Tennessee Democrats will challenge Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s re-election in the 2022 elections, says the new chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party.

“My point to people is buckle up for the long haul,” Hendrell Remus said on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast of his effort to change the state party’s direction.

“I think our best shot is defeating the governor,” he said. “But when it comes to chipping away at this Republican majority in the (Tennessee) Legislature, I think we have a longer road ahead.”

The last time a Democratic nominee won a statewide election for governor or U.S. Senate was in 2006 when Gov. Phil Bredesen was re-elected.

Tenn. Democrats’ new chairman plans ‘full assault’ on GOP

Lee’s election in 2018 broke a nearly 50-year rhythm of a governor from one party being followed by the election of a governor from another party as Lee followed fellow Republican Bill Haslam in the governor’s mansion.

In addition to Lee, Republicans have super majorities in the state House and the state Senate. Republicans also hold seven of the state’s nine U.S. House seats and both of the U.S. Senate seats, including the seat won in 2018 by Republican Marsha Blackburn, who beat Bredesen.

Other Democrats calling for a change in the state party’s emphasis and trajectory say the party can’t realistically compete now in statewide races for governor or the U.S. Senate without more of a new political infrastructure.

Remus is among Democrats dissatisfied with the state party’s methods over the past decade.

“We are going to shift our focus on making sure that people understand who the radical Republican obstructionists who represent the state in the state Legislature and up in Washington are,” he said. “Strategically, our focus is going to be on making sure that we connect with every voter in every corner of the state.”

State GOP chairman says ‘redder’ Tennessee also comes with challenges for Republicans

Remus was elected because a majority of the party’s executive committee felt the party was too focused on Nashville and not enough on other areas of the state.

He is from Memphis, where he has run for the Tennessee Legislature and Shelby County Commission before a recent move to Nashville. Along the way, he’s worked in campaigns of others across the state.

Remus describes Memphis politics as “an arena of its own” compared to the rest of the state.

It starts with the importance of endorsement ballots in Memphis in the mail and at polling places.

“There’s not a whole lot of voter engagement with campaigns outside of the polling places. Most folks show up with their minds made up,” he said of other parts of the state.

“In Memphis, I believe it’s a much more competitive environment,” he said. “Even as they go in to cast their vote, they are still deciding.”

Days before inauguration come with changing political calculations for local legislators

“Memphis voters, from my personal experience, I think rely on the credibility being lent to candidates - whether it’s by people they know, people that they trust,” Remus said.

The emphasis on who you know instead of who you are as a candidate is another point in the relationship between local politicos and the Nashville-based party leadership.

Some, like former Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Corey Strong, complain that the state party leaders have often linked arms with and sent state campaign money to Memphis operatives they have relied on in campaign after campaign.

“When they come here, they come to the same five people,” Strong said in an earlier edition of The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast.

Local Democrats look to Georgia model to end GOP dominance in Tennessee

“There are the people who actually have the ear of people on the ground, work on the ground every day,” he said. “You come to the pastor with the big church, you come to the business leader who wrote a check to you, you come to a few elected officials and you will miss that second level of people.”

Finding that “second level” is important for an out-of-town contender to connect and connect quickly during a campaign’s short life span.

Remus says the Memphis approach is more akin to campaigning in the state’s rural and sparsely populated counties.

“Whereas other cities you see a much more aggressive approach in the grass roots style of campaigning, whether it’s knocking on doors or phone banks. In Memphis, that traditional aspect isn’t as broad as it is in other areas across the state,” he said. “It’s more familiarity versus a true get out the vote type effort.”

The party’s new statewide strategy on a nuts and bolts level means competing for voters in the state’s rural and sparsely population counties whose votes together have played a key role in turning the state red – or Republican – in every presidential election starting with the 2000 election.

Organizers say down-ballot races key to Tennessee Democrats

Remus says those smaller counties in Tennessee play a different role than they did in Georgia, where the efforts led by state legislators Stacey Abrams are credited with turning that state blue – or Democratic – in the 2020 presidential general election.

The blue wave also flipped Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats from Republican to Democratic in January runoffs. The Senate wins gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate.

“In places like Georgia, you had a greater number of Black rural voters,” Remus said of the difference. “In Tennessee, rural votes tend to lean more white than Black. So even in some of those rural areas, we’ve got to make sure that even if we don’t win them, we are closing the gap on how much Republicans are winning them by. I think that’s going to be important to us.”

Remus and other Democrats have said the key to winning rural voters is addressing basic economic issues as much as social issues.

Local GOP, Democratic chairmen differ on needs in Nashville

“We have gotten clobbered over the years by Republicans on social issues,” Remus said. “Where I believe we have a great opportunity and one of those things that connects people from every walk of life all across the state is the ‘what’s in your pocket’ argument.’

He also says the Tennessee Democratic Party has begun drawing new major donors to the party along with smaller donors – both first-time contributors to the state party.

“We are already bringing in new large donors who have never donated to the Tennessee Democratic Party before,” Remus said. “We are diversifying what that group of donors look like. We are already bringing in new small donors who have never donated to the Tennessee Democratic Party before.”

The idea is that smaller amounts from donors go to operational expenses and larger amounts go to specific campaigns or drives for legislation and issues. And as in Georgia, Remus intends to pay organizers and activists who in the past have not been part of the state party’s emphasis or funding.

“We can’t keep asking people to invest in something that’s not producing some victories or some major legislative wins for us,” he said.