| State: | Tennessee |
| District Number: | 3 |
| Image Caption: | Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 |
| Representative: | Chuck Fleischmann |
| Party: | Republican |
| Residence: | Ooltewah |
| Distribution Ref: | [1] |
| Percent Urban: | 62.76 |
| Percent Rural: | 37.24 |
| Population: | 788,228[2] |
| Population Year: | 2022 |
| Median Income: | $68,127 |
| Percent White: | 77.8 |
| Percent Hispanic: | 5.8 |
| Percent Black: | 10.0 |
| Percent Asian: | 1.5 |
| Percent More Than One Race: | 4.3 |
| Percent Other Race: | 0.6 |
| Cpvi: | R+19[3] |
The 3rd congressional district of Tennessee is a congressional district in East Tennessee. It has been represented by Republican Chuck Fleischmann since January 2011. The third district has been centered on Chattanooga since before the Civil War.[4]
In terms of density, the district is sparsely populated, as much of it is located within the Appalachian Mountains. Almost half of the district's population lives in Hamilton County.
The district comprises two halves, joined through a narrow tendril in Roane County near Ten Mile. The upper half encompasses all of Roane, Anderson, and Morgan counties, along with most of Scott, and half of Campbell County.
The lower half borders North Carolina to the east and Georgia to the south. It is composed of Hamilton, Polk, McMinn, Monroe, and Bradley County.
Results under old lines (2013–2023)
| Year | Office | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | President | George W. Bush 57% - Al Gore 31% | |
| 2004 | President | George W. Bush 61% - John Kerry 38% | |
| 2008 | President | John McCain 61.3% - Barack Obama 37.3% | |
| 2012 | President | Mitt Romney 63.3% - Barack Obama 35% | |
| 2016 | President | Donald Trump 65.4% - Hillary Clinton 30.2% | |
| 2020 | President | Donald Trump 65.3% - Joe Biden 32.9% |
The 3rd district is on the dividing line between counties and towns that favored or opposed Southern secession in the Civil War. George Washington Bridges was elected 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 back to Tennessee. Bridges was held prisoner for more than a year before he escaped and went to Washington, D.C., and assumed his duties on February 23, 1863; serving until March 3, 1863.
During much of the 20th century, southeastern Tennessee was the only portion of traditionally heavily Republican East Tennessee where Democrats were able to compete on a more-or-less even basis. The Chattanooga papers—the moderate-to-progressive Times and the archconservative Free Press (now consolidated into the Chattanooga Times Free Press)—printed diametrically opposed political editorials. The northern counties have predominantly voted Republican since the 1860s, in a manner similar to their neighbors in the present 1st and 2nd districts. However, Democrats have received some support in coal mining areas (dating from the Great Depression). Also, in the years since World War II, the government-founded city of Oak Ridge, with its active labor unions and a population largely derived from outside the region, has been a source of potential Democratic votes.
This balance showed signs of changing beginning in the late 1950s, when rural and working-class whites began splitting their tickets in national elections to support Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater. In later years, the district warmly supported George Wallace in his third-party run for president in 1968, and gave equally strong support to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, as well as Governors Winfield Dunn and Lamar Alexander. The district has only supported a Democrat for president twice in the last half century, in 1956 and 1992. Even in those cases, that support was almost entirely attributable to the presence of native sons as vice presidential candidates. In 1956, Senator Estes Kefauver, who had represented the 3rd from 1939 to 1949, was the Democratic vice presidential candidate. In 1992, Senator Al Gore was Bill Clinton's running mate, but even with Gore's presence, the Democrats only carried the 3rd by 39 votes out of 225,000 cast.
Even as the district became friendlier to Republicans at the national level, Democrats still held their own at the local level. This trend was broken when Republican Bill Brock won the congressional seat in 1962, ending a 40-year run by Democrats. He handed the seat to fellow Republican LaMar Baker in 1971. However, conservative Democrat Marilyn Lloyd (the widow of a popular television news anchorman in Chattanooga) regained it in 1974 and held it for 20 years. As late as the early 1990s, area Democrats held at least half the local offices in the region, particularly in the southern portion.
As the 1990s wore on, Democrats slowly began losing even county and local offices that they had held for generations. This trend actually began as early as 1992, when Lloyd barely held onto her seat against Republican Zach Wamp. Lloyd retired in 1994, and Wamp narrowly won the race to succeed her as part of that year's massive GOP wave. Wamp was handily reelected in 1996, and the Republicans have held it without serious difficulty since then. Indeed, the Democrats have only cleared 40 percent of the vote twice since Lloyd retired. Redistricting after the 2010 census consolidated the Republican hold on the seat, and it is now one of the most Republican districts in the nation.
