There are 35 article(s) tagged Shelby County Democratic Party:

• March 2025

  • County Democratic Party convention derails amid calls for unity

    The convention to elect a local party chairman went astray over the bylaws and the 300 attendees never got around to voting on a new leader. 

    By Bill Dries March 29, 2025

  • Political Roundup: The race for Democratic chair; Tesla and townhalls

    The political roundup focuses on a busy Saturday. Democrats discussed what has gone wrong in the party, and we look at some tumultuous Congressional townhall meetings of the past.

    By Bill Dries March 23, 2025

• September 2024

  • Political Roundup: Friction surfaces among local Democrats

    Also in this roundup: U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn writes op-ed for right-wing media outlet accused of conspiring with Russian state media and accused of making untrue statements; how Tennessee’s congressional delegation voted on the spending bill.

    By Bill Dries September 22, 2024

• August 2024

  • Political Roundup: Democrats rally; White-Nordstrom state House race, and a Whitehaven school district?

    Democrats rallied in Memphis and three other cities across the state Saturday, Aug. 24, to kick off a get-out-the-vote effort for Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and other down ballot races in the Nov. 5 elections.

    By Bill Dries August 24, 2024

• August 2023

  • County political parties eye red and blue school board elections

    The move to primaries in what are now nonpartisan races began in response to book and curriculum topic bannings in Florida. 

    By Bill Dries, Abigail Warren August 08, 2023

• April 2023

  • Lexie Carter elected local Democratic Party chairwoman

    Carter claimed the chairmanship in the most Democratic county in the state Saturday, April 1, by three votes over rival Jesse Huseth.

    By Bill Dries April 01, 2023

• March 2023

  • Memphis Democrats to elect new leader Saturday

    The race for chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party is set against the backdrop of turmoil this week in the state House. Two of the three contenders say Democrats in the House aren’t being vocal enough.

    By Bill Dries March 31, 2023

• October 2022

  • Political Roundup: Early voting hits 20,000; Jason Martin campaigns in Collierville

    The county’s early voter total through the first four days of the period is tops in the state. 

    By Bill Dries October 26, 2022

• September 2022

  • Republican state Rep. Mark White running unopposed for reelection

    The Democrats didn’t field a candidate in a district that used to be — before redistricting — one of the General Assembly’s most flippable.

    By Ian Round September 13, 2022

• June 2022

  • Mark Flanagan marked a cultural and political transition in Midtown

    Flanagan, who is remembered for his signature shorts and flowered Hawaiian shirts, died June 15, ending a career that included involvement in the local Democratic Party’s executive committee as well as an organizer of the Midtown St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl.

    By Bill Dries June 21, 2022

• April 2022

  • The election backstory: Primaries

    Here is the backstory of how county primaries came to be in the early 1990s, called for by Republicans several years after Democrats splintered over a move in their ranks to take local elections partisan.

    By Bill Dries April 25, 2022

• March 2022

  • Local Democrats call for censure of Strickland

    Strickland’s backing of Brent Taylor in the state Senate District 31 primary follows endorsements by Tennessee Republican U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.

    By Bill Dries March 24, 2022

• September 2021

  • Salinas sets goals for local Democrats in 2022 elections

    Shelby County Democratic Party Chairwoman Gabby Salinas says a new political action committee approved for the local party is a start toward a better-organized Democratic effort in the state’s bluest county.

    By Bill Dries September 27, 2021

• August 2021

  • Salinas is new Shelby County Democratic Party leader

    Gabby Salinas emerged as the new local party chair at an online party convention Saturday, Aug. 28, after former party chairman Corey Strong withdrew from the balloting.

    By Bill Dries August 28, 2021

  • Harris re-election speculation and ‘People’s Summit’ stir political pot

    Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says it is too early to announce whether he will run for a second term. But local Democrats are anxious for an answer. Meanwhile the local Democratic party has a two-way race for a new chairman next month and the coalition for a “Moral Budget” talked about tax rate regrets at the “People’s Summit” in Whitehaven.

    By Bill Dries August 01, 2021

• March 2020

  • Bernie-Biden partisans gather for round one of delegate selection

    The countywide Democratic party convention Saturday at Kirby High School is the first of two steps in selecting delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. 

    By Bill Dries March 08, 2020

• October 2019

  • Sanford: Shelby County Democrats embrace the L word

    On the night Mississippi voters are deciding between two degrees of conservatism, Shelby County Democrats will gather in Germantown to ask the question, “How Liberal Are You?”

    By Otis Sanford October 31, 2019

• September 2019

  • Campaign Chronicle: Increased turnout, Union Row bash

    One week from election day in Memphis, the early-voter turnout is poised to pass the turnout four years ago. Mayor Jim Strickland is honored by the developers of Union Row as challenger Tami Sawyer paints a very different picture of the city's fortunes.

    By Bill Dries September 27, 2019

• May 2019

  • Harris survives attempt to remove him as local Democratic chairman

    The vote at a special party meeting Tuesday evening in Hickory Hill marks what amounts to the second confidence vote in Michael Harris since he ran unopposed for chairman at the April local party convention.

    By Bill Dries May 28, 2019

  • Local Democratic Party controversy shares stage with efforts to improve local role

    The fate of local Democratic Party Chairman Michael Harris is sharing space with more mundane details, such as organizing political events and getting a local party with a lot of new blood better organized.

    By Bill Dries May 13, 2019

  • Local Democrats to hold hearing on chairman’s future in 20 days

    Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Michael Harris called a special session of the local party's executive committee Thursday night to decide whether he should stay or be removed as leader of the party. 

    By Bill Dries May 09, 2019

  • Group seeks to remove Harris as local Democratic Party chairman

    Several members of the Shelby County Democratic Party's Grass Roots Council are questioning how the vote electing Michael Harris was taken at a party convention in April. There are also questions about bankruptcy filings by Harris.

    By Bill Dries May 07, 2019

• April 2019

  • Harris: Democrats moving beyond law license controversy to ‘necessary dissonance’

    The new Shelby County Democratic Party chairman says he is attempting to move beyond the controversy to bring new and established Democrats together after Democrats swept every countywide office on the ballot in 2018.

    By Bill Dries April 12, 2019

  • Politics Podcast: Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Michael Harris

    Newly elected Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Michael Harris talks about party strategies and the controversy over his suspended law license.

    By Natalie Van Gundy April 11, 2019

  • Race for local Democratic Party chairmanship shifts again

    The balloting among party leaders Saturday appears to be a choice between Michael Harris and state Sen. Raumesh Akbari after state Rep. London Lamar withdrew Thursday. 

    By Bill Dries April 07, 2019