The person behind the name
Brent Taylor’s public career runs from the Memphis City Council, through a funeral business he built and sold, to four years in the Tennessee Senate marked by bills on crime, courts and the Shelby County district attorney.
Taylor was born in 1968, by his official Senate biography, and The Daily Memphian described him in 2022 as originally from Batesville, Mississippi, an hour south of Memphis; his campaign biography says he “was born and raised in a rural community before moving to Tennessee after school”. The official biography lists his wife, Kimberly, and two children; the campaign says the couple have been married more than 30 years, that their son Gage is an attorney in Dallas and their daughter Molly an interior architect in Montana, and that the Taylors live in the Eads community of Shelby County. [1][40][42][30]
Education and professional preparation
His official biography reports a mortuary science degree from Northwest Mississippi Community College and lists his profession as funeral director. He told The Daily Memphian he had been a bad student, failing three grades, and had built a business career “with only a mortuary school certificate”, calling himself “the poster child for trade school and community college”. The campaign says he and his wife bought their first funeral home in 2004 and built the business into what it calls “the largest family-owned funeral operation in the Mid-South”; the official biography lists him as former president and chief executive of Brentwood Funeral Services, and he told the newspaper he sold the company to a private-equity firm in January 2022. The superlative is the campaign’s; this review did not measure it. [1][40][42]
A public life that began at City Hall
The campaign biography says he was elected to the Memphis City Council in 1995 at 27 and served twelve years; The Commercial Appeal’s account is that he was re-elected in 1999 and in 2003, when he became the council’s chairman, and the official biography records the chairmanship. The Daily Memphian describes twelve years on the council in the 1990s and early 2000s, a brief term on the Shelby County Commission in 2011 and 2012 after appointment to an open seat, and service on the Shelby County Election Commission from 2019 until March 2022, which he chaired, by his official biography. In 2002 he ran for Congress in the Seventh District and finished third in the Republican primary with 14,139 votes, 15.6 percent, behind Marsha Blackburn and David Kustoff. [42][50][1][40][23]
He won the Senate seat in 2022 after Brian Kelsey did not seek re-election: unopposed in the August 4 Republican primary with 24,854 votes, then 45,289 to 23,041 over Democrat Ruby Powell-Dennis on November 8, 2022, 66.3 percent computed from the state’s totals. He has served in the 113th and 114th General Assemblies and holds the vice-chairmanship of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, the second vice-chairmanship of Transportation and Safety and a seat on Judiciary. [22][21][1][3][40]
On May 7, 2026, the day the General Assembly enacted a new congressional map, he announced for the redrawn Ninth District with the endorsements of Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and his first filing reached the Federal Election Commission the same day. President Trump endorsed him on July 13. In the August 6 Republican primary he received 31,057 of 67,467 votes, 46.0 percent, against state Representative Todd Warner (17,776), Jeremy Thompson (13,481) and Charlotte Bergmann (5,153), leading in thirteen of the district’s fifteen counties by this profile’s count of the county table; he faces state Representative Justin J. Pearson, who won the Democratic primary with 32,097 votes, on November 3; Ballotpedia’s page for the race also lists two independent candidates, Dennis Jeffrey Clark and Michelle Head, with the note that its list may not be complete. [30][26][29][19][20][47]
A note on two nominations. The Secretary of State’s Republican primary results for August 6, 2026 list Taylor in two places: in the Ninth District table, and as the only candidate in the Tennessee Senate District 31 table, with 20,657 votes in Shelby County. Ballotpedia records him as a candidate in both general elections on November 3, 2026, and the NRA Political Victory Fund’s Tennessee page grades him in both contests. None of the documents reviewed here says what would become of the Senate seat if he wins the congressional race, and this profile makes no assumption. [19][47][27]
Life & public service
From a Memphis council seat won in his twenties to a funeral business, a county election commission, the state Senate and a redrawn congressional district, the documented milestones show how his record was built.
Memphis City Council
Elected in 1995 at 27, by the campaign’s account; re-elected in 1999 and 2003 and chairman in 2003, by The Commercial Appeal’s; twelve years in all, the campaign and The Daily Memphian agree. The campaign’s claims that he was the youngest person ever elected to the council and never voted for a tax increase are campaign statements this review did not test. [42][50][1][40]
A first run for Congress
Third of seven in the Seventh District Republican primary on August 1, 2002: 14,139 votes, 15.6 percent, to Marsha Blackburn’s 36,633. [23]
The Mulroy resolutions
Senate Joint Resolution 26, to consider removing District Attorney Steve Mulroy, referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 27, 2025, with no further action recorded; Senate Resolution 120, urging codes of conduct and a Supreme Court panel on three district attorneys, adopted 26–7 on April 16, 2025. [6][7]
The Education Freedom Scholarship Act
Voted Aye on January 30, 2025 on the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which created state-funded scholarships, 20,000 in its first year, for tuition and other expenses at private schools; it passed the Senate 20–13 and was signed February 12, 2025. [8]
Accomplishments, in the record
Bill records, floor votes, the General Assembly’s sponsor lists and the Secretary of State’s results establish the following work. Outcomes are described at the level those records support, with shared credit where a measure was another official’s initiative.
