Very large factor which is underdiscussed is the current TN gerrymander cracks the suburbs with rural areas already to prevent any rural Democratic comeback in 2012.
You mean 2022. But yeah, you're possibly right.
TN pre-redistricting has such ugly and terrible maps, considering a much cleaner, fairer map with the same solid 7-2 result could be made (I know incumbent protection made it impossible even if the TNGOP didn't plan to gerrymander, but I really liked the Democratic proposal - it kept the composition the same at 7-2, but made the maps much cleaner, and did create a suburban seat in the Nashville suburbs).
No he meant in 2012 the TN GOP were one of the parties that didn't believe the Dixiecrats were dead and used their long-term base in the suburbs to crack rural areas that had previously supported these blue dogs. It is the reason why TN-05 existed for the last 10 years - the GOP had the voters in 2008 to cut it, but the political knowledge at the time did not favor such a move.
Yup TN redistricting is really interesting. TN 7th from the 2000's is one of the few rare hillarious suburb packs.
