NASHVILLE — Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won her reelection bid Tuesday, securing a victory in GOP-dominant Tennessee after largely avoiding her Democratic opponent.

Blackburn defeated state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who shot to fame last year after she was nearly expelled from the Statehouse for her participation in a gun control protest from the House floor. Johnson had hoped the national attention on her gun control reform efforts and support for reproductive rights would appeal to Tennessee voters used to electing Republicans in statewide positions.

However, even though she ran a much more subdued campaign compared to the grueling victory she secured six years ago, Blackburn easily snagged another win.

First elected to the U.S. House in 2002, Blackburn aligned with the tea party movement and regularly appeared on Fox News. Before that, she made a name for herself as a state lawmaker who helped lead the revolt against a proposed Tennessee income tax in the early 2000s.

Former President Donald Trump won Tennessee on Tuesday, Nov. 5, keeping the firmly Republican state and its 11 electoral votes in his win column.

Trump won Tennessee by about 23 percentage points in 2020 and by 26 points in 2016. The state’s two Republican U.S. senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, both won their first elections behind endorsements from Trump.

The state has not voted for a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton’s reelection in 1996. Voters in 2000 turned on Clinton’s vice president from Tennessee, Al Gore, and voted for George W. Bush.

The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 8 p.m. EST.

Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips says it could be a long night for the local Presidential general election vote count.

Meanwhile, the count of election day voters was at 50,000 as of 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. 

And with the rain that came and went in the morning settling in for a longer stay in the final hours of voting, Phillips says turnout likely took a nose dive.

“It’s not helping,” Phillips said at the election operations center at Shelby Farms as a hard rain could be heard through the roof.

Reihan Mir, an emigrant from Bangladesh, waited until Election Day to cast his vote so that he could experience his first U.S. presidential election. 

Mir, along with many others, fought the rain to vote at the Davis Community Center in Memphis’ Orange Mound neighborhood in the late afternoon Tuesday, Nov. 5. 

Mir voted for Vice President Kamala Harris because her policies closer align with his beliefs. He highlighted the national debate on immigration. 

“I am an emigrant, and illegal immigration is a pretty hot debate,” Mir said. “But this is a right that should not be taken easy because in the countries that we typically are from, in those cases, there is not a democratic practice.” 

On Election Day Eve, Jadelynn Shaw returned to the televised debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. 

Shaw, 28, cast her vote for Harris on a rainy Election Day afternoon on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the Whitehaven Community Center. In the end, Harris’ pro-choice abortion policies won her over. Trump’s stance, she said, “struck a nerve.” 

“That was a big deal for me, considering I know quite a few of the rape victims that I grew up with,” Shaw said, explaining her support for Harris. “…It was hard for them to go through that, and then they had to make certain decisions that affected them later on in life.” 

Shaw, a Black woman, said her vote for Harris was less about representation in the White House and more about the issues she cares most about.

Grayson Miles, 30, cast his vote Tuesday afternoon at Second Baptist Church in East Memphis for Donald Trump but said his vote was for policy more than personality.

“I resonate with his policies, not (him) personally (nor) his character in some cases,” Miles said in a steady rain Tuesday afternoon. “Most people don’t agree with everything that someone has to say, but in my personal stance, he agreed and projected what he wants to do to the country, what I align with.”

While it was a small sampling and far from scientific, more voters said they chose Trump instead of Kamala Harris at Second Baptist on Tuesday in contrast to another East Memphis church just 2 miles away, One City, where several voters said they favored Harris.

Mark Mitchell was one of those voting for Trump at Second Baptist Tuesday, although he said he was not a registered Republican.

Some Tennessee voters got text messages Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, reading “Your 2024 presidential election ballot has been officially removed from consideration,” according to Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. 

Hargett, in a statement released Tuesday afternoon, called it “nothing more than a scam.”

“And our office has reported it to the authorities for further investigation,” the statement reads.

He did not specify how many voters got the texts or in what parts of the state the messages were circulated.

At Orange Mound Senior Center, some voters hoped for change and history.

Josephine and Bobbie Guy smiled as they left the center Tuesday, Nov. 5.

“We need some newness,” Josephine Guy said. She and her mother, Bobbie Guy, voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. They said they were more excited than usual to vote, noting the chance to elect a woman as president and that Tuesday could prove to be a historic day.

A few minutes earlier, Rachel Hart had also voted for Harris in Orange Mound. She usually votes Democratic and she aligned with Harris on a key issue — abortion access and reproductive rights. 

Two years ago, Richard Dixon was taking his children to the pediatrician when he said he parked next to a convertible with its top down.

He looked inside and was shocked at what he said he saw: a huge pistol in the door pocket, available for anyone to reach inside and take with little to no effort.

That explains why Dixon, 55, was anxious to vote in favor of the referendums on the ballot Tuesday, Nov. 5, that seek to tighten gun laws in Memphis, even if it causes blowback from state officials opposed to the idea.

“I took a picture and sent it to a police officer I know. I said, ‘What law is this breaking?’ He said, ‘None,’” said Dixon, who voted Tuesday at One City Church, 120 N. East Yates Road in East Memphis. “Here are my two kids, and here’s a convertible with the top down (and a gun). It was shocking.”

Jameelah Quinn, 20, voted for her first time Tuesday. 

“It felt good,” she said of voting. Quinn voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. Her main issue: reproductive rights. 

“I feel I should be able to have my own opinion about my body,” she said.

Quinn didn’t remember who she voted for Congress or Senate but said she voted for the Democratic candidates. 

Election officials expected a lot of voters in Tuesday’s presidential general election would be changing their addresses at the polls.