A four-year record measured in bills
The General Assembly’s sponsor lists credit Taylor as prime Senate sponsor of 94 bills in the 113th General Assembly (2023–2024), 46 of which carry the legislature’s “As enacted” caption, and 127 in the 114th (2025–2026), 56 with that caption, plus one and two local private acts respectively. He co-sponsored 74 and 64 bills in the two assemblies. Many of the enacted measures reached the governor as their House companions; the sponsor lists credit the Senate sponsor either way. [3][2]
He holds the vice-chairmanship of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, the second vice-chairmanship of the Transportation and Safety Committee and a seat on the Judiciary Committee. [1]
Voiding Memphis’s traffic-stop ordinances
Senate Bill 2572, carried in the House by Representative John Gillespie, prohibits a local government from adopting any ordinance or policy that limits a law enforcement agency’s ability to conduct traffic stops on reasonable suspicion of a violation, and declares such measures null and void. It passed the House 68–24 on March 7, 2024 and the Senate 26–6 on March 14, and Governor Lee signed it on March 28, 2024 as Public Chapter 631. The Associated Press reported that it rendered void Memphis ordinances adopted after the death of Tyre Nichols, including one barring so-called pretextual stops. Taylor told the Senate that “These traffic stops are an important law enforcement tool” and that “We have to have uniformity and consistency across the state when it comes to traffic enforcement.” The exchange with the Nichols family is in the fuller record. [4][38][37]
A second opinion on declined cases, and a Memphis crime package
Senate Bill 1802 lets a state or local law enforcement agency take evidence of a human-trafficking offense, an organized-crime offense or a Class A or B felony that one district attorney has declined to prosecute to the district attorney of another district where venue is proper; as introduced the bill would have given the attorney general authority to investigate such cases and, with a district attorney’s consent or a Supreme Court appointment, to prosecute them, and the Senate rewrote it before passage. It passed the Senate 25–5 on April 4, 2024 and the House 81–8, and was signed April 29, 2024 as Public Chapter 805. A companion law of the same year, Senate Bill 2556, requires every district attorney to provide an annual report of arrests, indictments and dispositions. [5][3]
Two other 2024 laws he sponsored took aim at juvenile offending in Memphis: Senate Bill 2569 lets a juvenile court transfer a child of 15 or older to criminal court for organized retail crime or theft of a firearm, and Senate Bill 2571, the Parental Accountability Act, lets judges order restitution from parents. Taylor said the first “targets two major crimes we are experiencing in Memphis”; District Attorney Mulroy said he would rather see counseling and parenting classes than “thousand-dollar fines on poor parents who are struggling to pay their bills already”. The same session enacted his bail bills: magistrates must give first consideration to community safety, may not weigh a defendant’s ability to pay in setting the amount, and violating a release condition became an arrestable misdemeanor. [3][39]
Two new criminal courts and a study of the Shelby County prosecutor
The Violent Criminal Court Act (Senate Bill 846) creates two additional criminal courts in the Thirtieth Judicial District, which is Shelby County, from September 1, 2026, with judges appointed by the governor until an August 2028 election, and directs the presiding judge to move sexual offenses, crimes against minors, trafficking, homicide, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault and other listed violent cases to them. It passed the House 89–0 and the Senate 22–4 on April 22, 2026 and was signed May 7, 2026 as Public Chapter 937. [10]
Public Chapter 928 (Senate Bill 443) authorizes the attorney general to study the Thirtieth District’s district attorney — the disposition of charges that came from the Memphis Safe Task Force and the reasons charges were reduced, dismissed or not prosecuted, the bail recommendations made and the use of the office’s funds — with the comptroller’s auditors if needed, and to report to the speakers by January 1, 2027; on clear evidence of a categorical refusal to prosecute, the attorney general may ask the Supreme Court to appoint a district attorney pro tem. As the House passed it on April 15, 2026, 71–23 with Representative Justin J. Pearson voting No, the bill called for an audit of all charges; a Senate amendment adopted the next day, 23–6, narrowed it to a study of task-force cases, and the House concurred 66–25 on April 22. [9]
Accountability reports and a state task force
President Trump’s memorandum of September 15, 2025 established a federal Memphis Safe Task Force and asked the governor to make National Guard units available; it says “State and local leaders have requested Federal assistance” without naming them, and Senator Blackburn’s office said the President had “answered my call”. Taylor’s campaign says he “worked with Senator Blackburn leading the charge for the law enforcement surge”; that is the campaign’s account, not a finding of this review. [17][18][43]
What the record shows is his legislation. The Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act (Senate Bill 1467, Public Chapter 943), filed October 27, 2025, requires the district attorney of any district where the task force or the FBI’s Operation Viper operates to report within 24 hours any plea agreement, reduced charge or dismissal in a felony case the task force generated — to the attorney general, the speakers, the district attorneys conference and the United States Attorney. It passed the House 74–21 and the Senate 26–6 on April 20, 2026, and was signed May 7, 2026. A second law, Senate Bill 2405 (Public Chapter 1010), created a Tennessee safe initiative task force attached to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. [11][2]
Oversight boards for underperforming districts, and the scholarship vote
Senate Bill 714 (Public Chapter 1057), carried in the House as House Bill 662 by Representative Mark White, requires a nine-member educational oversight board — five members named by the governor, two each by the speakers — for any school district that meets four of six criteria: half or more of its students not proficient in both mathematics and English language arts, a quarter or more of its schools graded D or F, a quarter or more of its students chronically absent, a priority school in each of the preceding five years, a comptroller’s audit showing deficient controls or financial mismanagement, and more than two interim directors of schools in four years. The board sits for four years, may veto the district’s budget in whole or by line item, must approve contracts of $50,000 or more and may terminate employees, including the director of schools. The Senate passed the bill 27–6 in April 2025, the House rewrote it, and after a year of disagreement a conference report written by a committee that included Taylor was adopted 27–6 in the Senate and 73–19 in the House on April 22, 2026; Governor Lee signed it May 22, 2026. The text names no district; WMC reported the same day that Memphis-Shelby County Schools was the first district to meet the criteria and that the governor had named his five appointees to its board, and its primary-night report described the law as enabling a state takeover of the district. [12][45][46][33]
Separately, he voted Aye on January 30, 2025 on the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which created state-funded scholarships for tuition and other expenses at private schools; it passed the Senate 20–13. [8]
Detainers, data centers and wetlands
Public Chapter 1001 (Senate Bill 1486) requires a sheriff’s department operating under a federal 287(g) agreement to accept and honor immigration detainers, holding a subject for 48 hours, not counting weekends and holidays, beyond the time of release; a Senate amendment limited the bill to such departments, and the law takes effect July 1, 2026. Senate Bill 392 created the state offense of human smuggling in 2025. Public Chapter 961 (Senate Bill 2128) bars a municipality or electric utility from paying or absorbing the cost of electrical infrastructure built to serve a data center; it passed the Senate 28–0 on April 22, 2026. In 2025 his Senate Bill 664 widened the exemption from compensatory mitigation under the state’s aquatic-resource permits, the measure the campaign describes as wetlands reform for farmers. [14][2][13][43]
The vote for the map
