With a new fight looming in 2025 over publicly funded, school vouchers for students to attend private schools, the issue continues to impact general elections. Other key issues playing out in the general include effective representation, safe gun storage requirements, and expanding the current narrow and subjective exceptions to Tennessee's highly restrictive abortion law.
With half of Tennessee's state Senate seats in play this year, there are no open seats in the Middle Tennessee area. Here's who is running:
Tennessee state Senate District 14
Tennessee Senate District 14 includes Bedford, Moore, Cannon and parts of Rutherford counties.
Sen. Shane Reeves, R-Smyrna, incumbent
Murfreesboro pharmacist and business owner Sen. Shane Reeves, is seeking a second full term in the Tennessee Senate. Reeves was first elected to the seat in a 2018 special election, when the seat was vacated by former Sen. Jim Tracy, who joined the Trump administration. He was re-elected in 2020. Since his election, Reeves has supported legislation to establish a statewide, state-funded private school voucher program, phase out the state's professional privilege tax, and sponsored a successful measure to prevent state insurance regulations from applying to healthcare sharing ministries. He was elected to serve as chaplain for the 111th General Assembly.
E. R. Smith, Democrat
E.R. Smith, a retired teacher and small business owner, is challenging Reeves for the District 14 seat. Supporting public schools is among Smith's top priorities; she supports raising teacher pay, and opposes private school vouchers. If elected, Smith would also support gun control policies including extreme risk protection orders and safe storage laws. She has also called for Tennessee to repeal its strict abortion ban.
Tennessee state Senate District 18
Tennessee Senate District 18 is currently held by Sen. Ferrell Haile. The district includes Sumner and Trousdale Counties.
Incumbent Sen. Ferrell Haile,R-Gallatin, is seeking reelection for a fourth term. He has represented Senate District 18 since 2010, when he was appointed to represent the district following the resignation of former state Sen. Diane Black. Haile is a farmer and a pharmacist who serves as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Senate. He sponsored legislation to establish Tennessee's Safe Baby Courts, which seek to smooth transitions for adoptive families, supported legislation to ban medical and surgical gender transition surgeries for minors, and to prohibit transgender children from participating in sports that do not align with their biological sex. Haile supports expanding access to publicly funded private school vouchers.
Walter S. Chandler, Democrat
Chandler holds a degree in aerospace engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and an MBA from Albertus Magnus College, according to his campaign. Among his top issues including opposing the expansion of school vouchers, expanding Medicaid, gun-safety legislation and providing more affordable housing options.
Laura A. Black, independent
A native of Sumner County, Black is an English professor at Vol State Community College. Her family's connections to the region go back generations. Her grandfather grew up near Epperson Springs. On her campaign website, she says she's running for Senate because voters are "exhausted by the supermajority of the Tennessee Republican legislature who cannot even consider opposing viewpoints or carry out the will of the citizens of Tennessee." As one of the most concerning issues to her, she cites the legislature's passage of a divisive concepts bill that fringes upon the First Amendment rights of educators.
John Gentry, independent
Gentry, a certified public accountant, calls himself a conservative and a "warrior for all Tennesseans." On his campaign website, he touts his service in the U.S. Marines and his pushing for residents to address their government. He favors term limits, says he'll fight illegal immigration and push for reforms, such as not allowing officials to hold two government positions, among other topics. In 2022, he ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for governor.
Tennessee state Senate District 20
Tennessee Senate District 20 includes the northern, western and southern portions of Davidson County including Bellevue, Belle Meade, Joelton, Goodlettsville and Hermitage.
Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, incumbent
Nashville native Sen. Heidi Campbell, a former business owner, music industry executive, and former Mayor of Oak Hill, is seeking re-election to the Tennessee Senate. Campbell, a vocal member of the six-member Democrat minority in the Tennessee Senate, was first elected in 2020, defeating former Sen. Steve Dickerson and flipping Senate District 20 blue. Campbell is a vocal advocate of gun control, Medicaid expansion, and affordable housing. She sponsored legislation in 2024 to authorize creation of an East Bank Development Authority in Nashville. Campbell ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Tennessee's 5th District in 2022, and for Nashville mayor in 2023.
