Tennessee's 5th congressional district

Tennessee's 5th congressional district

Tennessee's 5th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Current Representative Jim Cooper (D)
Distribution
  • % urban
  • % rural
Population (2000) 632,143
Median income 40,419
Ethnicity
Occupation
Cook PVI D+5[1]

The 5th Congressional District of Tennessee is a congressional district in Middle Tennessee. It has been represented by Democrat Jim Cooper since January 2003.

Current Boundaries

The district is located slightly northwest of the state's geographical center. It is currently composed of Davidson and Dickson counties, as well as most of Cheatham County. It is the only Tennessee congressional district which does not border another state.

Characteristics

The fifth district is nearly synonymous with Tennessee's capital city, Nashville, as the district has almost always been centered on Nashville throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home to numerous colleges and universities. It is also home to the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, earning it the nickname "Music City".[2]

The district stretches west of Nashville, and into Cheatham and Dickson counties, which are far less suburbanized than the communities to the south and east of Nashville.

Political characteristics

The 5th is historically a very safe seat for the Democratic Party, due almost entirely to the influence of heavily Democratic Nashville. Some pockets of Republican influence exist in Belle Meade, and portions of neighboring Cheatham County. However, they are no match for the overwhelming Democratic trend in most of Nashville.

No Republican has represented Nashville in Congress since Horace Harrison in 1875.[3]

History

Following the 1950 census, Tennessee expanded briefly to ten districts. Even though it has since contracted back to nine districts, that marked the beginning of the continuous period where the 5th district was centered on Davidson County/Nashville.[4]

From 1941 to 1957, Nashville was represented by J. Percy Priest, who was the House majority whip in the 81st and 82nd Congresses. A dam in eastern Davidson County and the lake formed by the dam are both named in his memory.

Priest died just before the Election of 1956,[5] and the Democrats turned to Carlton Loser. Loser won that election, and then to two more Congresses after that. Loser appeared to win another Democratic nomination in 1962, but his primary came under investigation for voter fraud, and a court ordered a new election. In this new election, Loser was defeated by former state senator Richard Fulton.[6]

Richard "Dick" Fulton represented the 5th from 1963 until 1977, when retired from Congress to become the second mayor of metropolitan Nashville.

Following the 1970 census, while Fulton was representing the district, Tennessee briefly contracted to eight congressional districts. During the 70s, the district encompassed Davidson, Cheatham, and Robertson counties. This contraction of congressional districts forced the first time in thirty years where Davidson County was not the sole county in the district. (The fifth was Davidson County and only Davidson County from 1943 to 1972.)[4]

Once Fulton was Nashville mayor, he was succeeded in Congress by former state senator Clifford Allen. Allen served for only a term and a half (Nov.1975- Jun.1978) before he died in office due to complications from a heart attack he'd suffered a month earlier.[7]

In the election of 1978, the fifth district selected state senator Bill Boner. He served in Congress for ten years, and then succeeded Fulton as mayor of Nashville.

Boner was succeeded in 1988 by Bob Clement, former president of Cumberland University and son of former governor Frank G. Clement. Clement ended up serving seven terms as TN-District 5 Congressman, where he served Davidson and Robertson counties. He was one of the 81 Democrat congressmen who voted for the Iraq Resolution of 2002.[8]

Clement did not run for re-election in 2002, as he was running for the open US Senate seat left by retiring Fred Thompson. He won the Democrat nomination easily, but was defeated in the general election by former governor Lamar Alexander.[9] Clement was succeeded in Congress by Jim Cooper, who, like Clement, was also the son of a former governor.

Jim Cooper is considered a blue dog Democrat. According to On The Issues, he is deemed "moderate", but is slightly to the left of the political center.[10] As of summer 2016, he has served seven terms, and is running for re-election.