House Bill 7003 redrew Tennessee’s nine congressional districts in a special session that Governor Lee called on May 1, 2026 “to formally review the state’s congressional map”, to begin May 5. Taylor voted Aye in the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 6 (9–2) and on the floor on May 7 (25–5); the governor signed the act the same day as Public Chapter 3 of the second extraordinary session. The Ninth District he then sought is the product of that vote; the primary results report it across fifteen counties, from Shelby and Fayette in the west to Williamson and Rutherford in Middle Tennessee. [15][16][19]
What the raters and endorsers say
The NRA Political Victory Fund grades him A and marks him as its endorsed candidate in both November contests: the Ninth District race, where Pearson is graded F, and the Senate District 31 contest, where David Weatherspoon is graded F. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed him on August 4, 2026, citing his time in the Senate and his recognition as a “2025 Tennessee Champion of Commerce” by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry. No attendance or ideology measure comparable to those the Ledger uses for members of Congress was found for Tennessee legislators in the sources reviewed. The campaign’s own endorsement list adds Senators Blackburn and Hagerty, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Senator Randy McNally, the Shelby County Deputy Sheriffs Association and the Tennessee Professional Fire Fighters Association, among others; endorsements establish political support, not an evaluation of the record. [27][28][44]
Family & community
His official Senate biography lists his wife, Kimberly, and two children; the campaign biography says the couple have been married more than 30 years, that their son Gage is an attorney in Dallas and their daughter Molly and her husband, Mic, live in Montana, and that the Taylors “reside in the Eads community and are active members of Trinity Baptist Church near their home”. [1][42]
The official biography states his religion as Baptist; this profile records it because the candidate’s own biography does. The same biography lists service as a Republican State Executive Committeeman and with the Shelby County Republican Party, and awards from that party, the Shelby County Young Republicans and the Memphis Business Journal’s “Top Forty Under Forty”. [1]
Community roles beyond politics — charitable boards, civic organizations — are not documented in the sources reviewed, and none is asserted. What the record does supply is his own account of his schooling: “Not every child is college material — I certainly wasn’t,” he told The Daily Memphian, adding that he was “the poster child for trade school and community college”. [40]
Mission & priorities
“Brent Taylor stands proudly with President Trump and the America First agenda.” {43}
The following summarizes the ten headings on Taylor’s campaign issues page, read against the bills and votes that bear on each. These are stated positions, not completed accomplishments. [43]
01Stand with President Trump
The page pledges that “Brent will support the MAGA agenda and Take Tennessee to the Top” and lists the President’s priorities he would champion: “securing the border and finishing the wall, stopping the flow of fentanyl, deporting criminal illegal immigrants, slashing reckless spending, unleashing American energy production, restoring law and order, eliminating DEI mandates, and defending parental rights and traditional values”. President Trump endorsed him on July 13, 2026, and he answered that he was “honored and deeply humbled to have the endorsement of the most consequential President of my lifetime”. In the legislature he co-sponsored the 2025 special-session law creating a state immigration-enforcement division and the two 2025 laws dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion offices and hiring practices. [43][29][2]
02Secure the border
“In the Tennessee Senate, Brent led on immigration enforcement by sponsoring the law requiring sheriffs to honor ICE detainers and cracking down on human smuggling.” The record matches at the state level: Public Chapter 1001 of 2026 requires sheriffs’ departments under 287(g) agreements to honor detainers, and Senate Bill 392 of 2025 created the offense of human smuggling; he also co-sponsored the 2026 law requiring every sheriff to enter a 287(g) agreement. In Washington he promises to “finish the border wall, restore strong enforcement, deport criminal illegal immigrants, end sanctuary policies”. [43][14][2]
03Support law enforcement and long sentences
The campaign says he “backed our police by strengthening legal protections for officers, improving line-of-duty death benefits, and fighting against woke policies that tie the hands of law enforcement”, and that “dangerous criminals belong behind bars — not back on our streets”. The record: the 2024 law voiding local limits on traffic stops; a 2025 law he co-sponsored granting officers immunity for damage or injury to a person later convicted of resisting (Senate Bill 280); a 2026 law extending the claim period for the estates of responders killed on duty (Senate Bill 2212); the Violent Criminal Court Act; a presumption against release on recognizance for felonies involving a firearm or serious injury (Senate Bill 218, effective July 1, 2026); and Range II sentencing for knowing second-degree murder (Senate Bill 1930). In Congress he would demand “long sentences for repeat violent offenders”. [43][4][2][10]
04Fight inflation and promote American energy
“He already delivered results in the Tennessee Senate by forcing large data centers to pay their full share of power infrastructure costs instead of sticking families with the bill.” Public Chapter 961 of 2026, his Senate Bill 2128, bars municipalities and electric utilities from absorbing the cost of infrastructure built to serve a data center; it passed the Senate 28–0. In Congress he would back “cutting reckless federal spending, slashing burdensome regulations” and “expanding domestic oil, natural gas, and nuclear power”. [43][13]
05Reduce federal spending
The page promises that in Congress “he will cut wasteful programs, eliminate fraud and ideological spending, oppose bloated omnibus bills, and restore accountability so hardworking families in Tennessee keep more of what they earn”. No federal vote exists to test this against; the campaign’s claim that he “never voted for a tax increase” on the Memphis City Council is a campaign statement this review did not measure. [43][42]
06Farmers and cattlemen
The campaign says he “delivered real results by sponsoring and passing the law that reformed isolated wetlands regulations to give farmers and property owners clearer rules and less bureaucracy”, and promises “honest labeling so real Tennessee beef isn’t undercut by lab-grown products”. Senate Bill 664 of 2025 (Public Chapter 342), which widened the exemption from compensatory mitigation under aquatic-resource permits, and Senate Bill 629 of 2023 are the bills on the sponsor lists; the page’s figure of farmland lost “at nearly 10 acres per hour” carries no source. [43][2][3]
07Schools
The campaign biography says he “Fought for better schools and supported new funding for high-achieving school districts”. The record shows the educational oversight-board law he sponsored, applied first to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and his Aye vote on the 2025 Education Freedom Scholarship Act; the district’s Democratic nominee, Representative Pearson, told legislators in 2025 that the oversight measure was “taking away the control that we’ve had over our school system”. [42][12][8][33][46]
08Support the troops and a robust defense
Under the heading “Support Our Troops & Maintain a Robust Defense” the page promises to back “rebuilding military readiness, modernizing our forces, removing woke ideology from training, strengthening our defense industrial base, and ensuring America can deter China, Iran, and other adversaries”. The state record offers a 2025 law he sponsored requiring high schools to admit military recruiters monthly (Senate Bill 713) and a 2026 study of county veterans service offices that he co-sponsored (Senate Bill 2483). [43][2]
How to assess a proposal. A campaign plan states an intention. Enactment, implementation costs, replacement revenue, and measured results are separate questions. These priorities should be read alongside the legislative and voting history above.
The fuller record
A useful profile includes policy tradeoffs, the limits of a claim, and responses to material criticism. The items below are drawn from primary documents and independent reporting, with Taylor’s response where one is on record.
