Editing Rutherford County, Tennessee (section)

===Political history===
This area of the state was predominately Democratic following the [[American Civil War]], but the significant minority of African Americans joined the Republican Party. The white-dominated state legislature in the 1880s passed four laws that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks]] and many poor whites, particularly due to the requirement of payment of a [[poll tax (United States)|poll tax]] in order to register to vote, which reduced the competitiveness of the Republican Party in this part of the state.<ref name=leip/>

Since the late 20th century, the majority of white conservatives in Rutherford County shifted toward the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. Since this time, the changing demographics of the county has shown a significant increase in minorities; however, this change has resulted in no significant impact to party alignment. In recent years, the county has favored Republican candidates for local, state, and national elections. Democratic strength is largely concentrated in [[La Vergne, Tennessee|La Vergne]] and parts of [[Murfreesboro]] itself, with La Vergne having voted Democratic in every recent statewide election except [[2022 Tennessee gubernatorial election|2022]] and Murfreesboro being carried by [[Phil Bredesen]] in [[2018 United States Senate election in Tennessee|2018]] and lost by [[Karl Dean]] and [[Joe Biden]] by single-digit margins in [[2018 Tennessee gubernatorial election|2018]] and [[2020 United States presidential election in Tennessee|2020]] respectively.<ref>https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::c0ed8258-ce44-4eec-9736-2cc3b86a9d16</ref> Nonetheless, Rutherford County has no Democratic [[Tennessee General Assembly|state legislators]] due to Republicans [[gerrymandering|splitting Democratic voters in La Vergne and Murfreesboro]] among all five [[Tennessee House of Representatives|state House]] districts assigned to the county,<ref>https://mtsusidelines.com/2024/11/03/are-rutherford-countys-new-house-districts-fair/</ref><ref>https://wpln.org/post/what-do-you-see-in-tennessees-new-legislative-map-for-democrats-its-bad-signs-and-gerrymandering/</ref><ref>https://mtsusidelines.com/2024/09/10/mtsu-campus-was-legally-cut-in-half-by-tennessees-most-recent-round-of-political-gerrymandering/</ref> leaving it with no districts Bredesen would've won despite his strength in La Vergne and flip of Murfreesboro.<ref>https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::c0ed8258-ce44-4eec-9736-2cc3b86a9d16</ref>