The bill in Nashville would outlaw partisan primary elections in Shelby and Davidson counties – the state’s two biggest concentrations of Democratic voters.

Demand for child care far exceeds supply in Tennessee, but a bill passed Monday, March 8, by the state Senate could give state employees more options.

A resolution with nearly unanimous House GOP support is calling for proceedings that could remove Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s tweets on Trump’s appearance offered a contrast to the social media reaction from Blackburn and Hagerty. Republican U.S. Rep. David Kustoff didn’t comment on CPAC but did post on his vote against the Democratic COVID stimulus package that passed in the House.

Business owners would be able to vote in elections where the business property is located, even if the owner doesn’t live in the same place as the business, under a bill being considered by the Tennessee General Assembly.

Here’s a review of some of the bills that would change elections in Shelby County and Tennessee. Some of them have been proposed before and others are new in the wake of the 2020 presidential election year.

On a party-line vote Tuesday, Feb. 16, the Shelby County Election Commission voted 3-2 to take the County Commission to court in the ongoing standoff over a new voting system for the 2022 elections. 

Democrats took control of the presidency and Congress in 2020. Could DeSoto County be poised to wrest leadership positions from the Republicans in DeSoto County?

Several dozen non-binding budget amendments were suggested in the Senate to make political statements. Meanwhile, there was a House vote on Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Collierville will wait to review amending the charter and eliminating the runoff provision. The item was scheduled to be discussed Monday.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen will add guidelines to the public comment portion of their meeting. State law does not mandate a public comment portion.

The week featured some social media sniping, a MLK Day rebuke and a video plea from Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray.

University of Memphis historian Beverly Bond says there are important differences between the contested presidential election of 1876 that ended Reconstruction and the contested 2020 election. But there are some broader connections between the reactions then and now.

The new Tennessee Democratic Party chairman says on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that challenging Republican majorities in the Tennessee Legislature will take longer. 

Here are the moves the city’s four representatives in Washington, D.C. have made in the historic gap between certifying the Electoral College vote and Wednesday’s inauguration, with a Capitol insurrection in between and plenty of political volatility still around.

Related story: Cohen draws fire for National Guard questions and Boebert sighting

The Memphis Democrat took fire the day before the presidential inauguration for comments about the political leanings of National Guardsmen and an outspoken Republican Congresswoman from Colorado.

Hendrell Remus is the first Black chairman of the state party and a veteran political operative in Memphis who recently moved to Nashville. He got the votes for chairman Saturday on a pledge to shake the state Democratic Party from its traditional Nashville orientation to a more grass roots and statewide approach. 

Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the map to winning Tennessee may have changed with some suburban areas turning purple. 

The Congressman from Germantown told The Daily Memphian he believes Trump’s remarks just before the Capitol insurrection fueled the violence that claimed five lives. Kustoff also indicated it might be time to change the Congressional Act that allowed the electoral college challenge he supported.

Cohen, who was among the speakers during debate Tuesday, said: “It is the political equivalent of shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it.”

Former local Democratic party Chairman Corey Strong, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the Georgia model of bringing activists and organizers into the state party machinery will take time — probably six to 10 years to take Tennessee from red to purple.

U.S. Attorney Michael Dunavant issued a statement Friday saying the Department of Justice and the FBI would pursue charges against Mid-Southerners who participated in rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

The House and Senate kept late hours, resuming the Electoral College certification after a violent protest shut down the process into Wednesday evening. The session continued until just before dawn Thursday.

The protest of several dozen along the Poplar Corridor came before the aborted attempt in Washington D.C. to certify the Electoral College results that ended in violence.