The map, the seat and the lawsuits
Taylor voted for the map that made the district he now seeks, in committee and on the floor, in a special session convened after a Supreme Court ruling that weakened parts of the Voting Rights Act. WPLN reported that he and other Republican lawmakers “heeded a call from Trump this spring to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor GOP candidates”, that the new Ninth “stretches from one part of Memphis some 200 miles to Franklin”, and that whoever won the Republican primary “is poised to flip the district red”; WZTV reported that Kamala Harris carried the old district with about 71 percent of the vote in 2024 and that the new one’s voters backed President Trump with roughly 60 percent, according to election data. Representative Steve Cohen ended his re-election bid on May 15, 2026, after nineteen years in Congress and a day after a judge denied a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit against the map to which he is a party, saying “these districts were drawn to beat me”; Pearson has called the redistricting an attack on the Black communities that made up the old district. Taylor’s own statement, announcing his candidacy the day the map passed, was that he was running “to stand with President Donald Trump and cement Tennessee’s conservative legacy for generations to come”. [15][32][29][31][33][30]
The campaign against District Attorney Mulroy, and a judge
Taylor has sought to check, and then to remove, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy since before he took office: he told The Daily Memphian in October 2022 that he wanted to use the state’s power to check Mulroy if the prosecutor declined to prosecute certain crimes, accusing him of “a very liberal, George Soros-type message”, and his campaign biography now lists first among his achievements that he “Led the fight against Tennessee’s only Soros-backed District Attorney”. The record: Senate Joint Resolution 26 of January 2025, to appoint a committee to consider Mulroy’s removal under Article VI, Section 6 of the state constitution, cleared first consideration — Taylor posted that “The clock is ticking on ‘interim’ DA Mulroy.” — and was referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 27, 2025, where it stayed; Senate Resolution 120, adopted 26–7 on April 16, 2025, urged the Supreme Court to write codes of conduct for prosecutors, public defenders and clerks and to convene a panel on complaints against three district attorneys, Mulroy among them; and Public Chapter 928 of 2026 authorized the attorney general’s study described above. His fifth ethics complaint against Mulroy, by WMC’s count, was dismissed by the Board of Professional Responsibility on July 30, 2025, after which he wrote to withdraw it in favor of the Supreme Court’s new panel. Taylor told WMC that Mulroy had “reached the Peter Principle, elevated to the point of incompetence” and that “this is not about friendship, this is about a safe community”; Mulroy called the complaints “a year-long distraction from my DA duties, and an abuse of the ethics complaint process”. Removal would require two-thirds of both chambers and, WMC noted, has never happened in Tennessee. In the same months Taylor called for disciplinary action against Shelby County Judge Bill Anderson over his bail decisions; in November 2024 a court granted emergency appeals of two of his releases on recognizance, and Anderson submitted his resignation on December 30, 2024, writing “At age 71 my work is done”, and said the complaints played no part. Taylor’s reaction: “I hope the message is sent to the Shelby County Criminal Justice system is that you need to do your damn job, you need to do the job that you were elected to do”. [42][40][6][34][7][9][35][36]
The Nichols family and the traffic-stop law
When the Senate took up Senate Bill 2572 on March 14, 2024, Tyre Nichols’s parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, traveled to Nashville a second time to ask him not to pass the bill that would void the Memphis ordinances passed in their son’s name; the Associated Press reported that he “denied their pleas to pause the bill and try to find a middle ground”, and the family called the measure “political sabotage”. Taylor’s answer, to WMC: “I understand their hearts are broken,” he said, “and I regret that. But we have to protect Memphians and we have to protect Tennessee. Those officers should spend the rest of their natural lives in prison for what they did to Tyre Nichols. But we can’t let our empathy for one family cloud our judgment and how we’re going to protect seven million Tennesseans.” He also said that “Had these ordinances been in place the night Tyre Nichols was pulled over, they wouldn’t have saved his life.” The bill passed 26–6 and Governor Lee signed it on March 28, 2024. [37][38][4]
Two nominations on one ballot
The Secretary of State’s Republican primary results for August 6, 2026 list Taylor twice: in the Ninth District table, and as the sole candidate in the Tennessee Senate District 31 table, with 20,657 votes in Shelby County; the Democratic primary results list David Weatherspoon as the sole candidate in that Senate district, with 13,041. Ballotpedia records him as a candidate in both general elections on November 3, 2026, an incumbent seeking re-election to the Senate and a candidate for the House, and the NRA Political Victory Fund’s grades page lists him in both. The Senate race does not appear on the campaign site’s pages reviewed, and none of the documents examined states how the seat would be filled if he wins the House race. [19][20][47][27][41]
Money: a million-dollar loan
Through July 17, 2026 the campaign reported $1,549,481.59 in receipts, of which $465,995.12 came from individuals and $82,300.00 from other committees; most of the rest was a $1,000,000.00 loan from the candidate, still carried as debt. It had spent $1,132,104.37 and held $417,377.22. In 2022 The Daily Memphian reported that he had loaned his Senate campaign more than $420,000 and raised and spent more than any other candidate in Shelby County that year. [24][25][26][40]
The funeral home drops his name
In January 2026 Heritage Family, the company that now owns the Collierville funeral home formerly owned by Taylor and operating under his name, announced on Facebook that the business was “no longer owned, operated, or affiliated in any way with Brent Taylor” and would be rebranded with a new name and sign. The Memphis Flyer quoted the company’s statement that “recent public statements and political commentary made by the former owner do not reflect the values, mission, or beliefs of our current leadership”, and The Daily Memphian reported the decision the same day, January 21, 2026. The company did not say which statements it meant; the Flyer reported that Taylor had said nothing about the move on social media by that afternoon, and no response from him appears in the reports reviewed. [48][49]
A committee vote reversed on the floor
Senate Bill 34 of the 114th General Assembly would have made it a Class A misdemeanor to knowingly give, sell or otherwise transfer a firearm to a person the transferor knew or should have known was prohibited from possessing one. It cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 24, 2026 with Taylor among the six Ayes and failed on the Senate floor on April 9, 2026, 11–21, with Taylor voting No. The record carries no explanation, and none was found in the reporting reviewed; The Commercial Appeal listed the two votes among his recent actions when he entered the congressional race. [51][50]
Claims this review did not measure
The campaign says he was “the youngest person ever elected to the Memphis City Council”, that he “never voted for a tax increase” there, that his was “the largest family-owned funeral operation in the Mid-South”, that he “Partnered with President Trump to launch the Memphis Safe Task Force” and that after the federal task force arrived “crime dropped dramatically”. Each is a campaign statement; council minutes, tax votes, industry rankings, the task force’s origins and crime statistics were not part of this review. The Daily Memphian, for its part, called the business “one of the biggest such companies in the Mid-South”. [42][43][40]
Questions & answers
Who is Brent Taylor?
Brent Taylor’s public career runs from the Memphis City Council, through a funeral business he built and sold, to four years in the Tennessee Senate marked by bills on crime, courts and the Shelby County district attorney. Taylor was born in 1968, by his official Senate biography, and The Daily Memphian described him in 2022 as originally from Batesville, Mississippi, an hour south of Memphis; his campaign biography says he “was born and raised in a rural community before moving to Tennessee after school”. The official biography lists his wife, Kimberly, and two children; the campaign says the couple have been married more than 30 years, that their son Gage is an attorney in Dallas and their daughter Molly an interior architect in Montana, and that the Taylors live in the Eads community of Shelby County. [1][40][42][30]
What office is Brent Taylor running for in 2026?
Who is Brent Taylor running against?
On May 7, 2026, the day the General Assembly enacted a new congressional map, he announced for the redrawn Ninth District with the endorsements of Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and his first filing reached the Federal Election Commission the same day. President Trump endorsed him on July 13. In the August 6 Republican primary he received 31,057 of 67,467 votes, 46.0 percent, against state Representative Todd Warner (17,776), Jeremy Thompson (13,481) and Charlotte Bergmann (5,153), leading in thirteen of the district’s fifteen counties by this profile’s count of the county table; he faces state Representative Justin J. Pearson, who won the Democratic primary with 32,097 votes, on November 3; Ballotpedia’s page for the race also lists two independent candidates, Dennis Jeffrey Clark and Michelle Head, with the note that its list may not be complete. [30][26][29][19][20][47]
What are Brent Taylor's stated priorities?
