Editing Stewart County, Tennessee (section)

==Politics==
{{PresHead|place=Stewart 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 12, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|5,389|1,160|71|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|4,950|1,232|114|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|3,864|1,222|213|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|2,963|2,069|83|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|2,956|2,470|81|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|2,675|2,860|48|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|1,826|2,870|86|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|1,306|2,962|432|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|1,046|2,779|498|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|1,302|1,979|15|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1984|Democratic|1,285|2,174|31|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|985|2,274|59|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|510|2,442|20|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1972|Democratic|790|1,098|47|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|443|1,041|1,057|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|441|2,444|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|539|1,810|37|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|560|2,120|16|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|641|2,170|12|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|331|1,962|118|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|335|1,916|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|374|2,699|15|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|303|1,718|7|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|184|1,548|12|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|401|1,255|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|264|1,369|25|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|849|2,366|29|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|591|1,711|38|Tennessee}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|485|1,312|251|Tennessee}}

The county is part of [[Tennessee's 7th congressional district]]. From the antebellum period, conservative whites historically voted [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]], adding to the Southern Block. Residents of eastern Tennessee had been Unionist and supported the Republican Party.

In the late 20th century realignment of political parties, many white conservatives shifted into the Republican Party. Before Richard Nixon's campaign in 1972, no Republican had ever won as much as thirty percent of Stewart County's vote, but he won by a landslide in the South. Until 2000, [[Richard Nixon]] was the only GOP presidential candidate to gain forty percent of the vote in the country.

Before 2000, the Democratic presidential candidate lost Stewart County only in 1968, when segregationist [[George Wallace]] ran for the [[American Independent Party]]. After that Stewart County was one of only six Wallace counties{{efn|The others were the fellow secessionist white-majority [[Middle Tennessee]] counties of [[Houston County, Tennessee|Houston]] and [[Perry County, Tennessee|Perry]], plus the three Alabama [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] counties of [[Bullock County, Alabama|Bullock]], [[Lowndes County, Alabama|Lowndes]] and [[Wilcox County, Alabama|Wilcox]]. where [[Negro]] voter registration was severely delayed after [[Voting Rights Act of 1965|the Voting Rights Act]].}} to support Democratic candidate [[George McGovern]].

Since the turn of the 21st century, Stewart County's voters have increasingly supported [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidates in recent presidential elections. In the [[2008 United States presidential election|2008 presidential election]], [[John McCain]] received approximately 53.7% of the vote;<ref>[http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html?scp=1&sq=%22election%20map&st=cse 2008 electoral map], ''New York Times'', December 9, 2008. Retrieved: April 7, 2013.</ref> he was the first Republican to carry the county. For 100 years before that, Stewart County was the sole county in Tennessee that had never voted in majority for a Republican presidential candidate.<ref>David Leip, "[http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/comparemaps.php?year=2008&fips=47&f=1&off=0&elect=0 Presidential General Election Map Comparison (Tennessee)]," ''Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections''. Retrieved: April 7, 2013.</ref> In 2016, Republican [[Donald Trump]] gained a proportion of votes here that was only marginally less than that of the GOP gained in the historically Unionist counties of East Tennessee and the Highland Rim; by 2024 he achieved an eye-popping 81% of the vote, making [[Kamala Harris]]'s performance the worst ever of all time by a Democrat and the first one to not even hit 19% of Stewart's vote.