Tennessee 5th Congressional District, Tennessee: Old Confederacy district. In 2024, voted R+16%. Democratic peak: D+72 in 1936.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+16MIT Election Lab
- Political archetype
- Old ConfederacyAkashic typology
- Population
- 646,3172024 5-year
- Median household income
- $91,3732024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 70.5%2024 5-year
- Black
- 14.0%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 9.7%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+72 in 1936MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+28 in 1972MIT Election Lab
Constituent county margins for Congressional District 5, TNOne cell per constituent county, colored by 2024 presidential margin from deep red (Republican) through neutral to deep blue (Democratic), ordered bluest first.
R+60D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 124,814 | 172,119 | 302,566 | ||
| R | 132,653 | 156,284 | 295,859 | ||
| R | 93,922 | 123,738 | 230,921 | ||
| R | 91,988 | 122,998 | 218,643 | ||
| R | 102,030 | 120,918 | 225,676 | ||
| R | 88,824 | 112,143 | 202,267 | ||
| D | 82,466 | 80,132 | 165,365 | ||
| D | 73,728 | 64,235 | 147,005 | ||
| D | 71,179 | 57,967 | 146,344 | ||
| R | 52,696 | 67,841 | 121,213 | ||
| R | 53,267 | 67,372 | 121,342 | ||
| D | 64,063 | 44,872 | 112,440 | ||
| D | 62,747 | 37,153 | 101,101 | ||
| R | 27,385 | 49,604 | 79,386 | ||
| O | 25,451 | 24,297 | 85,840 | ||
| D | 49,686 | 26,306 | 75,993 | ||
| D | 39,377 | 29,292 | 69,244 | ||
| D | 38,451 | 21,138 | 60,338 | ||
| D | 36,774 | 21,720 | 58,609 | ||
| D | 17,816 | 5,703 | 30,240 | ||
| D | 22,611 | 6,146 | 28,819 | ||
| D | 22,683 | 5,308 | 28,038 | ||
| D | 20,014 | 3,240 | 23,346 | ||
| D | 17,242 | 4,032 | 21,517 | ||
| D | 11,560 | 9,065 | 20,642 | ||
| D | 11,202 | 3,515 | 15,442 | ||
| D | 12,134 | 6,431 | 18,696 | ||
| D | 9,959 | 3,537 | 13,638 | ||
| D | 10,177 | 2,425 | 14,056 | ||
| D | 9,618 | 3,220 | 13,052 | ||
| D | 9,866 | 3,271 | 13,599 | ||
| D | 10,991 | 5,311 | 16,796 | ||
| D | 13,405 | 7,226 | 21,011 | ||
| D | 11,147 | 4,150 | 17,071 | ||
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Demographics
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
13.7%
American
11.3%
German
9.9%
Irish
8.9%
Italian
2.9%
Scottish
2.3%
French
1.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 37.7 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Median household income
2024 inflation-adjusted dollars
$91,373
Congressional District 5 ranks near the middle of US counties.
Congressional District 5$91,373
Tennessee$69,595
United States$80,734
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
10.4%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 1814.2%
Working age (18–64)9.4%
Seniors (65+)10.2%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
87.4%
speak English only
Spanish7.0%
Other Indo-European2.0%
Other languages1.9%
Asian & Pacific Islander1.8%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 45.4% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Tennessee 5th Congressional District sits in the Border South and Appalachia. For nearly a century after Reconstruction, the district voted Democratic — not because of New Deal politics, but because of the long memory of the Civil War. The Democratic party of the Solid South was the party of segregation, and in Tennessee 5th Congressional District as throughout the former Confederacy, Republican identification was politically untenable until the second half of the twentieth century.
The shift began with civil rights. 2004 marked the realignment in Tennessee 5th Congressional District, by a twelve points margin. The Republican margin reached its widest at twenty-eight points in 1972. The 2024 margin was sixteen points.
The political shift has tracked, in Tennessee 5th Congressional District, the political shift of the South more broadly. A 71% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $91,373, and a 10% poverty rate describe the demographic context.
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Congressional District 5, Tennessee — The Long Memory. Akashic Intelligence — The Long Memory. https://tiers.akashic.app/cd/4705/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
Frequently asked questions
How did Congressional District 5, Tennessee vote in 2024?
In 2024, Congressional District 5, Tennessee voted Republican by 15.6 points (R+16), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 302,566 votes cast, 124,814 went Democratic and 172,119 went Republican.
What is Congressional District 5, Tennessee's political archetype?
Akashic classifies Congressional District 5, Tennessee as a "Old Confederacy" district based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the district has voted Democratic 24 times, Republican 9 times, and other 1 times.
When did Congressional District 5, Tennessee last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Congressional District 5, Tennessee voted Democratic was 2000.
How many people live in Congressional District 5, Tennessee?
Congressional District 5, Tennessee has a population of 646,317 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Congressional District 5, Tennessee?
Median household income in Congressional District 5, Tennessee is $91,373 — above the national median of $80,734. The Tennessee state median is $69,595.
What is the political history of Congressional District 5, Tennessee?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Congressional District 5, Tennessee from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 24 went Democratic and 9 went Republican. The district's archetype — "Old Confederacy" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.