Tennessee's 1st congressional district

Tennessee's 1st congressional district is the congressional district of northeast Tennessee, including all of Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties and parts of Jefferson County and Sevier County. It is largely coextensive with the Tennessee portion of the Tri-Cities region of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

Tennessee's 1st congressional district
Tennessee's 1st congressional district – since January 3, 2013.
Representative
  Phil Roe
RJohnson City
Distribution
  • 57.46% urban[1]
  • 42.54% rural
Population (2016)714,504[2]
Median income$42,300[3]
Ethnicity
Cook PVIR+28[4]

Cities and towns represented within the district include Blountville, Bristol, Church Hill, Elizabethton, Erwin, Greeneville, Johnson City, Jonesborough, Kingsport, Morristown, Mountain City, Newport, Pigeon Forge, Roan Mountain, Rogersville, Sneedville, Sevierville and Tusculum. The 1st district's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives has been held by Republicans since 1881.

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

The district's current Congressman, Phil Roe, was first elected in 2008 after defeating one-term incumbent David Davis in the Republican primary.[5] Roe announced in January 2020 that he will not run for re-election in 2020.[6]

Election results from presidential races

Year Office Result
2000 President George W. Bush 61% – Al Gore 38%
2004 President George W. Bush 68% – John Kerry 31%
2008 President John McCain 70% – Barack Obama 28.6%
2012 President Mitt Romney 72.7% – Barack Obama 25.7%
2016 President Donald Trump 76.7% – Hillary Clinton 19.7%

Political characteristics

The 1st has generally been a very secure voting district for the Republican Party since the American Civil War, and is one of only two ancestrally Republican districts in the state (the other being the neighboring 2nd district).

Democratic
U.S. Representatives Andrew Jackson (1796–1797, at large) and Andrew Johnson (1843–1853, 1st) represented this area and later served as President of the United States

Republicans (or their antecedents) have held the seat continuously since 1881 and for all but four years since 1859, while Democrats (or their antecedents) have held the congressional seat for all but eight years from when Andrew Jackson was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1796 (as the state's single at large representative) up to the term of Albert Galiton Watkins ending in 1859.

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

The 1st was one of four districts in Tennessee whose congressmen did not resign when Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861. Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson was reelected as a Unionist (the name used by a coalition of Republicans, northern Democrats and anti-Confederate Southern Democrats) to the Thirty-seventh Congress, but he was arrested by Confederate troops while en route to Washington, D.C. and taken to Richmond. Nelson was paroled and returned home to Jonesborough, where he kept a low profile for the length of his term.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

Due to these factors, this area supported the Union over the Confederacy in the Civil War, and identified with the Republican Party after Tennessee was readmitted to the Union in 1867, 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.

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 eight 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 created March 4, 1805

John Rhea
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 Democratic-Republican March 4, 1815 –
March 3, 1817
14th Elected in 1815.
Retired.

John Rhea
Democratic-Republican March 4, 1817 –
March 3, 1823
15th
16th
17th
Elected in 1817.
Re-elected in 1819.
Re-elected in 1821.
Retired.
John Blair Jackson Democratic-Republican March 4, 1823 –
March 3, 1825
18th
19th
20th
21st
22nd
23rd
Elected in 1823.
Re-elected in 1825.
Re-elected in 1827.
Re-elected in 1829.
[data unknown/missing]
1823–1833
Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, and Washington counties
Jacksonian March 4, 1825 –
March 3, 1835
1833–1843
[data unknown/missing]
William B. Carter Anti-Jacksonian March 4, 1835 –
March 3, 1837
24th
25th
26th
[data unknown/missing]
Whig March 4, 1837 –
March 3, 1841
[data unknown/missing]
Thomas D. Arnold Whig March 4, 1841 –
March 3, 1843
27th [data unknown/missing]
Retired.

Andrew Johnson
Democratic March 4, 1843 –
March 3, 1853
28th
29th
30th
31st
32nd
Elected Governor of Tennessee 1843–1853
[data unknown/missing]}
Brookins Campbell Democratic March 4, 1853 –
December 25, 1853
33rd [data unknown/missing]
Died.
1853–1863
[data unknown/missing]}
Vacant December 25, 1853 –
March 30, 1854

Nathaniel G. Taylor
Whig March 30, 1854 –
March 3, 1855
33rd [data unknown/missing]
Lost re-election.
Albert G. Watkins Democratic March 4, 1855 –
March 3, 1859
34th
35th
Redistricted from the 2nd district.
Retired.

