Bills have been introduced in the Tennessee legislature to add a question about party membership on the voter registration form. They are SB 1144 by Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), and HB 1045 by Representative Kelly Keisling (R-Byrdstown).
The bills also provide that in the 2024 primary, every voter would be asked about joining a party. Then, starting in 2026, primaries would be closed; only registered party members would be able to vote in a party primary.
Tennessee has never had partisan registration. That is true of most southern states.
Richard:
Do you know why Southern states are so hostile to party registration for voters?
I guess it is a holdover from the days when the southern states were overwhelmingly Democratic. If they had had partisan registration in the deep south, probably 98% of the voters would have registered “Democratic” so they probably thought, why bother?