Tennessee's 5th congressional district

Tennessee's 5th congressional district
Tennessee's 5th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Current Representative		Jim Cooper (D–Nashville)
Population (2000)	632,143
Median income	$40,419
Ethnicity	70.0% White, 23.6% Black, 2.0% Asian, 4.2% Hispanic, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% other
Cook PVI	D+5[1]

The 5th Congressional District of Tennessee is a congressional district in Middle Tennessee. The most regularly drawn of the state's nine districts, it includes all of Davidson and Dickson counties and most of Cheatham County. Nearly two-thirds of the district's voting population lives in the state capital, Nashville.

Democrat Jim Cooper, who represented the 4th District in southern middle Tennessee for six terms, has represented the 5th since 2003.

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 undergoing rapid suburbanization. However, they are no match for the overwhelming Democratic trend in most of Nashville. While Republicans made several strong bids for the district in the late 1960s and early 1970s (largely over racial issues such as a 1971 busing order), they have only put up token candidates since 1972.

Demographics are a major factor behind the Democrats' near-absolute dominance of the political scene. Many conservative white voters (including Nashville natives) have increasingly moved out of Metro Nashville/Davidson County to more Republican suburban counties such as Williamson and Sumner. They have been replaced largely by liberal-oriented constituencies such as students (and alumni) of the Nashville area's several colleges and universities, music industry professionals, and white-collar professionals, in a manner similar to that of cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, and Austin. In the entire state, only Memphis has a comparable constituency of liberal-minded whites. The clout of Nashville's African-American electorate, a traditionally Democratic constituency, has grown steadily in recent years as well.

Although the district's Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+5 suggests a marginally Democratic district, Davidson County has more people than the rest of the district combined. For this reason, the 5th is one of two seats in Tennessee that are usually not seriously contested by Republicans (the other being the 9th district).

Historical district boundaries

2003 - 2013

Tennessee has had at least five congressional districts since 1827. The district's current configuration dates from 1953, when Tennessee lost a seat in redistricting. The Tennessee General Assembly shifted most of the territory of the former 6th District to neighboring districts, creating a 5th District located entirely in Davidson County. While other areas around Nashville have been added in subsequent years, the 5th has been drawn as a Nashville-based district ever since.

Below are the counties included in Tennessee's 5th District from 1923 to 2013:

• 1923-1933: Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Rutherford
• 1933-1943: Davidson, Macon, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, Trousdale
• 1943-1953: Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Franklin, Giles, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Rutherford, Wilson
• 1953-1973: Davidson
• 1973-1983: Cheatham, Davidson, Robertson
• 1983-1993: Davidson, Robertson
• 1993-2003: Davidson, most of Robertson
• 2003-2013: Most of Davidson, parts of Cheatham and Wilson

Source: Tennessee Blue Books

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, 1919 - March 4, 1933	Democratic	Tullahoma
Jo Byrns	March 4, 1933 - June 4, 1936	Democratic	Nashville	Redistricted from the 6th district, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935–1936, 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

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

References

1. "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. 2012. Retrieved 2013-01-10.

• 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
• November 7, 2006 General Election Official Returns (Accessed 2006-12-11)

External links

• House of Representatives member information, via Clerk of the United States House of Representatives

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