Democrats still remain competitive in some local- and state-level races, particularly in Chattanooga and Oak Ridge. Chattanooga also sends some Democrats to the state legislature. However, even moderately liberal politics are a very hard sell, and most of the area's Democrats—particularly outside Chattanooga—are quite conservative on social issues. The 3rd district is home to several Evangelical Protestant denominations and colleges, contributing to the area's social conservatism.
After Wamp's January 2009 announcement that he would run for governor in 2010 instead of seeking re-election, several candidates announced campaigns for the seat. As of March 2010, the Republican field included former state party chairwoman Robin Smith, Air Force Captain Rick Kernea, Tommy Crangle, Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann, Bradley County sheriff Tim Gobble, Art Rhodes, Van Irion, and Basil Marceaux. Fleischmann won the August 5, 2010 primary with about 28% of the total vote.[5] [6] Democratic candidates as of October 2009 were Paula Flowers of Oak Ridge, a former member of Governor Phil Bredesen's cabinet, and former Libertarian Party member Brent Benedict, who won the 2006 Democratic primary for the seat but lost the general election to Wamp.[7] [8] [9] Both of those Democrats later abandoned their campaigns, but four other candidates placed their names on the ballot for the August 2010 Democratic primary: Alicia Mitchell of Oak Ridge, Brenda Freeman Short of East Ridge, and Brent Staton and John Wolfe of Chattanooga. Wolfe was the winner in the August 5, 2010 primary.[10] Six independents also filed petitions to appear on the November 2010 ballot: Don Barkman, Mark DeVol, Gregory C. Goodwin, Robert Humphries, Mo Kiah and Savas T. Kyriakidis.[11] Republican nominee Chuck Fleischmann won the general election in November 2010 with 57% of the vote, trailed by Democrat John Wolfe with 28%, and independent Savas Kyriakidis with 10%.[12]
| Name | Years | Cong ress | Party | Electoral history | District location | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District established March 4, 1805 | ||||||||
| align=left | William Dickson | nowrap | March 4, 1805 – March 3, 1807 | Democratic-Republican | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1805. Retired. | 1805–1813 "Metro district" | ||
| align=left | Jesse Wharton | nowrap | March 4, 1807 – March 3, 1809 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1807. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Pleasant Moorman Miller | nowrap | March 4, 1809 – March 3, 1811 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1809. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Felix Grundy | nowrap | March 4, 1811 – March 3, 1813 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1811. Redistricted to the . | |||
| align=left | Thomas K. Harris | nowrap | March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1815 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1813. Lost re-election. | 1813–1823 | ||
| align=left | Isaac Thomas | nowrap | March 4, 1815 – March 3, 1817 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1815. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Francis Jones | nowrap | March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1823 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1817. Re-elected in 1819. Re-elected in 1821. Retired. | |||
| align=left | James I. Standifer | nowrap | March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825 | Democratic-Republican | Elected in 1823. Lost re-election. | 1823–1833 | ||
| align=left | James C. Mitchell | nowrap | March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1829 | Jacksonian | Elected in 1825. Re-elected in 1827. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | James I. Standifer | nowrap | March 4, 1829 – March 3, 1833 | Jacksonian | Elected in 1829. Re-elected in 1831. Redistricted to the . | |||
| Luke Lea | nowrap | March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835 | Jacksonian | Elected in 1833. Re-elected in 1835. Retired. | 1833–1843 | |||
| nowrap | March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837 | Anti-Jacksonian | ||||||
| align=left | Joseph L. Williams | nowrap | March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843 | Whig | Elected in 1837. Re-elected in 1839. Re-elected in 1841. Lost renomination. | |||
| align=left | Julius W. Blackwell | nowrap | March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845 | Democratic | Elected in 1842. Lost re-election. | 1843–1853 | ||
| align=left | John H. Crozier | nowrap | March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1849 | Whig | Elected in 1845. Re-elected in 1847. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Josiah M. Anderson | nowrap | March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1851 | Whig | Elected in 1849. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | William M. Churchwell | nowrap | March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1853 | Democratic | Elected in 1851. Redistricted to the . | |||