List of representatives

Name Years Party District Residence Notes
District created March 4, 1813
Felix Grundy March 4, 1813 - ??, 1814 Democratic-Republican Redistricted from the 3rd district, Resigned
Newton Cannon September 16, 1814 - March 4, 1817 Democratic-Republican
Thomas Claiborne March 4, 1817 - March 4, 1819 Democratic-Republican
Newton Cannon March 4, 1819 - March 4, 1823 Democratic-Republican
Robert Allen March 4, 1823 - March 4, 1825 Jacksonian D-R Redistricted from the 4th district
March 4, 1825 - March 4, 1827 Jacksonian
Robert Desha March 4, 1827 - March 4, 1831 Jacksonian Gallatin
William Hall March 4, 1831 - March 4, 1833 Jacksonian Sumner County
John B. Forester March 4, 1833 - March 4, 1835 Jacksonian
March 4, 1835 - March 4, 1837 Anti-Jacksonian
Hopkins L. Turney March 4, 1837 - March 4, 1843 Democratic Winchester
George Washington Jones March 4, 1843 - March 4, 1853 Democratic Fayetteville Redistricted to the 6th district
Charles Ready March 4, 1853 - March 4, 1855 Whig Murfreesboro
March 4, 1855 - March 4, 1859 Know Nothing
Robert H. Hatton March 4, 1859 - March 4, 1861 Opposition Lebanon
American Civil War
William B. Campbell July 24, 1866 - March 4, 1867 Unionist Wilson County
John Trimble March 4, 1867 - March 4, 1869 Republican Nashville
William F. Prosser March 4, 1869 - March 4, 1871 Republican Nashville
Edward I. Golladay March 4, 1871 - March 4, 1873 Democratic Lebanon
Horace Harrison March 4, 1873 - March 4, 1875 Republican Nashville
John M. Bright March 4, 1875 - March 4, 1881 Democratic Fayetteville Redistricted from the 4th district
Richard Warner March 4, 1881 - March 4, 1885 Democratic Lewisburg
James D. Richardson March 4, 1885 - March 4, 1905 Democratic Murfreesboro
William C. Houston March 4, 1905 - March 4, 1919 Democratic Woodbury
Ewin L. Davis March 4, 191 9 - March 4, 1933 Democratic Tullahoma
Jo Byrns March 4, 1933 - June 4, 1936 Democratic Nashville Redistricted from the 6th district, Died
Richard M. Atkinson January 3, 1937 - January 3, 1939 Democratic Nashville
Jo Byrns, Jr. January 3, 1939 - January 3, 1941 Democratic Nashville
Percy Priest January 3, 1941 - January 3, 1943 Independent Democrat Nashville Redistricted to the 6th district
Jim Nance McCord January 3, 1943 - January 3, 1945 Democratic Lewisburg
Harold Earthman January 3, 1945 - January 3, 1947 Democratic Murfreesboro
Joe L. Evins January 3, 1947 - January 3, 1953 Democratic Smithville Redistricted to the 4th district
Percy Priest January 3, 1953 - October 12, 1956 Democratic Nashville Redistricted from the 6th district, Died
J. Carlton Loser January 3, 1957 - January 3, 1963 Democratic Nashville
Richard Fulton January 3, 1963 - August 14, 1975 Democratic Nashville Resigned after becoming Mayor of Nashville
Clifford Allen November 25, 1975 - June 18, 1978 Democratic Nashville Died
Vacant June 18, 1978 – January 3, 1979
Bill Boner January 3, 1979 - October 5, 1987 Democratic Nashville Resigned after becoming Mayor of Nashville
Bob Clement January 19, 1988 - January 3, 2003 Democratic Nashville
Jim Cooper January 3, 2003 – present Democratic Nashville

Election results

United States House elections, 2004: Tennessee District 5
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jim Cooper 168,970 69.3 +5.5
Republican Scott Knapp 74,978 30.7 -2.5
Write-in candidate Thomas F. Kovach 15 0.0

Source: Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 2004

United States House elections, 2006: Tennessee District 5
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jim Cooper 122,919 69.0 -0.3
Republican Thomas F. Kovach 49,702 27.9 -2.8
Independent Ginny Welsch 3,766 2.1
Independent Scott Knapp 1,755 1.0
United States House elections, 2008: Tennessee District 5
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jim Cooper 181,467 65.8 -3.2
Republican Gerard Donovan 85,471 31.0 +3.1
Independent Jon Jackson 5,464 2.0
Green John Miglietta 3,196 1.2
Write-in candidate Thomas F. Kovach 4 0.0
United States House elections, 2010: Tennessee District 5
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jim Cooper 99,162 56.2 -9.6
Republican David Hall 74,204 42.1 +11.1
Libertarian Stephen Collings 584 .3
Independent John "Big John" Smith 533 .3
Independent Jackie Miller 444 .3
Green John Miglietta 396 .2 -1
Independent Bill Crook 391 .2
Independent James Whitfield 333 .2
Independent Joe Moore 159 .1
Independent Clark Taylor 156 .1

Source: TN Department of State

United States House elections, 2012: Tennessee District 5 (Unofficial)
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jim Cooper 171,358 65.22 +9.0
Republican Brad Staats 86,153 32.79 -9.3
Green John Miglietta 5,208 1.98 +1.8

Source: TN Department of State

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. 2012. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010707123558/http://www.bmi.com/library/brochures/historybook/musiccity.asp
  3. ↑ http://www.infoplease.com/biography/us/congress/harrison-horace-harrison.html
  4. 1 2 https://github.com/JeffreyBLewis/congressional-district-boundaries
  5. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A07E3DD1F31E23BBC4B52DFB667838D649EDE
  6. ↑ http://www.thenashvillebanner.com/politics/2015/01/14/it-starts-with-richard-fulton.1311947
  7. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19780619&id=p-xdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VF8NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4571,2913882&hl=en
  8. ↑ https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/107-2002/h455
  9. ↑ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=19
  10. ↑ http://house.ontheissues.org/House/Jim_Cooper.htm
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Illinois's 20th congressional district		 Home district of the Speaker of the House
January 3, 1935 – June 4, 1936 		Succeeded by
Alabama's 7th congressional district

Coordinates: 36°11′14″N 87°04′27″W / 36.18722°N 87.07417°W / 36.18722; -87.07417

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