Tennessee's 1st congressional district

Tennessee's 1st congressional district
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative	Diana Harshbarger R–Kingsport
Distribution	57.46% urban[1] 42.54% rural
Population (2022)	781,128[2]
Median household income	$54,716[3]
Ethnicity	87.9% White 4.9% Hispanic 3.7% Two or more races 2.1% Black 0.8% Asian 0.6% other
Cook PVI	R+30[4]

Tennessee's 1st congressional district is the congressional district of northeast Tennessee, including all of Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, Washington, and Sevier counties and parts of Jefferson County. It is largely coextensive with the Tennessee portion of the Tri-Cities region of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of R+30, it is the most Republican district in Tennessee.^[4]

Cities and towns represented within the district include

The district was created in 1805 when the at-large seat was divided among multiple districts.

The district's current representative is Republican Diana Harshbarger, who was first elected in 2020 following the retirement of Republican Phil Roe.^[5]

Election results from statewide races

These results vary from older lines to current

History

The 1st has generally been a

Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth President of the United States, represented the district from 1843 to 1853.

Like the rest of East Tennessee, slavery was not as common in this area as the rest of the state due to its mountain terrain, which was dominated by small farms instead of plantations.^[6] The district was also the home of the first exclusively abolitionist periodicals in the nation, The Manumission Intelligencer and The Emancipator, founded in Jonesborough by Elihu Embree in 1819.^[7]

The 1st was one of four districts in Tennessee whose congressmen did not resign when Tennessee seceded from the

Due to these factors, this area — excepting "Little Confederacy" Sullivan County with its deep ties to neighbouring Virginia — supported the Union over the Confederacy in the Civil War, and identified with the Republican Party after Tennessee was readmitted to the Union in 1866, electing candidates representing the Unionist Party — a merger of Republicans and pro-Union Democrats — both before and after the war. This allegiance has continued through good times and bad ever since, with Republicans dominating every level of government. While a few Democratic pockets exist in the district's urban areas, they are not enough to sway the district. Since 1898, Democrats have only crossed the 40 percent barrier twice, in 1962 and 1976.

The district's Republican bent is no less pronounced at the presidential level. It was one of the few areas of Tennessee where Barry Goldwater did well in 1964. Johnson, Carter, Unicoi, Washington, Cocke, Sevier and Hancock Counties are among the few counties in the country to have never supported a Democrat for president since the Civil War. Franklin D. Roosevelt turned in respectable showings in the district during his four runs for president, as did Jimmy Carter in 1976. However, Carter is the last Democrat to carry any county in the district, and apart from Sullivan County, which except in the Catholicism-dominated 1928 election was consistently Democratic up to 1948, and Hamblen County in that 1976 election, no county in the present district has backed a Democrat for President since 1940.

The district typically gives its congressmen very long tenures in Washington; indeed, it elected some of the few truly senior Southern Republican congressmen before the 1950s. Only nine people have represented it since 1921. Two of them, B. Carroll Reece and Jimmy Quillen, are the longest-serving members of the House in Tennessee history. Reece held the seat for all but six years from 1921 and 1961, while Quillen held it from 1963 to 1997.

