The journey from Memphis to the Haywood County megasite that bears the Memphis name, a site that Ford Motor Co. intends to rename Blue Oval City, is measured in more than miles.

It’s also measured in years of competition with other regions of the state, and Ford executives aren’t the only automobile industry leaders who have been courted along the way.

West Tennessee, including Memphis, sought to be capital of the state’s original auto corridor when its location was at the heart of a competition within the state.

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The pursuit continued even after Nissan decided in the early 1980s to make cars in Smyrna, Tennessee.

A few years later, in 1985, when Spring Hill became the site of the General Motors plant that made Saturn automobiles, Middle Tennessee looked like the winner of the competition.

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But patience and persistence paid off.

One of the first dignitaries to arrive at Beaver Lake in Shelby Farms Park Tuesday, Sept. 28, for the formal announcement of Ford’s decision to make batteries at the megasite for its all-electric F150 pickup trucks was former state House speaker Jimmy Naifeh of Covington.

“We weren’t shovel-ready for quite a long time. We had the best site in the country, and now it’s paying off,” Naifeh said.

Veteran state legislator Craig Fitzhugh, who is the mayor of Ripley, Tennessee, was part of the Democratic majority in the House when Naifeh was speaker.

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“It was a big megasite. It was a true megasite,” Fitzhugh said of the West Tennessee location. “I think the customers for that were less. We tried through the years to keep it large because we knew we needed that much. Lo and behold, we held on long enough where we hit the big prize.”

Through the Democratic domination of state government, Tennessee and Memphis competed for other auto manufacturers.

A $1.6 billion Toyota-Mazda electric car plant with 4,000 jobs was the most recent public prospect for the Haywood County site four years ago and the one that famously walked away from the table saying the site wasn’t ready.

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The rejection made finding a tenant the top priority of state Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe when he came to the post during the second term of former Republican governor Bill Haslam.

It was one of the first things Rolfe said in 2017 at one of his first meetings in Shelby County in Arlington with suburban elected leaders. It remained Rolfe’s priority as Bill Lee became governor and kept Rolfe as ECD commissioner.

“Good things come to those who wait,” were the first words Lee said from the stage Monday at Shelby Farms Park.

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The Ford decision and announcement in a state that now has Republican supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, as well as a Republican governor and two Republican U.S. senators, came with plenty of rhetoric from the Ford side about Ford’s move to green technology.

“The world is changing in a profound way,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford. Other Ford executives talked of a revolution in manufacturing and car-making.

Bill Ford even gave a nod to United Auto Workers President Ray Curry, who although seated on the front row, didn’t speak in a ceremony dominated by state officials from the Lee administration.

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Curry said later his union is in talks with Ford for an agreement that will make the megasite plant a union shop even as Tennesseans vote next year on a constitutional amendment that would make Tennessee a “right to work” state where union representation isn’t automatic.

Curry said the union and Ford have “a great working relationship” and that he isn’t bothered by the referendum.

“We represent members here in the state of Tennessee, in Spring Hill, and have represented them for a number of years,” Curry said.

When asked if the Ford facility will be a union shop, Lee said, “The workers will decide that.”

Ford CEO Jim Farley added, “It’s the workers’ choice and we will honor that.”

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Republican state Sen. Brian Kelsey of Germantown, who sponsored the constitutional amendment referendum, said the state’s “right to work” status without the formal amendment was a factor in Ford’s decision.

“It’s not up to the state to tell private business what to be doing and what not to be doing,” Kelsey said when asked if Ford’s workforce would be unionized. “Be we are a proud right to work state and I know that played a huge role in landing the Ford plant here in West Tennessee.”

The Memphis presence was subtle Tuesday, with questions about whether Memphis would feel the economic effects of a multi-billion dollar plant two counties over. But, most agreed, proximity this time and the sheer size of the undertaking will make it hard for Memphis and Shelby County to escape the economic boost.

“I think Memphis is going to feel it,” Democratic state House leader Karen Camper of Memphis said. “I think it’s an opportunity to revolutionize West Tennessee and make Memphis the anchor of West Tennessee. There is no way we cannot benefit from this and uplift the people in West Tennessee.”

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland huddled with state officials and Ford executives before the announcement and then stood in the shade at the back of the crowd as the announcement was made.

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When the state’s auto corridor put down roots in Middle Tennessee twice in the 1980s, there was a public face in the Memphis business community that suggested Memphis could still benefit from an impossibly broad and lengthy chain of parts suppliers that never materialized.

The unrealistic hopes blossomed even as the wounds of the competition within the state were still fresh in the west.

Camper acknowledged any current hesitancy may be a legacy of that.

“The thing is this, the citizens of Memphis always feel like they are always behind the power curve,” she said. “This is an opportunity to put us at the front of the power curve to make sure that our citizens benefit from all of the tax dollars we are giving to make this possible.”

Like Naifeh and Fitzhugh, Camper says the size of the Ford facility makes it nearly impossible that there won’t be some impact in Memphis.

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When Ford executives talked of how “revolutionary” Blue Oval City will be, it was a reference to the electric vehicle technology and Ford’s big bet on the green technology.

Bill Ford talked of a “closed clean loop of auto manufacturing.”

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Lee referred to West Tennessee leading “the next industrial revolution” but otherwise made no specific reference to the move away from fossil fuel-based vehicles that many Republicans link to the “green new deal” Democrats in the White House and Congress favor.

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn was among elected officials tweeting support for the Ford announcement Monday evening.

But Blackburn has voted against tax credits for electric vehicle owners including the EVs Nissan and Volkswagen are making elsewhere in Tennessee.

Blackburn has also been a vocal opponent of electric vehicle incentives in the $3.5 trillion budget bill pending in the Capitol and backed by the Biden administration.

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The politics has changed several times over since the Nissan plant in Smyrna brought modern car-making to the state followed by General Motors in Spring Hill and Volkswagen in Chattanooga.

One of the images flashed on a large screen by Beaver Lake Monday as Greater Memphis Chamber President Beverly Robertson spoke to “those of you who may not know Memphis” was a photo of the Memphis Ford assembly plant that opened in 1913 in the heart of the city, making Union Avenue the original Memphis auto row.

“We will be active citizens in the community,” Farley said of the broader West Tennessee community to applause in the hot and green outdoor setting. “We have made a decision to make a difference.”