The following summarizes the ten headings on Taylor’s campaign issues page, read against the bills and votes that bear on each. These are stated positions, not completed accomplishments. [43] The campaign lists: Stand with President Trump; Secure the border; Support law enforcement and long sentences; Fight inflation and promote American energy; Reduce federal spending; Farmers and cattlemen; Schools; Support the troops and a robust defense.
What does the public record show?
Bill records, floor votes, the General Assembly’s sponsor lists and the Secretary of State’s results establish the following work. Outcomes are described at the level those records support, with shared credit where a measure was another official’s initiative. The General Assembly’s sponsor lists credit Taylor as prime Senate sponsor of 94 bills in the 113th General Assembly (2023–2024), 46 of which carry the legislature’s “As enacted” caption, and 127 in the 114th (2025–2026), 56 with that caption, plus one and two local private acts respectively. He co-sponsored 74 and 64 bills in the two assemblies. Many of the enacted measures reached the governor as their House companions; the sponsor lists credit the Senate sponsor either way. [3][2]
How was this profile researched?
Reviewed September 17, 2026; fact-checked September 18, 2026. This is a documented overview of publicly available biography, major actions and stated priorities, not an exhaustive record of the 221 bills he has sponsored; thirteen bill records and one conference committee report were opened for this review and the rest are described from the General Assembly’s sponsor lists. Numerical claims retain their original meaning and attribution; percentages of the vote were computed from the Secretary of State’s results, and the count of counties he led was made from the same county table. Council minutes, county-commission and election-commission records, funeral-establishment licenses, business filings, court dockets and personal financial disclosures were not part of this review; no attendance or ideology measure comparable to those used for members of Congress was found for Tennessee legislators in the sources consulted. Ballotpedia (read from an Internet Archive copy), Ballotpedia News, the Tennessee Lookout, Vote Smart, WREG, WATN, FOX13 Memphis, the Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections declined automated retrieval, the Federal Election Commission’s API rate-limited further queries after the totals were read, and the Tennessee Secretary of State’s servers refused direct requests; a poll cited on the race board could be traced only to a social-media post and is not used.
Sources & methodology
Government records anchor the profile: the Tennessee General Assembly’s member page, sponsor lists and bill records with their floor votes, the Secretary of State’s results (cited from Internet Archive copies because the state’s servers refused automated requests), a conference committee report, the Governor’s office, the White House memorandum and the Federal Election Commission’s candidate record; a rating (the NRA Political Victory Fund), an endorsement (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) and an Internet Archive copy of Ballotpedia are labeled as independent analysis; reporting supplies responses and scrutiny; campaign materials are used for the candidate’s own statements.
- 01Senator Brent Taylor — member page, Senate District 31 (official biography)Tennessee General Assembly · Accessed September 17, 2026
Official biography: born 1968; wife Kimberly, two children; Baptist; Northwest Mississippi Community College, mortuary science; funeral director; committee posts; Memphis City Council chairman, Shelby County Commission, Election Commission chairman, Brentwood Funeral Services; the embedded member photograph.Government record - 02Senator Taylor — bills and resolutions sponsored and co-sponsored, 114th General AssemblyTennessee General Assembly · Accessed September 17, 2026
127 bills sponsored (56 with the “As enacted” caption), 64 co-sponsored, two resolutions sponsored; abstracts and last actions for SB 218, 280, 392, 664, 713, 1930, 2212, 2405, 2483, SB 6002, SB 1083/1084 and SB 2223.Government record - 03Senator Taylor — bills and resolutions sponsored and co-sponsored, 113th General AssemblyTennessee General Assembly · Accessed September 17, 2026
94 bills sponsored (46 with the “As enacted” caption), 74 co-sponsored; abstracts for SB 629, 2556, 2562, 2563, 2565, 2569 and 2571.Government record - 04SB 2572 / HB 1931 (2024) — local regulation of traffic stops: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2024; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 631; House 68–24 on March 7, 2024; Senate 26–6 on March 14, 2024, Taylor Aye; signed March 28, 2024.Government record - 05SB 1802 (2024) — District Attorney General Second Opinion Act: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2024; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 805; the bill as introduced and as rewritten; Senate 25–5 on April 4, 2024; House 81–8; signed April 29, 2024.Government record - 06SJR 26 (2025) — committee to consider the removal of Steven J. MulroyTennessee General Assembly · 2025; accessed September 17, 2026
Filed January 15, 2025; passed second consideration and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee January 27, 2025; no further action; no votes recorded.Government record - 07SR 120 (2025) — codes of conduct for district attorneys general, public defenders and clerksTennessee General Assembly · 2025; accessed September 17, 2026
Adopted 26–7 on April 16, 2025 (Judiciary 5–2–1 on April 8); urges the Supreme Court to adopt codes of conduct and to create a panel on complaints against three district attorneys.Government record - 08SB 6001 / HB 6004 (2025) — Education Freedom Scholarship Act: bill history and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2025; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 7; Senate 20–13 on January 30, 2025, Taylor Aye; signed February 12, 2025.Government record - 09SB 443 / HB 483 (2026) — attorney general’s study of the Thirtieth Judicial District district attorney: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 928; the House version’s audit of all charges and the Senate amendment narrowing it to a study of Memphis Safe Task Force cases; the January 1, 2027 report; House 71–23 on April 15, 2026 (Pearson No); Senate 23–6 on April 16, 2026, Taylor Aye; House concurrence 66–25 on April 22; signed May 7, 2026.Government record - 10SB 846 / HB 1268 (2026) — Violent Criminal Court Act: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 937; two additional criminal courts in the Thirtieth Judicial District from September 1, 2026; House 89–0; Senate 22–4 on April 22, 2026, Taylor Aye; signed May 7, 2026.Government record - 11SB 1467 / HB 1484 (2026) — Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 943; filed October 27, 2025; the 24-hour reporting requirement; House 74–21 on April 6, 2026; Senate 27–5 on April 9 and 26–6 on April 20, 2026, Taylor Aye; signed May 7, 2026.Government record - 12SB 714 / HB 662 (2025–2026) — educational oversight boards: bill history, conference report and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 1057; the House amendment of April 22, 2025 and its five criteria; Senate 27–6 on April 22, 2025; conference committee including Taylor; report adopted 27–6 (Senate) and 73–19 (House) on April 22, 2026; signed May 22, 2026. The enacted criteria are in the conference report (next entries).Government record - 13SB 2128 / HB 1847 (2026) — data centers and the cost of electrical infrastructure: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 961; House 76–14 on April 21, 2026; Senate 28–0 on April 22, 2026, Taylor Aye; signed May 7, 2026.Government record - 14SB 1486 / HB 2018 (2026) — immigration detainers under 287(g) agreements: bill history, summary and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 1001; the 48-hour detainer requirement, limited by Senate amendment to sheriffs’ departments under 287(g) agreements; Senate 27–5 on April 14, 2026, Taylor Aye; signed May 19, 2026; effective July 1, 2026.Government record - 15HB 7003 / SB 7004 (Second Extraordinary Session, 2026) — congressional districts: bill history and votesTennessee General Assembly · May 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Public Chapter 3; Senate Judiciary 9–2 on May 6, 2026 and Senate floor 25–5 on May 7, 2026, Taylor Aye both times; House 64–25; signed May 7, 2026.Government record - 16Gov. Lee Calls Special Legislative Session to Review Congressional MapOffice of Governor Bill Lee (tn.gov) · May 1, 2026
The governor’s call for the session beginning May 5, 2026, in his words to formally review the state’s congressional map.Government record - 17Restoring Law and Order in Memphis (presidential memorandum)The White House · September 15, 2025
Establishes the Memphis Safe Task Force, directs a request to the governor for National Guard units, and states that state and local leaders have requested federal assistance, without naming them.Government record - 18Blackburn Applauds President Trump’s Decision to Send National Guard to MemphisOffice of U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn · September 2025
Blackburn’s statement that the President “answered my call”; Taylor is not mentioned.Government record - 19August 6, 2026 Republican Primary — Results by County (Internet Archive copy) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2026)Tennessee Secretary of State · Dated September 3, 2026
U.S. House District 9: Bergmann 5,153; Taylor 31,057; Thompson 13,481; Warner 17,776 across fifteen counties (46.0 percent computed). Tennessee Senate District 31: Taylor unopposed, 20,657.Government record - 20August 6, 2026 Democratic Primary — Results by County (Internet Archive copy) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2026)Tennessee Secretary of State · Dated September 3, 2026
U.S. House District 9: M. LaTroy A-Williams 3,319; Lamar 11,876; Pearson 32,097; Torino 1,531. Senate District 31: Weatherspoon 13,041, sole candidate.Government record - 21November 8, 2022 State General — Totals (Internet Archive copy) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2024)Tennessee Secretary of State · Dated December 13, 2022
Tennessee Senate District 31: Taylor 45,289; Powell-Dennis 23,041; total 68,330 (66.3 percent computed).Government record - 22August 4, 2022 Republican Primary — Results by County (Internet Archive copy) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2024)Tennessee Secretary of State · Dated September 1, 2022
Tennessee Senate District 31: Taylor unopposed, 24,854.Government record - 23August 1, 2002 Republican Primary — U.S. House of Representatives, official results (Internet Archive copy) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2024)Tennessee Secretary of State · 2002
District 7: Blackburn 36,633 (40.3 percent); Kustoff 18,392; Taylor 14,139 (15.6 percent); Norris 13,104; Shoaf 7,319; Carlota 642; Starkey 628; total 90,866.Government record - 24TAYLOR, BRENT — candidate overview, H6TN09464Federal Election Commission · Coverage through July 17, 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
The candidate’s public FEC page; the figures in this profile were read through the FEC’s API (next entry) and the page displays the same record.Government record - 25Candidate financial totals, H6TN09464, 2026 cycle (OpenFEC API)Federal Election Commission (OpenFEC API) · Coverage April 1 – July 17, 2026; accessed September 17, 2026
Receipts $1,549,481.59; individual contributions $465,995.12; other committees $82,300.00; candidate loans $1,000,000.00; disbursements $1,132,104.37; cash on hand $417,377.22; debts $1,000,000.00; pre-primary report.Government record - 26Candidate search: Taylor, Tennessee, House, 2026 (OpenFEC API)Federal Election Commission (OpenFEC API) · Accessed September 17, 2026
Candidate id H6TN09464; principal committee Brent Taylor for Tennessee (C00949867); first filing May 7, 2026.Government record - 27Grades & Endorsements — Tennessee 2026NRA Political Victory Fund · Accessed September 17, 2026
U.S. House 9th District: Taylor A with the NRA Endorsed badge, Pearson F. State Senate District 31: Taylor A with the NRA Endorsed badge and the incumbent asterisk, Weatherspoon F. The badge is an image in the page’s code; the asterisk marks incumbents.Independent analysis or rating - 28U.S. Chamber Endorses Sen. Brent Taylor for Tennessee’s Ninth DistrictU.S. Chamber of Commerce · August 4, 2026
The endorsement, Taylor’s statement, and the Tennessee Chamber’s reference to his “2025 Tennessee Champion of Commerce” recognition.Independent analysis or rating - 29Trump endorses state Sen. Taylor in Memphis’ redistricted congressional raceWPLN News, Nashville Public Radio (Marianna Bacallao) · July 13, 2026
The Truth Social endorsement and Taylor’s response on X; the district’s new shape; the primary field of Warner and Thompson.Independent reporting - 30Brent Taylor launches bid for Tennessee’s redrawn 9th DistrictNewsChannel 5 Nashville (WTVF) · May 7, 2026
The announcement with the Blackburn and Hagerty endorsements; Taylor’s statement on X; residence in Eads.Independent reporting - 31Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, after 19 years in Congress, ends reelection bidThe Commercial Appeal (Lucas Finton and Zachary Schermele), via Knoxville News Sentinel · May 15, 2026
Cohen’s withdrawal; the May 14 denial of a temporary restraining order; Pearson’s decision to continue; Cohen’s statement that the districts were drawn to beat him.Independent reporting - 32Justin Pearson, Brent Taylor projected to win Tenn. 9th Congressional District primariesFOX 17 Nashville (WZTV, Ashley Griffin) · August 6, 2026
The Associated Press calls; the 2024 presidential results in the old and new districts, according to election data.Independent reporting - 33Justin Pearson projected to win Democratic nomination for District 9 congressional raceAction News 5 (WMC) · August 7, 2026
Pearson’s positions on redistricting, the task force and a schools law it calls the Tennessee School Accountability Act, described as enabling a state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools; the district’s reach into Middle Tennessee; Cohen’s farewell statement.Independent reporting - 34State senator’s effort to oust DA Mulroy passes 1st hurdle in SenateAction News 5 (WMC) · January 16, 2025
SJR 26 on first consideration; Taylor’s “clock is ticking” post and “Peter Principle” remarks; the two-thirds requirement.Independent reporting - 35Case closed for 5th complaint against Shelby Co. DA, but senator’s efforts to oust him just took new formAction News 5 (WMC) · September 5, 2025