Thomas A. R. Nelson
Opposition March 4, 1859 –
March 3, 1861
36th Re-elected in 1861, but captured en route to Congress and failed to take his seat.
Vacant March 4, 1861 –
July 24, 1866
37th
38th
39th
Civil War and Reconstruction
1863–1873
[data unknown/missing]

Nathaniel G. Taylor
Unionist July 24, 1866 –
March 3, 1867
39th [data unknown/missing]
Retired.

Roderick R. Butler
Republican March 4, 1867 –
March 3, 1875
40th
41st
42nd
43rd
[data unknown/missing]
Lost re-election.
1873–1883
[data unknown/missing]
William McFarland Democratic March 4, 1875 –
March 3, 1877
44th [data unknown/missing]

James H. Randolph
Republican March 4, 1877 –
March 3, 1879
45th [data unknown/missing]

Robert L. Taylor
Democratic March 4, 1879 –
March 3, 1881
46th [data unknown/missing]
Augustus H. Pettibone Republican March 4, 1881 –
March 3, 1887
47th
48th
49th
[data unknown/missing]

Roderick R. Butler
Republican March 4, 1887 –
March 3, 1889
50th [data unknown/missing]

Alfred A. Taylor
Republican March 4, 1889 –
March 3, 1895
51st
52nd
53rd
[data unknown/missing]
William C. Anderson Republican March 4, 1895 –
March 3, 1897
54th [data unknown/missing]

Walter P. Brownlow
Republican March 4, 1897 –
July 8, 1910
55th
56th
57th
58th
59th
60th
61st
[data unknown/missing]
Died.
Vacant July 9, 1910 –
November 7, 1910
61st
Zachary D. Massey Republican November 8, 1910 –
March 3, 1911
Elected to finish Brownlow's term.
Retired.

Sam R. Sells
Republican March 4, 1911 –
March 3, 1921
62nd
63rd
64th
65th
66th
[data unknown/missing]
1913–1933
Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties[10]

B. Carroll Reece
Republican March 4, 1921 –
March 3, 1931
67th
68th
69th
70th
71st
[data unknown/missing]
Lost renomination to Oscar Lovette
Oscar B. Lovette Republican March 4, 1931 –
March 3, 1933
72nd [data unknown/missing]
Lost renomination.

B. Carroll Reece
Republican March 4, 1933 –
January 3, 1947
73rd
74th
75th
76th
77th
78th
79th
[data unknown/missing]
Retired to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee

Dayton E. Phillips
Republican January 3, 1947 –
January 3, 1951
80th
81st
[data unknown/missing]
Lost renomination.

B. Carroll Reece
Republican January 3, 1951 –
March 19, 1961
82nd
83rd
84th
85th
86th
87th
[data unknown/missing]
Died.
Vacant March 20, 1961 –
May 15, 1961
87th

Louise Reece
Republican May 16, 1961 –
January 3, 1963
Elected to finish her husband's term.
Retired.

Jimmy Quillen
Republican January 3, 1963 –
January 3, 1997
88th
89th
90th
91st
92nd
93rd
94th
95th
96th
97th
98th
99th
100th
101st
102nd
103rd
104th
[data unknown/missing]
Retired.

Bill Jenkins
Republican January 3, 1997 –
January 3, 2007
105th
106th
107th
108th
109th
[data unknown/missing]
Retired.

David Davis
Republican January 3, 2007 –
January 3, 2009
110th [data unknown/missing]
Lost renomination.

Phil Roe
Republican January 3, 2009 –
present
111th
112th
113th
114th
115th
116th
Elected in 2008. Retiring in 2020.

Historical district boundaries

2003 – 2013
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See also

Sources

References

  1. Geography, US Census Bureau. "Congressional Districts Relationship Files (state-based)". www.census.gov.
  2. Bureau, Center for New Media & Promotion (CNMP), US Census. "My Congressional District". www.census.gov.
  3. https://www.census.gov/mycd/?st=47&cd=01
  4. "Partisan Voting Index – Districts of the 115th Congress" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  5. "Roe defeats incumbent Davis for 1st Congressional District nomination", Johnson City Press, August 8, 2008.
  6. Pathé, Simone (January 3, 2020). "Tennessee's Phil Roe won't run for reelection in 2020". Roll Call. Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  7. ""A Patriot's Voice", Neal O'Steen, Tennessee Alumnus Summer 1997". utk.edu. Archived from the original on 2010-06-18.
  8. "Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: Slavery". tennesseeencyclopedia.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
  9. "First Abolition Publications 1A82 - Jonesborough, Tn. - Tennessee Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com.
  10. L.A. Coolidge (1897). "Tennessee". Official Congressional Directory: Fifty-Fifth Congress. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.

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