And so far that has been the most extraordinary thing about an Election Day that has included some rain. There were some lines when polls opened at 7 a.m., but those dissipated as quickly as the rain left.

“It was busy at 7 a.m. I’m not hearing of lines anywhere,” Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips said at a noon update of polling locations across the county. “There have been an extraordinarily large number of address changes, which of course takes more time.”

The Shelby County Election Commission usually sees more address changes in presidential elections than in other election cycles, possibly because of the large number of voters who only vote in the presidential general election cycle every four years.

Early Tuesday morning in Bartlett at St. Ann Catholic Church and School at 6529 Stage Road, voters didn’t have to endure much of a wait time. P. Scott was there to cast her vote for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“Because he represents some of my beliefs. I believe in God. So that’s the main thing,” she said, adding she thought some of the things Harris has said go against her beliefs. She admitted she knew little about the local races or candidates.

Since he does not drive, Rick Wilgus got a friend to take him to Saint Ann’s to cast his vote for Harris.

“I’m not voting for a convicted criminal,” he said. “I like Harris. I think she’s going to do a good job. At least she doesn’t talk bad about people and call them names.”

Tennessee’s two U.S. Senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, blitzed Second Baptist Church in East Memphis and The Great Hall in Germantown Tuesday morning just ahead of a late morning rain.

Blackburn made an obligatory plug in her reelection bid but devoted most of her attention at Second Baptist to Republican state Rep. John Gillespie’s reelection bid.

Hagerty’s seat is on the ballot in two years. 

Hagerty came to Memphis this morning from Pittsburgh. He and Blackburn have been part of former President Donald Trump’s national campaign in battleground states.

At Whitehaven Community Center, a steady patter of foot traffic was in and out around 8 a.m., including Cheryl McNeal, who voted for all the City of Memphis referendums on guns and split her otherwise Democratic ballot to vote for an independent candidate in the presidential election, saying she wants a completely new vision for the country.

Manuel Boddie voted yes on all three of the gun referendums, including the one to ban assault rifles in the city.

“They need to do something with these guys having these pistols,” he said.

He also voted a straight Democratic ticket, starting at the top with Harris, whom he called Kamala.

State House District 97 candidate Jesse Huseth showed up around 10 a.m. to greet the small number of voters shuffling in and out of the Bert Ferguson Community Center in Cordova.

Speaking about the City of Memphis gun referendums, Huseth told The Daily Memphian they are necessary and that, if elected, he is interested in introducing safe storage legislation at the state level.

The state already requires safe storage for guns left in cars, but without penalties for not doing so, the law lacks teeth.

“It’d probably be a fine (for unsafe storage). I’m not interested in incarcerating folks for having their property stolen,” Huseth said. “It’s just like if you’re in your house and your child finds a firearm and uses it, that’s a problem… I don’t like legislating responsibility, but if you see a problem happen enough times, you have to take action,” he said.

DeSoto County submitted more absentee ballots than anywhere else in Mississippi before the polls opened for the Nov. 5 general election. 

Nearly 200,000 ballots have been collected statewide since absentee voting began in September, according to the most recent data from the Mississippi Secretary of State.

And exactly 18,137 of those ballots were successfully submitted from voters in DeSoto County.

What to watch for in the presidential general election returns

The most populated county in Mississippi, Hinds County, submitted 12,360 ballots that were ultimately accepted by the state.

There were lots of cars around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at the Glenview Community Center, where people were streaming in after the night shift and before the day shift.

At Glenview, 1141 S. Barksdale St., LaVergie Singleterry voted for the City of Memphis’ referendum to ban assault rifles.

She also voted to allow the Memphis City Council to set their salaries.

State Rep. G.A. Hardaway was at Glenview greeting voters before 7:15 a.m.

Voters trickled in and out of Balmoral Presbyterian Church when polls opened early Tuesday morning. There was no line at the church, at 6413 Quince Road, as of 7:30 a.m. 

Brenda Highsmith voted at Balmoral Tuesday morning, casting her presidential ballot for Kamala Harris. 

“I believe she will bring about a change. I’m tired of Donald Trump and the rhetoric. I don’t believe he was a good president last time, and I don’t believe he’ll be a good president this time,” Highsmith said. “He’s a criminal, and I believe our standards should be much higher for someone running for the office of president,” she said. 

Hishan Abkhrayeeh, who is originally from Palestine, voted for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president. He’s been in the United States since 1987.

Polls are open at 142 precincts across Shelby County as of 7 a.m. on this Presidential General Election Day as we begin our live blog coverage.

Polls are open until 7 p.m. and if there are any lines at 7 p.m., voters who are already in line will be able to vote.

Election Day comes after a 14-day early voting period in which 257,515 voters cast ballots at 26 locations across Shelby County.

“It was higher than I expected,” Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips said Tuesday morning at the Elections Operations Center at Shelby Farms.

The curtain rises on the final act of the 2024 presidential general election Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 7 a.m. in Shelby County.

That’s when polling places across the county open for a 12-hour period.

Here are the basic mechanics of voting on Election Day.

Shelby County Election Commission gears up for Nov. 5

Voter essentials

Here is the sample ballot that lists the races and the candidates.

Elections are primarily about winners and losers, but that’s not all you will find in the vote totals.

There are trends even in losing campaigns when you compare totals and turnout.

Echols: What to do about the election

Here are some of the numbers to watch, and what those numbers have been in recent elections, including in the last six presidential general election races in Tennessee — to nab the state’s 11 electoral votes.

Here is how the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have fared with Shelby County voters and statewide. The totals go back to the 2000 presidential general election, when the ongoing trend of the Republican nominee winning Tennessee began.