The fifth ethics complaint dismissed July 30, 2025; the Supreme Court’s panel under SR 120; Taylor’s withdrawal letter; Mulroy’s statement; no district attorney has been removed by the legislature.Independent reporting - 36‘At age 71, my work is done’: Maligned Shelby County Judge set to retireAction News 5 (WMC) · January 2, 2025
Judge Bill Anderson’s resignation letter of December 30, 2024; Taylor’s months of calls for discipline and his reaction; Anderson’s statement that the complaints played no part.Independent reporting - 37Senate passes bill removing local control of police policiesAction News 5 (WMC) · March 14, 2024
SB 2572 passes 26–6; the Memphis ordinances at issue; the Nichols family’s second trip and statement; Taylor’s floor remarks and his response to WMC.Independent reporting - 38Tennessee governor signs bill to undo Memphis traffic stop reforms after Tyre Nichols deathAssociated Press, via Action News 5 (WMC) · March 29, 2024
The signing; the ordinances rendered void; the report that Taylor denied the Nichols family’s pleas to pause the bill and seek a middle ground.Independent reporting - 39Tennessee Senator Brent Taylor passes 2 bills to help tackle juvenile theft crimesAction News 5 (WMC) · March 19, 2024
The Parental Accountability Act and the juvenile-transfer bill; Taylor’s and Mulroy’s statements.Independent reporting - 40In open state Senate seat, both candidates contrast with outgoing Brian KelseyThe Daily Memphian (Ian Round) · October 24, 2022
Independent account of his council, commission and election-commission service, the funeral business and its January 2022 sale, Batesville origins, schooling, the 2022 loan and fundraising, and his remarks on Mulroy.Independent reporting - 41Brent Taylor for Tennessee (campaign home page)Brent Taylor for Tennessee (campaign) · Accessed September 17, 2026
The campaign’s self-description and the Blackburn and Hagerty endorsement statements; no Senate District 31 race is mentioned.Campaign or advocacy material - 42About | Brent Taylor for TennesseeBrent Taylor for Tennessee (campaign) · Accessed September 17, 2026
Campaign biography: rural upbringing, the 1995 council election at 27, twelve years on the council, the 2004 funeral-home purchase, the commissions, the Senate claims, family, Eads and Trinity Baptist Church. Self-descriptions and superlatives.Campaign or advocacy material - 43Issues | Brent Taylor for TennesseeBrent Taylor for Tennessee (campaign) · Accessed September 17, 2026
The nine issue headings quoted in this profile. Proposals and campaign claims, not record.Campaign or advocacy material - 44Endorsements | Brent Taylor for TennesseeBrent Taylor for Tennessee (campaign) · Accessed September 17, 2026
The campaign’s list of federal, state and local endorsers and organisations.Campaign or advocacy material - 45Conference Committee Report on House Bill 662 / Senate Bill 714 (majority report CC0008)Tennessee General Assembly · April 2026; accessed September 18, 2026
The text adopted April 22, 2026: four of six criteria, the nine-member board, its four-year term, budget veto, contract approval and termination powers; no district named.Government record - 46Gov. Lee signs takeover bill, announces oversight board for MSCSAction News 5 (WMC) · May 22, 2026
House Bill 662 signed May 22, 2026; Memphis-Shelby County Schools the first district to meet the criteria; the governor’s five appointees; the Senate’s 27–6 vote.Independent reporting - 47Brent Taylor (Tennessee) — Ballotpedia (Internet Archive copy of September 10, 2026) (Internet Archive copy, captured 2026)Ballotpedia · Archived September 10, 2026
Lists him as a candidate in both the Ninth District and Senate District 31 general elections on November 3, 2026, the two independent House candidates, and the 2022 results; cited because the live page refused automated retrieval.Independent analysis or rating - 48Company: Brent Taylor No Longer Associated with Collierville Funeral HomeMemphis Flyer · January 21, 2026
Heritage Family’s Facebook statement that the funeral home is no longer owned or affiliated with Taylor, its stated reason and the planned rebrand; Taylor had not commented.Independent reporting - 49Funeral home chain drops Brent Taylor’s nameThe Daily Memphian (Jody Callahan) · January 21, 2026
Second outlet on the same decision; the company’s statement that his recent comments do not reflect its leadership’s values (summary paragraph; the full article is behind a paywall).Independent reporting - 50Who is Brent Taylor? Tennessee state senator runs for redrawn Memphis districtThe Commercial Appeal (Jordan Green), via AOL · May 8, 2026
Council chronology: elected 1995, re-elected 1999 and 2003, chairman in 2003; the 2011 county commission seat and three years on the election commission; the SB 34 votes among his recent actions.Independent reporting - 51SB 34 / HB 599 (2025–2026) — transfer of a firearm to a prohibited person: bill history and votesTennessee General Assembly · 2026; accessed September 18, 2026
Senate Judiciary 6–2–1 on March 24, 2026, Taylor Aye; failed on the Senate floor 11–21 on April 9, 2026, Taylor No.Government record
No matching sources. Try “Clerk,” “Senate,” or “campaign.”
Scope & method. Reviewed September 17, 2026; fact-checked September 18, 2026. This is a documented overview of publicly available biography, major actions and stated priorities, not an exhaustive record of the 221 bills he has sponsored; thirteen bill records and one conference committee report were opened for this review and the rest are described from the General Assembly’s sponsor lists. Numerical claims retain their original meaning and attribution; percentages of the vote were computed from the Secretary of State’s results, and the count of counties he led was made from the same county table. Council minutes, county-commission and election-commission records, funeral-establishment licenses, business filings, court dockets and personal financial disclosures were not part of this review; no attendance or ideology measure comparable to those used for members of Congress was found for Tennessee legislators in the sources consulted. Ballotpedia (read from an Internet Archive copy), Ballotpedia News, the Tennessee Lookout, Vote Smart, WREG, WATN, FOX13 Memphis, the Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections declined automated retrieval, the Federal Election Commission’s API rate-limited further queries after the totals were read, and the Tennessee Secretary of State’s servers refused direct requests; a poll cited on the race board could be traced only to a social-media post and is not used.
Images. The candidate portrait is the official member photograph published on Senator Taylor’s page at the Tennessee General Assembly, a state government image for which the site states no license. No campaign-owned photograph is used. Inclusion does not imply authorization or endorsement of this publication.
Where to find the candidate
Every link below was read from the campaign’s own website or the candidate’s official government page. A follower count is printed only where it was measured; otherwise the link is published and the number is left blank rather than guessed at.
The campaign
Voting in Tennessee: official dates, deadlines and rules
The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. The dates and rules below were read from the Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Elections; the authority's own page, linked beside each one, is the final word.
