Tennessee's 2nd congressional district

The 2nd congressional district of Tennessee is a congressional district in Tennessee. It currently includes the east central part of the state.

The district is based in Knoxville, and is largely coextensive with that city's metropolitan area. It includes most of that city's suburbs. It includes the cities and towns of Alcoa, Dandridge, Farragut, Harrogate, Jefferson City, Jellico, Loudon, Lenoir City, Maryville, Powell, Rutledge and Tazewell.

The 2nd is one of the safest districts in the nation for the Republican Party. It is one of the few ancestrally Republican districts in the South. No Democrat has represented the district since 1855, and Republicans (or their antecedents) have held the district continuously since 1859. It was one of only two districts in Tennessee (the other being the neighboring 1st district) whose congressmen did not resign when Tennessee seceded from the Union prior to the Civil War.

Because most of its residents supported the Union over the Confederacy, the people almost immediately identified with the Republicans after hostilities ceased. Much of that sentiment was derived from the region's economic base of small-scale farming, with little or no use for slavery; thus, voters were mostly indifferent or hostile to the concerns of planters and other landed interests farther west in the state, who aligned themselves with the Democratic Party. This loyalty has persisted through good times and bad since then. Before the 1950s, its congressmen were among the few truly senior Republican congressmen from the South.

From the end of Reconstruction through the 1950s, the Republican Party in Tennessee was more or less nonexistent outside of East Tennessee. However, in the 1960s conservative Democratic whites, especially in suburban Memphis and Nashville, began voting for the likes of Barry Goldwater, Howard Baker (whose father and stepmother were representatives from the 2nd in the 1950s and 1960s), and Richard Nixon. At bottom, the conservative Democrats in the other Grand Divisions were almost as conservative as Republicans in East Tennessee. Traditional East Tennessee Republicans began welcoming conservative Democrats into their party, and they have worked more or less together as a coalition ever since.

A few pockets of Democratic voters exist in Knoxville, which has occasionally elected Democratic mayors and sends a few Democrats to the state legislature. However, they are no match for the overwhelming Republican tilt of the rural areas, the Knoxville suburbs, and most of Knoxville itself. Coal miners in the far northern fringe of the district also supported Democrats from the 1930s onward, but nearly all of the coal-mining region was drawn into the 4th district after the 1980 Census.

This district traditionally gives its congressmen very long tenures in Washington. In the last 106 years, it has had only five congressmen (not including caretakers). The current congressman is Jimmy Duncan who succeeded his father, 24-year incumbent John Duncan, Sr., in a 1988 special election.

List of representatives

Name	Party	Years	Note
District created March 4, 1805
George W. Campbell	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1805 - March 3, 1809	Redistricted from the at-large district Retired to become judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court
Robert Weakley	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1809 - March 3, 1811
John Sevier	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1811 – September 24, 1815	Died
Vacant		September 24, 1815 – December 8, 1815
William G. Blount	Democratic-Republican	December 8, 1815 – March 3, 1819
John A. Cocke	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1819 – March 3, 1823
	Jacksonian D-R	March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825
	Jacksonian	March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1827
Pryor Lea	Jacksonian	March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1831
Thomas D. Arnold	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1831 – March 3, 1833
Samuel Bunch	Jacksonian	March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835
	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837
Abraham McClellan	Democrat	March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843
William T. Senter	Whig	March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845
William M. Cocke	Whig	March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1849
Albert G. Watkins	Whig	March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1853
William M. Churchwell	Democrat	March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1855	Redistricted from the 3rd district
William H. Sneed	American	March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1857
Horace Maynard	Know Nothing	March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1859
	Opposition	March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861
	Unionist	March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863
Civil War
Horace Maynard	Unconditional Unionist	July 24, 1866 – March 3, 1867
	Republican	March 4, 1867 – March 3, 1873	Redistricted to the At-large district
Jacob M. Thornburgh	Republican	March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1879
Leonidas C. Houk	Republican	March 4, 1879 – May 25, 1891	Died
Vacant		May 25, 1891 – December 7, 1891
John C. Houk	Republican	December 7, 1891 – March 3, 1895	Succeeded his father
Henry R. Gibson	Republican	March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1905
Nathan W. Hale	Republican	March 4, 1905 – March 3, 1909
Richard W. Austin	Republican	March 4, 1909 – March 3, 1919
J. Will Taylor	Republican	March 4, 1919 – November 14, 1939	Died
Vacant		November 14, 1939 – December 30, 1939
John Jennings, Jr.	Republican	December 30, 1939 – January 3, 1951
Howard H. Baker, Sr.	Republican	January 3, 1951 – January 7, 1964	Died
Vacant		January 7, 1964 – March 10, 1964
Irene B. Baker	Republican	March 10, 1964 – January 3, 1965	Succeeded her husband
John J. Duncan, Sr.	Republican	January 3, 1965 – June 21, 1988	Died
Vacant		June 21, 1988 – November 7, 1988
John J. Duncan, Jr.	Republican	November 8, 1988 – Present	Incumbent, succeeded his father

Historical district boundaries

2003 - 2013

See also

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

References

1. ↑ "Partisan Voting Index – Districts of the 115th Congress" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017. 

• 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

Coordinates: 36°03′01″N 83°49′16″W / 36.05028°N 83.82111°W / 36.05028; -83.82111