The 2018 Tennessee State Senate election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect 18 of the 33 seats for the Tennessee's State Senate. The elections coincided with the Governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and State House elections. The primary elections were held on August 2, 2018.
Following the 2018 elections, no seats changed hands, leaving Tennessee's State Senate delegation at a 28âÂÂ5 Republican supermajority.
Following Republican Doug Overbey's appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 2017, fellow Republican Art Swann was appointed to replace him. Per Tennessee state law, Swann had to run in an off-cycle election in 2018 to retain the seat for the remainder of Overbey's term.
Three incumbents (2 Democrats and 1 Republican) did not run for re-election in 2018. Those incumbents are:
This race was decided by a margin of under 10%:
In September 2017, Tennessee state senator Mae Beavers resigned her seat to run for governor. This resignation required a special election to fill the seat for the remaining year of her term. Republican Mark Pody ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and he defeated Democrat Mary Alice Carfi in the special election, 5,995 to 5,688.
Incumbent Lee Harris retired to successfully run for Shelby County Mayor.
The 31th senate district was based in Shelby County, and encompassed parts of East Memphis and some of Memphis's suburbs, including Cordova and Germantown. The district had been represented by Republican Brian Kelsey, who won re-election in 2014 unopposed. The district had been labeled competitive, and Kelsey was considered the most vulnerable incumbent heading into 2018, as the district had been trending leftwards due to changing demographics.
Incumbent Brian Kelsey narrowly won re-election by 1.8%, defeating his Democratic opponent Gabby Salinas.
In the concurrent gubernatorial and senate elections, the district voted for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Lee by 3.5% and Democratic senate nominee Phil Bredesen by 7.5%.
On January 29, 2018, Robinson announced that she would run in the Democratic primary. She defeated incumbent Senator Reginald Tate in the Democratic primary and faced no opposition in the general election. Tate had been censured by the Shelby County Democratic Party and Robinson was endorsed by United States Representative Steve Cohen and Senate Minority Leader Sara Kyle.