectively.
And in the votes for the City Charter Amendment, 24,312 people voted yes to outnumber the no’s, totalling 23,708 votes.
