Lawmakers in the Tennessee State House on Tuesday will consider legislation that would close primary elections in the Volunteer State to only registered members of a political party. The legislation would require voters to register as Republican or Democratic voters to be eligible to participate in a nominating contest for either party.
According to its legislative summary, House Bill (HB) 1159 by State Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mount Juliet) would require a prospective voter to designate an affiliation with a political party when registering to vote in Tennessee in order to vote in a primary election, which would effectively close the opportunity for unaffiliated voters to influence a party’s nominating contest in the state.
The legislation specifically mandates that qualified voters, when registering to vote for the first time or changing their credentials, be asked to choose “an affiliation with a political party qualified to participate in primary elections,” or else the voter may choose “to be designated as ‘Unaffiliated,'” which would preclude them from participating in primary contests.
Should a voter later decide to change their political affiliation, the bill references the existing Tennessee Code, which states that voters must be registered at least 30 days before an election to participate in the contest.
If passed, the legislation would take effect in July, meaning unaffiliated voters would need to change their registration to participate in Tennessee’s partisan nominating contests in 2026.
Current legislation requires a voter to be a bona fide party member whose nominating contest they’re seeking to participate in or else declare their affiliation with that party at the polls. Republicans have worked to close Tennessee’s primary elections since at least 2018 over concerns that Democrats could sway Republican nominating contests.
Lynn’s proposed legislation would specifically bar unaffiliated voters from primary contests but does not mention caucuses. While most of Tennessee uses a standard primary contest, Republican leadership in Williamson County is reportedly weighing a change to caucuses, which could potentially leave the door open for unaffiliated voters to continue participating in partisan politics even if the bill passes.
The bill was introduced last month and will be considered on Tuesday by the Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee. State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) introduced the Senate version of the legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 831, which was referred to the Senate State and Local Government Committee in February.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Person Voting” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY 2.0.
This is long overdue.
It’s been a tactic used in Primaries for Democrat Organizations like NEA, SEIU, etc to send a request to their membership to cross over in tge Primary to vote against the Republican who might be likely to win the Republican Primary in order to eliminate their biggest competitor.
I have been asking my rep to do this for years. All I have gotten is the big runaround. I cannot understand that mentality. It leads to damaging crossover primary voting.
Closed primaries should’ve been done decades ago. Dems should not be choosing Republican nominees.