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Tennessee State Senate

Senate of Tennessee
Tennessee General Assembly
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Term limits
None
History
New session started
January 2015
Leadership
Speaker of the Senate
Randy McNally (R)
Since January 9, 2017
Speaker pro Tempore
Majority Leader
Mark Norris (R)
Since January 9, 2007
Minority Leader
Lee Harris (D)
Since January 2015
Structure
Seats 33
Composition of the Tennessee Senate
Political groups

Governing party

Opposition party

Length of term
4 years
Authority Article III, Tennessee Constitution
Salary $19,009/year + per diem
Elections
Last election
November 1, 2016
(16 seats)
Next election
November 6, 2018
(17 seats)
Redistricting Legislative Control
Meeting place
TNSenChamber.jpg
State Senate Chamber
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, Tennessee
Website
www.capitol.tn.gov/senate

Governing party

Opposition party

The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.

The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators are to be elected from districts of substantially equal population. According to the constitution, a county is not to be joined to a portion of another county for purposes of creating a district; this provision has been overridden by the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States in Baker v. Carr (369 U.S. 182, 1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (337 U.S. 356, 1964). The Tennessee constitution has been amended to allow that if these rulings are ever changed or reversed, a referendum may be held to allow the senate districts to be drawn on a basis other than substantially equal population.

In 1921, Anna Lee Keys Worley became the first women to serve in the Tennessee Senate.

Until 1966, Tennessee state senators served two-year terms. That year the system was changed, by constitutional amendment, to allow four-year terms. In that year, senators in even-numbered districts were elected to two-year terms and those in odd-numbered districts were elected to four-year terms. This created a staggered system in which only half of the senate is up for election at any one time. Districts are to be sequentially and consecutively numbered; the scheme basically runs from east to west and north to south.

Republicans attained an elected majority in the Senate in the 104th General Assembly (2005-2007) for the first time since Reconstruction; a brief majority in the 1990s was the result of two outgoing senators switching parties.


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Wikipedia

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