Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, believes he has uncovered the historical reason Tennessee holds its primary elections on Thursdays, a tradition he said has puzzled him since he moved to the state more than three decades ago.
During Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Leahy discussed the origins of Tennessee’s Thursday primary elections with co-host and Nashville resident Crom Carmichael.
“I believe I have the answer to a mystery that has bothered me for 35 years,” Leahy said.
Leahy said he first noticed Tennessee’s unusual election schedule after moving to the state.
“And I thought that’s weird. Every other state has a primary on a Tuesday,” Leahy said. “Some have primaries on a Saturday. It’s the first Thursday in August, and I thought, ‘Why is that?’”
Leahy said the tradition can be traced to the period when Tennessee was part of North Carolina.
“It has to do with the fact that…when we were first populated, Tennessee was part of the state of North Carolina,” Leahy said.
According to Leahy, voters in colonial and early American history often had to travel to their county courthouse to vote. He said Saturday was also an important market day for farmers, influencing the timing of elections.
“But farmers also typically, and particularly in North Carolina, Saturday was a market day,” Leahy said.
Leahy said North Carolina established a two-day election period during the late colonial period and later codified the practice in the 1780s.
“They made election day in North Carolina two days: Thursday, Friday,” Leahy said. “Thursday, Friday was election day in North Carolina.”
The schedule allowed voters who traveled to the county courthouse to cast their ballots on Thursday or Friday and remain in town for Saturday’s market.
“They would ride into the county seat, they would go to the courthouse and vote on a Thursday or a Friday, and they’d stick around for market day on Saturday,” Leahy said. “Then they’d go back home — for church on Sunday.”
Leahy said the election tradition continued when the portion of North Carolina that later became Tennessee participated in congressional elections.
“And so the elections that day, that in 1790 were held…on Thursday, Friday,” Leahy said.
Tennessee became a state in 1796. Leahy said the state’s first constitution continued the Thursday election tradition for local and judicial elections.
“The first constitution said local and judicial elections will be held on a Thursday,” Leahy said. “That was the North Carolina tradition.”
Leahy said Tennessee’s general elections eventually shifted to Tuesday, following a federal law passed in 1845. Tennessee adopted the Tuesday schedule in 1872.
Primary elections were not used by Tennessee political parties throughout most of the 19th century, according to Leahy. Candidates were instead selected through political conventions.
“In 1910, they did primaries, and for one year they did it on Saturday in August,” Leahy said.
He said the state subsequently moved the primaries to Thursday to align them with the existing local election schedule.
“And then people looked around and said, ‘Hey, we’re already doing that on Thursday,’” Leahy said. “So they passed a law to say, the local elections are on Thursday, we’re gonna make the primaries on Thursday. And that is the answer to the mystery.”
Leahy also highlighted what he described as a unique feature of Tennessee’s political system, saying, “We’re the only state in the Union where the only statewide elected office is governor” for a non-federal office.
He added, “I think these unique elements make Tennessee great.”
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
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– Read more at @TheTNStar— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) August 13, 2026
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