| align=left | Samuel A. Smith | nowrap | March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1859 | Democratic | Elected in 1853. Re-elected in 1855. Re-elected in 1857. Lost re-election. | 1853–1863 | ||
| align=left | Reese B. Brabson | nowrap | March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861 | Opposition | Elected in 1859. Retired. | |||
| align=left | George W. Bridges | nowrap | March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863 | Unionist | Elected in 1861 but initially unable to take seat when taken prisoner by the Confederate Army. Seated February 25, 1863 after escaping a Confederate prison. Unable to seek re-election, as state was under Confederate occupation. | |||
| District inactive | nowrap | March 4, 1863 – July 24, 1866 | Civil War and Reconstruction | |||||
William B. Stokes | nowrap | July 24, 1866 – March 3, 1867 | Unconditional Unionist | Elected in 1865. Re-elected in 1867. Re-elected in 1868. Lost re-election. | 1866–1873 | |||
| nowrap | March 4, 1867 – March 3, 1871 | Republican | ||||||
| align=left | Abraham E. Garrett | nowrap | March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1873 | Democratic | Elected in 1870. Redistricted to the and lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | William Crutchfield | nowrap | March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875 | Republican | Elected in 1872. Retired. | 1873–1883 | ||
George G. Dibrell | March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1885 | Democratic | Elected in 1874. Re-elected in 1876. Re-elected in 1878. Re-elected in 1880. Re-elected in 1882. Retired. | |||||
| 1883–1893 | ||||||||
| align=left | John R. Neal | nowrap | March 4, 1885 – March 3, 1889 | Democratic | Elected in 1884. Re-elected in 1886. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Henry Clay Evans | nowrap | March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1891 | Republican | Elected in 1888. Lost re-election. | |||
Henry C. Snodgrass | March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1895 | Democratic | Elected in 1890. Re-elected in 1892. Lost re-election. | |||||
| 1893–1903 | ||||||||
| align=left | Foster V. Brown | nowrap | March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1897 | Republican | Elected in 1894. Retired. | |||
John A. Moon | March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1921 | Democratic | Elected in 1896. Re-elected in 1898. Re-elected in 1900. Re-elected in 1902. Re-elected in 1904. Re-elected in 1906. Re-elected in 1908. Re-elected in 1910. Re-elected in 1912. Re-elected in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. Re-elected in 1918. Lost re-election. | |||||
| 1903–1913 | ||||||||
| 1913–1923 | ||||||||
| align=left | Joseph E. Brown | nowrap | March 4, 1921 – March 3, 1923 | Republican | Elected in 1920. Retired. | |||
Sam D. McReynolds | March 4, 1923 – July 11, 1939 | Democratic | Elected in 1922. Re-elected in 1924. Re-elected in 1926. Re-elected in 1928. Re-elected in 1930. Re-elected in 1932. Re-elected in 1934. Re-elected in 1936. Re-elected in 1938. Died. | 1923–1933 | ||||
| 1933–1943 | ||||||||
| Vacant | nowrap | July 11, 1939 – September 13, 1939 | ||||||
Estes Kefauver | September 13, 1939 – January 3, 1949 | Democratic | Elected to finish McReynolds's term. Re-elected in 1940. Re-elected in 1942. Re-elected in 1944. Re-elected in 1946. Retired to run for U.S. senator. | |||||
| 1943–1953 | ||||||||
James B. Frazier Jr. | January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1963 | Democratic | Elected in 1948. Re-elected in 1950. Re-elected in 1952. Re-elected in 1954. Re-elected in 1956. Re-elected in 1958. Re-elected in 1960. Lost renomination. | |||||
| 1953–1963 | ||||||||
| align=left | Bill Brock | nowrap | January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1971 | Republican | Elected in 1962. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Re-elected in 1968. Retired to run for U.S. senator. | 1963–1973 | ||
LaMar Baker | January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1975 | Republican | Elected in 1970. Re-elected in 1972. Lost re-election. | |||||
| 1973–1983 | ||||||||
Marilyn Lloyd | January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1995 | Democratic | Elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Re-elected in 1978. Re-elected in 1980. Re-elected in 1982. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 1986. Re-elected in 1988. Re-elected in 1990. Re-elected in 1992. Retired. | |||||
| 1983–1993 | ||||||||
| 1993–2003 | ||||||||
Zach Wamp | January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2011 | Republican | Elected in 1994. Re-elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Re-elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Retired to run for Governor of Tennessee. | |||||
| 2003–2013 | ||||||||
Chuck Fleischmann | January 3, 2011 – present | Republican | Elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020 Re-elected in 2022 | |||||
| 2013–2023 | ||||||||
| 2023–present | ||||||||