Tennessee\'s_5th_congressional_district

The current boundaries of Tennessee\'s 5th District

The 5th Congressional District of Tennessee is a congressional district in Middle Tennessee. The most regularly drawn of the state\'s nine districts, it currently includes almost all of Davidson County, half of Wilson County, and half of Cheatham County. Nearly two-thirds of the district\'s voting population lives in the state capital, Nashville.

Tennessee has had at least five congressional districts since 1827. The district\'s current configuration dates from 1953, when Tennessee lost a seat in redistricting. The Tennessee General Assembly shifted most of the territory of the former 6th District to neighboring districts, creating a 5th District located entirely in Davidson County. While other areas around Nashville have been added in subsequent years, the 5th has been drawn as a Nashville-based district ever since.

The 5th is a very safe seat for the Democratic Party, due almost entirely to the influence of heavily Democratic Nashville. Some pockets of Republican influence exist in some wealthier Nashville neighborhoods (e.g., Belle Meade, Green Hills), and portions of neighboring Cheatham and Wilson counties undergoing rapid suburbanization. However, they are no match for the overwhelming Democratic trend in most of Nashville. While Republicans made several strong bids for the district in the late 1960s and early 1970s (largely over racial issues such as a 1971 busing order), they have only put up token candidates since 1972. At the federal level, the district has supported the Democrats\' presidential candidate in every election except two--in 1968 (when it supported George Wallace) and 1972 (when it supported Richard Nixon). Even Walter Mondale, who badly trailed Ronald Reagan in 1984 throughout Tennessee, won Davidson County by a healthy margin.

Demographics are a major factor behind the Democrats\' near-absolute dominance of the political scene. Many conservative white voters (including Nashville natives) have increasingly moved out of Metro Nashville/Davidson County to more "family-friendly" Republican suburban counties such as Williamson and Sumner. They have been replaced largely by liberal-oriented constituencies such as students (and alumni) of the Nashville area\'s several colleges and universities, music industry professionals (especially in the growing non-country genres), and white-collar professionals, in a manner similar to that of cities such as Atlanta, Raleigh/Durham, and Austin. In the entire state, only Memphis has anything like a sizable constituency of progressive-minded whites that Nashville has. The clout of Nashville\'s African-American electorate, a traditionally Democratic constituency, has grown steadily in recent years as well.

Generally, the 5th is one of three seats in Tennessee that are usually not seriously contested by Republicans (the others being the 8th and 9th districts).

Democrat Jim Cooper, a former representative from the 4th District in southern middle Tennessee, has represented the 5th since 2003.

Representatives

* Died in office
** Assumed office by special election

Source: Political Graveyard database of Tennessee congressmen

Recent election results

Source: November 7, 2006 General Election Official Returns (Accessed 2006-12-11)

Source: Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 2004

History of district boundaries

Below are the counties included in Tennessee District 5 from 1921 to 2000:

• 1921-1930: Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Rutherford
• 1931-1940: Davidson, Macon, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, Trousdale
• 1941-1950: Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Franklin, Giles, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Rutherford, Wilson
• 1951-1970: Davidson
• 1971-1980: Cheatham, Davidson, Robertson
• 1981-1990: Davidson and Robertson
• 1991-2000: Davidson and most of Robertson

Source: Tennessee Blue Books

External links

• Tennessee Congressional districts, via Clerk of the United States House of Representatives

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