Tennessee has its own regional divide, one which seems to have lasted from just before the Civil War. When Tennessee had a referendum on whether to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy, eastern Tennessee voters voted strongly to remain with the Union, but western Tennessee (which had the plantations and slaves) voted to secede. The vote was close statewide, and that election would prove a Pyrrhic victory for slavery and secession. Western Tennessee would be among the first areas of the Confederacy to be liberated by Union forces, and eastern Tennessee would serve as a staging ground for what I consider the death blow to the Confederacy -- the severing of the "middle South" (Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and southern Georgia) from the more notheasterly part of the Confederacy (Virginia, northeastern Georgia, and North and South Carolina) while taking away the large foundries of the Chattanooga area.
Western Tennessee, which contains Memphis and many descendants of slaves for which the Confederacy fought to keep in bondage, is actually pro-Biden (Biden leading 45-40 there). Central Tennessee is almost even at 41-37 for Trump. Eastern Tennessee, containing Knoxville and Chattanooga, is 61-26 for Trump. Now you know.
I don't see where you are getting those numbers. I see the following in the crosstabs:
West Tennessee: 44-42 Biden
Middle Tennessee: 49-39 Trump
East Tennessee: 65-27 Trump
2012-16 Results from DRA:
West Tennessee: 51-49 Democrat (IIRC, it would be an Obama-Trump state)
Middle Tennessee: 62-38 Republican
East Tennessee: 71-29 Republican
What do they Define is East Tennessee? Surely it doesn't include Nashville? I ask because they're only a couple relatively sparsely populated red counties outside of Shelby, and I can't imagine Shelby County doing enough to tilt that entire third of the state.
