NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — On election night, as the numbers came in, several House and Senate races in other states were being called for Democratic candidates. In Tennessee, Republicans were confident that their May redistricting of the state, designed to turn the entire state red, would hold.
Later in the evening, Republicans began pulling ahead in Districts 7, 6, 5, and 9. But something different was happening in District 4.
Democratic nominee Victoria Broderick was ahead by 280 votes. Then the race was called: Broderick had won.
Many political analysts have called it "the shocker of the night". Broderick says she doesn't take offense to that. "No, I love that. I think it gave us an edge...I just opened the door for every single person who's never thought that politics had a place for them, who didn't think their votes mattered. I mean, there's so many monumental things that this provides and I want to help more people do what I just did... We can have better representation and we don't have to have money in politics to do it. Because that's the role of the job, it's an act of service."
Vanderbilt Professor John G. Geer says, "The extent of the victory by the Democrats is really staggering. There's probably not been an election like that in at least 50 years and probably 100 years."
Geer also says that tight races showing roughly a 55-45 split based on Tuesday's vote highlight the impact of redistricting on political representation. "That means that the Democrats should have, you know 35, 45 percent of the representation in Congress and in the state legislature. They're nowhere near that because of redistricting. So I'm really hopeful that we can start having conversations about making redistricting the way that's going to allow Tennesseans to be represented and allow the kinds of policies that are going to come out and allow the state to move forward."
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