List of members representing the district

Representative	Party	Years	Cong ress	Electoral history	District location
District established March 4, 1805
John Rhea (Blountville)	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1805 – March 3, 1813	9th 10th 11th 12th 13th	Redistricted from the at-large district and re-elected in 1805. Re-elected in 1807. Re-elected in 1809. Re-elected in 1811. Re-elected in 1813. Lost re-election.	1805–1813 "Washington district": Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, and Washington counties
		March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1815			1813–1823 Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, and Washington counties
Samuel Powell (Rogersville)	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1815 – March 3, 1817	14th	Elected in 1815. Retired.
John Rhea (Blountville)	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1823	15th 16th 17th	Elected in 1817. Re-elected in 1819. Re-elected in 1821. Retired.
Jonesboro )	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825	18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd	Re-elected in 1833 . Lost re-election.	1823–1833 Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, and Washington counties
	Jacksonian	March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1835
					1833–1843 [data missing]
William B. Carter (Elizabethton)	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837	24th 25th 26th	Re-elected in 1839 . Retired.
	Whig	March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1841
Thomas D. Arnold (Greeneville)	Whig	March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1843	27th	Elected in 1841 . Retired.
Andrew Johnson (Greeneville)	Democratic	March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1853	28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd	Re-elected in 1851. Retired to run for Governor of Tennessee .	1843–1853 [data missing]}
Brookins Campbell (Washington College)	Democratic	March 4, 1853 – December 25, 1853	33rd	Elected in 1853 . Died.	1853–1861 [data missing]}
Vacant		December 25, 1853 – March 30, 1854
Nathaniel G. Taylor (Happy Valley)	Whig	March 30, 1854 – March 3, 1855		Elected to finish Campbell's term. Lost re-election.
Albert G. Watkins (Panther Springs)	Democratic	March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1859	34th 35th	Re-elected in 1857 . Retired.
Jonesboro )	Opposition	March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861	36th	Re-elected in 1861 , but captured en route to Congress and failed to take his seat.
District inactive		March 4, 1861 – July 24, 1866	37th 38th 39th	Reconstruction
Nathaniel G. Taylor (Happy Valley)	Unionist	July 24, 1866 – March 3, 1867	39th	Elected in 1865 . Retired.	1866–1873 [data missing]
Roderick R. Butler (Taylorsville)	Republican	March 4, 1867 – March 3, 1875	40th 41st 42nd 43rd	Re-elected in 1870. Re-elected in 1872 . Lost re-election.
					1873–1883 [data missing]
William McFarland (Morristown)	Democratic	March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877	44th	Elected in 1874 . Lost re-election.
James H. Randolph (Newport)	Republican	March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1879	45th	Elected in 1876 . Retired.
Jonesboro )	Democratic	March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881	46th	Elected in 1878 . Lost re-election.
Augustus H. Pettibone (Greeneville )	Republican	March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1887	47th 48th 49th	Re-elected in 1884 . Retired.
1883–1893 [data missing]
	Roderick R. Butler (Mountain City)	Republican	March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1889	50th	Elected in 1886 . Retired.
	Alfred A. Taylor (Johnson City)	Republican	March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1895	51st 52nd 53rd	Re-elected in 1892 . Retired.
1893–1903 [data missing]
	William C. Anderson (Newport)	Republican	March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1897	54th	Elected in 1894 . Lost renomination.
	Jonesboro )	Republican	March 4, 1897 – July 8, 1910	55th 56th 57th 58th 59th 60th 61st	Re-elected in 1908 . Died.
1903–1913 [data missing]
	Vacant		July 8, 1910 – November 8, 1910	61st
	Zachary D. Massey (Sevierville)	Republican	November 8, 1910 – March 3, 1911		Elected to finish Brownlow's term . Retired.
	Sam R. Sells (Johnson City)	Republican	March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1921	62nd 63rd 64th 65th 66th	Re-elected in 1918 . Lost renomination.
1913–1933 Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties[9]
	B. Carroll Reece (Butler)	Republican	March 4, 1921 – March 3, 1931	67th 68th 69th 70th 71st	Re-elected in 1928 . Lost renomination.
	Oscar B. Lovette (Greeneville)	Republican	March 4, 1931 – March 3, 1933	72nd	Elected in 1930 . Lost renomination.
B. Carroll Reece (Johnson City)	Republican	March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1947	73rd 74th 75th 76th 77th 78th 79th	chairman of the Republican National Committee .	1933–1943 [data missing]
1943–1953 [data missing]
	Dayton E. Phillips (Elizabethton)	Republican	January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1951	80th 81st	Re-elected in 1948 . Lost renomination.
	B. Carroll Reece (Johnson City)	Republican	January 3, 1951 – March 19, 1961	82nd 83rd 84th 85th 86th 87th	Re-elected in 1960 . Died.
1953–1963 [data missing]
	Vacant		March 19, 1961 – May 16, 1961	87th
	Louise Reece (Johnson City)	Republican	May 16, 1961 – January 3, 1963		Elected to finish her husband's term . Retired.
Jimmy Quillen (Kingsport)	Republican	January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1997	88th 89th 90th 91st 92nd 93rd 94th 95th 96th 97th 98th 99th 100th 101st 102nd 103rd 104th	Re-elected in 1994 . Retired.	1963–1973 [data missing]
1973–1983 [data missing]
1983–1993 [data missing]
1993–2003 [data missing]
	Bill Jenkins (Rogersville)	Republican	January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2007	105th 106th 107th 108th 109th	Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004 . Retired.
2003–2013
	David Davis (Johnson City)	Republican	January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009	110th	Elected in 2006. Lost renomination.
	Phil Roe (Johnson City)	Republican	January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2021	111th 112th 113th 114th 115th 116th	Elected in 2008. Re-elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Retired.
2013–2023
	Diana Harshbarger (Kingsport)	Republican	January 3, 2021 – present	117th 118th	Elected in 2020. Re-elected in 2022.
2023–present

Recent election results

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

2022

See also

• Tennessee's congressional districts
• List of United States congressional districts

Sources

• Political Graveyard database of Tennessee congressmen

References

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

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