How Davidson County Voted For President

NASHVILLE, TN — It comes as no shock that Democrat Hillary Clinton won Davidson County and did so handily despite Republican, and now President-elect, Donald Trump's success statewide.

Davidson County was one of three Tennessee counties won by Clinton — Memphis' Shelby County and Haywood County in southwest Tennessee were the others — as Nashville maintains its status as a blue island in an ever-deeper sea of red.

Clinton won the county 59 percent to nearly 34 percent for Trump, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson leading the also-rans with 3.8 percent. Write-in candidates accounted for more votes than the rest of the minor party candidates, including Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

Clinton's numbers more or less matched those of Barack Obama in 2012, when he won the county with 58 percent of the vote; Clinton received 148,473 votes to Obama's 143,120. Trump underperformed Mitt Romney, as the former Massachusetts governor won nearly 40 percent of the Nashville vote four years ago. Johnson was the beneficiary of that difference, winning 9,000 votes more than he did in 2012.

Looking at the vote by council district, Clinton won majorities in 24 of the 35 districts with pluralities in five others. Trump's lone majority came in Old Hickory-area Council District 11, ironically the home of the Democratic machine which ran the county's politics in the era before Metro. Trump won pluralities in five other districts, in Bellevue, Joelton, Forest Hills and Oak Hill, along the Williamson County line, and in Hermitage and Donelson. Perhaps shockingly, one of Clinton's pluralities came in Council District 23, which includes Belle Meade.

Image of Clintona and Trump via Gage Skidmore, used under Creative Commons