Dates and deadlines
- Voter registration deadlineMonday, October 5, 2026, for the November 3, 2026 State and Federal General Election. The Secretary of State's 2026 calendar prints this one date and does not give separate online, mail or in-person cut-offs. To register, use online voter registration, or download and complete the Voter Registration Application and mail it or deliver it by hand to your county election commission; applications can also be picked up in person at county election commission offices, county clerk's offices, public libraries and register of deeds offices. The Secretary of State's FAQ says a person who does not have an ID issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security cannot register online but can still register by filling out a paper form. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/calendar
- Early voting beginsWednesday, October 14, 2026. The Secretary of State's 2026 calendar gives the early voting period for the November 3, 2026 general election as Wednesday, October 14 – Thursday, October 29, 2026. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/calendar
- Early voting endsThursday, October 29, 2026, the last day of the early voting period (Wednesday, October 14 – Thursday, October 29, 2026) printed in the Secretary of State's 2026 calendar. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/calendar
- Deadline to request an absentee by-mail ballotSaturday, October 24, 2026. The Secretary of State's Guide to Absentee Voting says a registered voter may request an application for a by-mail ballot no earlier than ninety (90) days before the election and no later than ten (10) days before the election, and that, to be processed for the next election, the application must be received by the election commission no later than ten (10) days before the election. This is a received-by deadline for the request. The written request must be submitted, by mail or e-mail, to the local county election commission office by the tenth day before Election Day. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/calendar
- Deadline to return an absentee by-mail ballotElection Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026: you must mail your ballot in time for your county election commission to receive it no later than the close of polls on Election Day. This is a received-by deadline, not a postmark deadline. You must return your ballot by mail (USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.); hand delivery or handing it to a poll worker during early voting or on Election Day is not permitted. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/guides/guide-to-absentee-voting
- Polling place hours on Election DayElection Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. The Secretary of State's pages reviewed for this guide do not print a statewide opening or closing time. Its FAQ answers the question “When can I vote?” this way: find your early voting and Election Day polling place and hours in the GoVoteTN app. Its Election Day page likewise sends voters to the GoVoteTN lookup (Search by Voter or Search by Address) for their polling location and ballot information. Absentee by-mail ballots must be received no later than the close of polls on Election Day. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/faqs
Rules to know
- What to bringTennesseans voting early or on Election Day must bring valid photo identification with them to the polls. Any of the following IDs may be used, even if expired: a Tennessee driver license with your photo; a United States Passport; a photo ID issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security; a photo ID issued by the federal or Tennessee state government; a United States Military photo ID; or a Tennessee handgun carry permit with your photo. NOT acceptable: college student IDs; photo IDs not issued by the federal or Tennessee state government, including county or city issued photo IDs, such as library cards, and photo IDs issued by other states; and photo IDs issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security to non-U.S. citizens. First-time voters who registered by mail or Online Voter Registration and whose ID is expired must also present a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the voter's name and address. Exempt from the photo ID requirement: voters who vote absentee by mail; residents of a licensed nursing home or assisted living center who vote at the facility; voters who are hospitalized; voters with a religious objection to being photographed; and voters who are indigent and unable to obtain a photo ID without paying a fee. The Secretary of State's FAQ adds that a voter who does not bring a photo ID votes a provisional ballot and then has two (2) business days after Election Day to return to the election commission office to show a valid photo ID, and that a free photo ID to vote can be obtained from the Department of Safety and Homeland Security at any participating driver service center. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/voter-id-requirements
- Who may vote by mailTennessee requires a statutory reason to vote absentee by-mail. You can vote absentee by-mail if you fall under one of these categories: you are sixty (60) years of age or older; you will be outside the county where you are registered during the early voting period and all day on Election Day; you are hospitalized, ill or physically disabled and unable to appear at your polling place to vote; you are the caretaker of a person who is hospitalized, ill, or disabled (a physician's statement is not required for either of these two reasons); you or your spouse are a full-time student in an accredited college or university outside the county where you are registered; you reside in a nursing home, assisted living facility or home for the aged outside your county of residence; you are a candidate for office in the election; you are observing a religious holiday that prevents you from voting in person during the early voting period and on Election Day; you serve as an Election Day official or as a member or employee of the election commission; you will be unable to vote in-person due to jury duty; you have a disability and an inaccessible polling place; you or your spouse possess a valid commercial drivers license (CDL) or Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card and you will be working outside the state or county of registration during the open hours of early voting and Election Day and have no specific out-of-county or out-of-state address to which mail may be sent or received during such time; you are a member of the military or are an overseas citizen; or you are on the permanent absentee list. To ask for a ballot, submit a written request by mail or e-mail to your local county election commission office by the tenth day before Election Day (Saturday, October 24, 2026); to be processed for the election, the application must be received by the election commission no later than ten (10) days before the election. The request must contain the voter's name, address of residence, social security number, date of birth, the address to mail the ballot, the election, the reason for voting absentee and the voter's signature, and, if applicable, a copy of the CDL containing the CDL number or the TWIC card; the absentee ballot request form helps make sure all required information is provided. An e-mailed request must be an attached document containing this information and your scanned signature. If information is missing, the county election commission returns the application so you can make corrections and resubmit it. The Secretary of State's FAQ adds that, unless you are on the permanent absentee voting register, enrolled in the Safe at Home program, or have previously voted in the county of registration, you must appear in-person to vote in the first election after you have registered by-mail or online. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/guides/guide-to-absentee-voting
- Early in-person votingNo reason is needed to vote early: the Secretary of State's guide says that, unlike by-mail voting, which requires a statutory reason, a person may vote during the early voting period purely for the sake of convenience. For the November 3, 2026 general election the early voting period is Wednesday, October 14 – Thursday, October 29, 2026. To vote early, a person must appear in person at either the county election commission office or at a satellite voting location opened by the county election commission. Early voting is closed on holidays, but a person may vote early on any Saturday that falls during the period. A voter can also change his or her address of registration and vote in the same voting location. For details regarding times and early voting locations, contact the local county election commission office; the guide also links to early voting locations and hours for each county. The Secretary of State's FAQ says Tennesseans voting early or on Election Day must bring valid photo identification with them to the polls. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/guides/how-to-early-vote-in-person
- Track your absentee ballotThe Secretary of State's Absentee By-Mail Ballot Status Tracker tool allows voters to track the status of their absentee by-mail ballot. It is part of the Tennessee Voter Registration Lookup and Absentee Ballot Status Tracker at tnmap.tn.gov/voterlookup. The Secretary of State says this lookup allows voters to review their registration information, track absentee ballots, see early voting and Election Day information, and find their polling place. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/faqs
- Felony convictionsThe Secretary of State's Restoration of Voting Rights guide says: if your felony conviction was on or before May 17, 1981, you only need to answer the appropriate question on the voter registration form and do not need to do anything else to get your voting rights restored; if your felony conviction was on or after May 18, 1981, you must get a court order to get your voting rights restored before you can register to vote. To get a court order you must meet all of the listed conditions, which include that you do not owe any restitution, that you do not owe court costs unless a court finds that you are indigent, and that you are current in all child support obligations. Voting rights cannot be restored after a conviction for any of the permanently disqualifying felonies that the guide lists by time period. Read from: sos.tn.gov/elections/guides/restoration-of-voting-rights
Read from: Key Dates for the 2026 Election Cycle · Elections · Guide to Absentee Voting · How to Early Vote - In Person · How to Register to Vote · Register to Vote Paper Form (Mail-in or hand-deliver) — Rules and dates as of Sep 17, 2026
Ideas, questions, corrections
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