On November 4, Tennessee State Senator Micheal Williams, an independent, was defeated for re-election by a margin of 29,175 votes to his Republican opponent’s 29,422 votes. If Williams had won, he would have been the first independent elected to the Tennessee State Senate since 1978. Williams had been elected as a Republican in 2004 but he had switched to being an independent on March 14, 2007.
He switched after Rosalind Kurita had voted for a Republican Senate Speaker (and Lieutenant Governor). Williams’s switch would have been perceived as helping the Democrats regain control of the Senate. The longtime Democratic Senate Speaker/Lieutenant Governor was also unseated in the general election. The senate could end up 19:13:1 if Kurita’s senate race is contested and voided.