Nelson: Is Big Shelby back?

By , Daily Memphian Published: November 05, 2018 5:07 PM CT
Michael Nelson
Daily Memphian

Michael Nelson

Michael Nelson is contributing editor and columnist for The Daily Memphian, the political analyst for WMC-TV, and the Fulmer professor of political science at Rhodes College. His latest books are “Clinton's Elections: 1992, 1996, and the Birth of a New Era of  Governance" and “The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2018.”

Memphians of a certain vintage may recall a time when the rest of Tennessee disparaged us as Big Shelby. It was a backhanded way of expressing East and Middle Tennessee’s resentment of – and, truth be told, our own vaulting pride in – the power wielded by Memphis and Shelby County in the state’s politics and government.

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Michael Nelson Shelby County

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