Marsha Blackburn - Political Campaigns

Political Campaigns

Redistricting after the 2000 Census moved Blackburn's home from the 6th District into the 7th District. The 6th District incumbent Congressman, Democrat Bart Gordon, had faced three tough races in the 1990s (including a near-defeat in 1994) seemingly due to the 6th's inclusion of Williamson County, the wealthiest county in the state and the most Republican county in Middle Tennessee. It appears that the Democratic-controlled Tennessee General Assembly wanted to protect Gordon by moving Williamson County into the already heavily Republican 7th District. To maintain approximately equal district sizes (as required by Wesberry v. Sanders – 1964) and to compensate for the increase in 7th District population by the addition of Williamson County, the General Assembly shifted some of the more Democratic parts of Clarksville to the nearby 8th District. This created a district that is 200 miles long, but in some parts of Middle Tennessee is only two miles wide--roughly the width of a highway lane.

In 2002, 7th District incumbent Congressman Republican Ed Bryant decided to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Fred Thompson. Blackburn entered the Republican primary to replace Bryant. The primary was watched very closely in Tennessee Republican circles. The 7th District is considered the state's most Republican district outside the state's traditional Republican heartland, East Tennessee. Republicans had held the 7th since 1972 by margins rivaling those usually scored by East Tennessee Republicans.

Of the four serious candidates, Blackburn was the only one from the Nashville suburbs, while the other three were all from Memphis and its suburbs. The three Memphians split the vote in that area, allowing Blackburn to win the primary by 20 points. Blackburn's primary win was tantamount to election in November. In the general election, Blackburn defeated Democratic nominee Tim Barron. She was the fourth woman elected to Congress from Tennessee, but the first not to serve as a stand-in for her husband. (Irene Bailey Baker and Louise Reece had served as caretakers after their husbands died in office, and Marilyn Lloyd replaced her husband on the ballot when he died after the primary election.) She is also the first Republican to represent part of Nashville itself since Reconstruction; a small portion of Nashville (roughly coextensive with the Davidson County portion of her State Senate district) was shifted from the heavily Democratic 5th District to the 7th District after the 2000 Census.

Blackburn was unopposed for reelection in 2004, which is somewhat unusual for a freshman member of Congress, even from a district as heavily Republican as the 7th. Washingtonian's September 2004 "Best and Worst of Congress", obtained from a survey of Congressional aides, identified Blackburn as one of the three best freshman members.