The Republican Party of Shelby County is the
Republican political organization for
Shelby County, Tennessee
Shelby County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 929,744. It is the largest of the state's List of counties in Tennessee, 95 counties, both in terms of ...
. It has a long history of impacting politics in Shelby County long before the Republican Party was popular in the south.
Despite being in a heavily Democratic county, the Republican Party of Shelby County is the largest county Republican Party in the state. Though Tennessee does not register by party, it is estimated that there are roughly 272,000 Republican voters in Shelby County.
History
The party has its origins in the
Lincoln League, which was founded by
Robert Church Jr. in 1916 to promote black voter registration. Church was one of the most prominent African-American businessmen in the nation and is credited with the early development of
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, ...
. By the 1950s conservative Democrats were joining the party as blacks were leaving.
In the 1970s the party remade itself as a suburb-focused party that relied on activities like backyard parties, door-to-door campaigning and telephone networks to coordinate conservative voters in the suburbs.
Starting in 1992, the party began holding a
primary election
Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...
to pick candidates in the general election. It was scheduled for the same day as Tennessee's presidential primary, and represented the first partisan local elections in the County since before 1900. The county Democratic party soon copied the practice. The move meant the end of nearly a century of nonpartisan elections in the county.
Chairpersons
References
{{reflist
External links
Republican Party of Shelby CountyRPSC History
Shelby County, Tennessee
Political parties established in 1916
1916 establishments in Tennessee