Memphis is solidly blue. The question of whether Memphis is red or blue has a clear answer in every recent election result: the city and surrounding Shelby County vote Democratic by roughly 25 to 30 percentage points in presidential races, making Memphis one of the most reliably Democratic urban areas in the Deep South. Along with Nashville, it is one of only two major Democratic strongholds in an otherwise deeply Republican state.
What the Vote Totals Show
In 2024, Shelby County gave Kamala Harris 61.5% of the vote to Donald Trump’s 36.2%, a margin of nearly 83,000 votes.1Shelby County Election Commission. 2024 General Election Results Four years earlier, Joe Biden carried the county by an even wider spread, roughly 64.3% to 33.9%.2Shelby County Election Commission. 2020 Official Election Summary Consistency across cycles is the point: Memphis’s Democratic lean is structural, not a reaction to any particular candidate.
Congressional races tell the same story. Democrat Steve Cohen won the 9th Congressional District, which has historically covered the urban core of Memphis, with nearly 74% of the vote in 2024.1Shelby County Election Commission. 2024 General Election Results That seat had been in Democratic hands continuously since 1975.3USA Today. Tennessee Redistricting Map Republicans Memphis The small slice of Shelby County that falls into the 8th District went Republican, with David Kustoff taking about 67% there. In the state legislature, Memphis-area House races in 2024 broke eight Democratic to five Republican across Shelby County.4Commercial Appeal. Tennessee State Legislature Shelby County Election Results
Who Runs the City
Tennessee law makes municipal elections nonpartisan unless a city’s charter says otherwise, so candidates in Memphis do not run under party labels.5Justia. Tennessee Code Section 2-13-208 The paperwork says bipartisan; the practice does not. As one council member described the arrangement in 2021, the council is technically nonpartisan, “but people know what side of the aisle everybody sits on.”6WREG. Memphis City Council’s Non-Partisan Status Questioned
Mayor Paul Young, who took office on January 1, 2024, ran primarily on a Democratic platform and was endorsed by groups including the Shelby County Young Democrats and Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood.7Commercial Appeal. Paul Young Memphis Mayor What to Know A 2022 count of the 13-member Memphis City Council identified four members as Republicans or independents, with the rest identifying as Democrats.8Commercial Appeal. Memphis City Council and Mayoral Races Could Be Partisan The Shelby County Commission, a separate governing body, also leans Democratic, though precise numbers are harder to pin down since those races are nonpartisan as well.
Why Memphis Votes Blue
The city’s demographics do most of the explaining. Memphis has about 611,000 residents, roughly 64% of whom are Black, and a poverty rate of 24%, more than double the national average.9Census Reporter. Memphis, TN Profile3USA Today. Tennessee Redistricting Map Republicans Memphis Black voters nationally align heavily with the Democratic Party, and that is the single biggest factor in Memphis’s lopsided election results. A relatively young population (median age around 35) and dense urban geography also correlate with Democratic voting patterns.
The surrounding suburbs of Shelby County are more competitive, and the rural areas beyond the county line are solidly Republican. That urban-rural split is the backdrop to everything else.
A Blue City in a Very Red State
Republican presidential candidates routinely take about 60% of Tennessee’s statewide vote. Republicans hold supermajorities in the General Assembly, with the party controlling the state House 75–24 and the Senate 27–6 as of 2023.10Christian Science Monitor. Blue City Red State: Why Nashville and Tennessee Aren’t in Tune Memphis’s small, heavily Democratic delegation operates as a minority inside that body, and the friction between the city and the state capitol has grown sharper over the last decade.
State Preemption
The legislature has repeatedly used preemption laws to override Memphis ordinances. It disbanded the city’s civilian police oversight board in 2023, targeted a Memphis ordinance limiting low-level traffic stops, blocked the city from requiring first responders to live within city limits, and prohibited local governments from enacting red-flag gun laws. After Memphis transferred park ownership to a nonprofit to remove Confederate monuments, the state amended the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act to close that loophole.11MLK50. The State Regularly Passes Legislation Targeting Memphis
The 2026 Redistricting Map
The most consequential recent move came in May 2026, when the Republican supermajority passed a new congressional map during a special legislative session. The map splits Memphis across three congressional districts, each stretching roughly 200 miles into rural West Tennessee and the Republican-leaning Nashville suburbs.12NPR. Memphis Gerrymandering Representation Voting Rights3USA Today. Tennessee Redistricting Map Republicans Memphis Under the old lines, Memphis’s core population formed a majority in the 9th District. Under the new lines, the majority-Black, majority-Democratic population of Memphis and Shelby County is a minority in all three.
Republican legislators were explicit about the goal. State Sen. John Stevens said the map was drawn to “maximize the Republican chances to win nine congressional district seats,” and Rep. Jason Zachary said the objective was an “all-Republican delegation” from Tennessee.13WSMV. TN Governor Signs New Congressional Map Into Law Dividing Memphis Voting-rights groups have called the map a racially motivated attempt to dilute Black political power, and multiple federal challenges remain pending before a three-judge panel, though the presiding judge has signaled reluctance to issue an injunction close to the August 2026 primary.14Nashville Banner. NAACP Congressional Districts Challenge Denied A state court challenge brought by the Tennessee NAACP was dismissed with prejudice on May 26, 2026.15Action News 5. Judges Dismiss Tennessee NAACP Lawsuit Challenging New Congressional Map
Federal Intervention
Memphis’s political status also shapes its dealings with Washington. In September 2025, President Trump signed a memorandum creating the Memphis Safe Task Force, deploying personnel from 13 federal agencies and authorizing mobilization of the Tennessee National Guard to address violent crime in the city. Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, formally requested the deployment. Trump identified Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans as future targets for similar interventions.16New York Times. Trump Memphis National Guard Crime Mayor Paul Young expressed skepticism about using the National Guard as a crime-fighting tool but said the city could benefit from federal resources for homelessness and community beautification.17NPR. National Guard Memphis Tennessee Trump By early 2026, about 1,450 National Guard members remained stationed in Memphis.18Daily Memphian. National Guard Deployment Memphis Safe Task Force
So the short answer stays short: Memphis votes blue, consistently and by wide margins, inside a state that votes red by equally wide margins. Almost everything else interesting about Memphis politics follows from that mismatch.