Editing Fayette County, Tennessee (section)

==Politics==

Fayette County has a 19-seat legislative body referred to as the Board of County Commissioners representing 8 districts. All positions are elected every four years.

'''* District 1 (Somerville)'''
** Matt Rhea
** Win Moore
'''* District 2 (Laconia)'''
** Ray Seals
** Tommy Perkins
'''* District 3 (Gallaway/Braden/Garnett)'''
** Elizabeth Rice
** Jim Norton
'''* District 4 (North Oakland)'''
** David Webb
** Tim A. Goodroe
'''* District 5 (Piperton/Rossville)'''
** Terrye Canady
** Betty Knox Morrison Salmon
** David Crislip
'''* District 6 (Moscow/Williston)'''
** Mike Reeves
** Steve Reeves
'''* District 7 (Moscow)'''
** Claude Oglesby
'''* District 8 (Hickory Withe/Eads)'''
** Robert Sills
** Terry Leggett
'''* District 9 (South Oakland'''
** Adrian Wiggins
** Steve Laskoski
'''* District 10 (Lagrange)'''
** Larry Watkins

<ref>{{cite web | url=https://fayettetn.us/county-boards-councils/county-commission/commissioner-board-members/ | title=Members of Board of Commissioners }}</ref>

The County Mayor is currently Rhea "Skip" Taylor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fayettetn.us/Directory.htm |title=County Directory |publisher=Fayettetn.us |access-date=May 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725041518/http://www.fayettetn.us/Directory.htm |archive-date=July 25, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Fayette County, Tennessee|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|16,756|6,720|275|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|15,690|7,027|267|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|13,055|5,874|465|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|12,689|6,688|197|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|12,173|6,892|189|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|8,962|5,696|79|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|6,402|5,037|90|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|4,406|4,655|458|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|3,713|4,211|685|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|3,573|3,292|56|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|3,733|3,634|34|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|2,944|4,141|110|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|2,133|3,853|54|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|3,264|2,067|132|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|740|2,236|2,570|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|2,922|2,636|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|1,370|892|537|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1956|Dixiecrat|358|639|971|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|1,029|1,173|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1948|Dixiecrat|66|226|1,493|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|172|1,417|2|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|78|1,826|2|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|29|1,764|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|42|1,287|17|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|121|1,100|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|65|1,181|27|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|346|2,294|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|116|1,812|2|Tennessee}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|59|830|93|Tennessee}}
Historically, Fayette County was part of the "[[Solid South]]" whereby the county's black majority was entirely [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchised]]. From the end of [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] until [[Harry S. Truman]]'s civil rights proposals during the 1940s, Democrats won over 85 percent of Fayette County's vote even in 1920 and 1928 when [[Warren G. Harding]] and [[Herbert Hoover]] carried the state's electoral votes. During [[African-American civil rights movement (1954-1968)|the Civil Rights era]], Fayette County's politics resembled that of Mississippi more than that of the rest of Tennessee, with [[Strom Thurmond]] winning over 83 percent of the county's limited electorate in 1948 and [[T. Coleman Andrews]] carrying the county as a "States' Rights" candidate in 1956. Once the county's blacks were enfranchised during the 1960s, Democrats would carry the county or only lose narrowly between 1976 and 1996, but in the twenty-first century as the county becomes increasingly white and suburban, its strongly conservative social views have made it strongly Republican. The first county Republican Primary was held in 2018.<ref>Cohn, Nate; [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/southern-whites-loyalty-to-gop-nearing-that-of-blacks-to-democrats.html 'Demographic Shift: Southern Whites' Loyalty to G.O.P. Nearing That of Blacks to Democrats'], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 24, 2014</ref>