Tennessee Democratic Party

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in Tennessee. The party was founded in 1826 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. A socially-conservative southern state and member of the confederacy during the Civil War, Tennessee government was dominated by the Democratic Party for most of its history. The Tennessee Democratic Party was initially a proponent of President Andrew Jackson's populist philosophy of Jacksonian democracy in the mid-1820s. From the late 19th-century through to the 1960s, the party took reliably conservative positions on most issues, largely opposing civil rights for African Americans and fighting to preserve the Jim Crow system. However, during the New Deal era that followed the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the party began to shift away from conservatism and towards a platform of modern liberalism. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the Democratic Party began to support the inclusion of Blacks and other minorities in its coalition and adopting liberal positions on both fiscal and social issues. As a result, it began to lose ground in the state towards the end of the 20th century, with the rival Republican Party making overwhelming gains at all levels of government in the 21st century. Tennessee delegation of the Democratic National Committee The delegation of each state to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) consists of the highest-ranking elected male and female persons within the state's Democratic Party. In 2018 these were Mary Mancini and John Litz. As determined by DNC rules, Tennessee was allowed three additional members, elected by the Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee for a four-year term. National party rules call for elections to be held during the calendar year in which a Democratic National Convention is held. The Tennessee delegation is expected to represent Tennessee on all matters before the committee.