Wyatt Rampy, Republican
Wyatt Rampy is founder of Poplar Hill Realty in Bellevue. He is on the board of Bellevue Community Foundation, Nashville Christian School, God's Word for Warriors, and World Christian Broadcasting. According to his campaign website, Rampy supports teacher pay increases and incentive-based pay in underperforming schools, expansion of trade and magnet school options, and "parent-directed choice in how their child is educated." He also supports new funding for mental health professionals, establishing incentives for local governments to combat homelessness, and tougher bail and sentencing guidelines for violent crimes.
Tennessee state Senate District 22
Tennessee Senate District 22 includes nearly all of Montgomery County.
Sen. Bill Powers, R-Clarksville, incumbent
Bill Powers is a managing partner of Wyatt-Johnson Automotive Group, and previously served on the Clarksville City Council and boards of several Clarksville utilities. Powers ran for State Senate in a 2019 special election to fill the vacancy created by U.S. Rep. Mark Green's election to Congress, and was re-elected in 2020, defeating democrat Ronnie Glynn, who is now in the statehouse. Powers voted for Gov. Bill Lee's Education Savings Accounts legislation in 2019 on the day he was sworn into office. He also co-sponsored Lee's proposal to establish taxpayer-funded school vouchers for students to attend private schools in 2024. He has co-sponsored legislation directing federal authorities to address the Asian Carp "invasion in Tennessee waterways."
Karen Reynolds, Democrat
Karen Reynolds is a member of the Clarksville City Council. A retired Army Master Sergeant with 21 years of service, Reynolds holds a master's in adult education from East Carolina University, and has a background working in veteran's services. Reynolds opposes taxpayer-funded private school vouchers, as well as any effort to reject federal education funding, as she says doing so would force local tax hikes. According to her campaign website, she would advocate to repeal the third grade retention law, and advocate for safe and legal access to abortion, and continued access to contraceptives and reproductive health care. She supports safe storage requirements for guns, closing background check loopholes, and establishing red flag provisions. Reynolds would also support ending the state's grocery tax, and advocate for legalization of medical cannabis to relieve chronic pain, combat injuries, fibromyalgia, endometriosis and PTSD.
Tennessee state Senate District 28
Tennessee Senate District 28 includes Maury, Lewis, Giles and Marshall counties.
Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, incumbent
Incumbent Sen. Joey Hensley, a Hohenwald physician, is seeking a fourth term in the State Senate. Hensley has served in the state legislature since 2003, and in the Senate since 2013. A member of the Sons of the Confederacy, he opposed removal of the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol in 2021. In 2022, he sponsored a bill to designate any person who "has been issued an enhanced handgun carry permit" as a member of law enforcement. The bill, opposed by the Fraternal Order of Police, was unsuccessful. Hensley has sponsored unsuccessful legislation to ban schools from discussing LGBTQ+ issues. Owner of a small doctor's office in Hohenwald, Hensley was accused by state medical officials in 2019 of unethically prescribing controlled substantives to his family members and an employee with whom he was in a "personal relationship." Hensley admitted to the allegations, but explained that in his small town of fewer than 4,000 residents, there were few alternatives to seek treatment. The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners ultimately sentenced him to three years of probation and a $2,000 fine. Hensley won reelection in 2020 with 78.5% of the vote against an independent challenger. This year is the first time Hensley has seen a challenge from a Democrat since he won the seat in 2012.
James Dallas, Democrat
Maury County Democratic Party chair James Dallas is running to challenge Hensley. A Tennessee native, Dallas has lived in Columbia for six years, and is an IT professional. According to his Ballotpedia survey, Dallas is running to "protect public education in Tennessee from privatization and budget cuts," and help bring better representation to the state legislature, which he describes as "out-of-touch with ordinary Tennesseans" and "beholden to lobbyists and culture war extremists." If elected, Dallas says he would file legislation to repeal the Kelsey-Durham law that bars expansion of TennCare, and work to expand the state's Medicaid program to expand healthcare access in rural areas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voter Guide: Middle Tennessee state Senate races
