It’s been eight years since Republican state Reps. Dave Wright and Justin Lafferty took office after winning their respective seats in House Districts 19 and 89 in 2018. 

Republican strongholds in the rural east of the county and the rapidly developing west.

They have each won easy reelections three times since then, with Wright not even facing any opposition in two of those races. Their districts — mostly rural in Wright’s case and suburban in Lafferty’s — have had reliably strong Republican voting majorities.

But with Democrats contesting every local legislative seat this year, voters in those two districts will have options on their ballots on Nov. 3. Jenny Fowler is running against Wright, and Randy DeBord against Lafferty.

The Republican incumbents have large advantages in campaign fundraising and name recognition. Here’s a look at the two contests. (You can find our other legislative district campaign stories here, here and here.)

District 19

By far the geographically largest of Knox County’s seven House districts, District 19 sprawls across the eastern third of the county, from the Union County line in the north to the Sevier and Blount county lines in the south.

It has seen increased residential development in recent years, but it remains largely rural, taking in traditionally agricultural communities including Corryton, Gibbs, Carter and Kimberlin Heights.

Democrat Jenny Fowler, left, is challenging Republican Rep. Dave Wright (right).

Wright, who grew up in Corryton and turned 81 last month, is a familiar figure in the district. Beginning with his appointment to Knox County Commission in 2008, he has served the area in public office for nearly two decades.

A mild-mannered and courtly representative, Wright rarely raises his voice in public and has never been much of a culture warrior. At the same time, he has regularly voted with the legislative supermajority on issues from school vouchers to restrictions on school library materials to this year’s hasty carving up of Memphis’ congressional district.

In the House, he is vice-chair of the powerful State and Local Government Committee. Among other things, he supported the elimination of the exception that had allowed Knoxville to hold citywide elections for City Council district representatives. (You can read more about Wright in our 2022 profile.)

Fowler, 61, lives in the Seven Islands area of the district. She retired in 2024 after 30 years as a distinguished lecturer in mathematics at the University of Tennessee. While on staff, she served for seven years on the UT Faculty Senate.

She is an avid outdoorsperson and has hiked all of the maintained trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, making her a member of the 900 Miler Club. She grew up in rural southern Ohio and earned degrees at Ohio State and the University of Kentucky.

She says she wants to bring “common-sense leadership” to the Legislature, informed by empathy and civil discourse. Like most Democrats seeking office in Tennessee this year, she is running on affordability (of housing, healthcare and groceries) and education (supporting more funds for public schools, ending the state voucher program). 

And in a district-specific issue, Fowler says she wants to protect Knox County’s rural heritage and agricultural land. Her website says, “We need to support local farmers and small businesses, and support pathways for their future success and land conservation.”

Wright, who ran unopposed in 2024, began this year with $74,397.02 banked in his campaign fund. He raised another $6,850 through the end of July and had $77,107.36 on hand heading into the general election. All but $100 of his donations this year came from political action committees, including the state billboard industry, homebuilders and the Total Wine chain of liquor stores.

Fowler actually raised more money than Wright through the end of July — $9,187.61 — although, of course, she started from zero. All of her contributions came from individual donors except for $150 from Harvesting Democracy, a PAC focused on flipping rural seats from Republicans to Democrats. She had $3,595.27 on hand at the beginning of August.

District 89

District 89 covers northwest Knox County from Clinton Highway west through Karns, Solway and Hardin Valley. It has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the county for the past two decades and is full of new subdivisions (including the huge Belltown development).

Democrat Randy DeBord, left, and Republican state Rep. Justin Lafferty.

Lafferty, 55, is a graduate of Farragut High School and the University of Tennessee,  a small-business owner and real estate professional. He has not been a particularly boisterous presence in the Legislature, voting party-line on most issues — except for a few contentious moments.

He received a rare bit of national attention in 2021, when he mentioned the Three-Fifths Compromise in the U.S. Constitution during a discussion on the House floor. Lafferty seemed to get the effects of the compromise exactly backward, implying that it weakened the political power of slaveholding states when it actually enhanced it.

He also got in a scuffle with state Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, in April 2023, in the lead-up to the vote on expelling Jones from the House along with Knoxville Rep. Gloria Johnson and Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson. Jones filed a crime report for simple assault, but it was suspended when he didn’t respond to police inquiries for more information.

Lafferty cosponsored legislation that created a new category of “Divisive Concepts” that Tennessee public universities are not allowed to teach. He also introduced a bill this year that would have eliminated tenure for public college and university faculty in the state; he ultimately withdrew it and supported a bill by Farragut Rep. Jason Zachary that weakened tenure due-process protections. (You can read more about Lafferty’s background in our 2024 profile.)

He is facing DeBord, who describes himself as a “moderate Democrat” and says he will “prioritize pragmatic, incremental policy changes over sweeping, progressive reforms.” That includes increasing funding for public schools, supporting nonprofit healthcare, attracting high-paying jobs to the district, and focusing on state infrastructure such as Oak Ridge Highway.

DeBord, 69, worked for 27 years as an operator for the Tennessee Valley Authority, managing equipment and employees on various projects. He was able to retire at the age of 48 to care for his children after their mother died.

“I have been a caregiver to my children after the death of their mother, as well as caring for my mother and brother until their passing, which was an honor,” he writes on his campaign website. “This experience has given me a deep understanding of the need for good, affordable healthcare.”

Lafferty started the year with $102,676 in his campaign chest. He raised only an additional $4,000 through the end of July, all but $500 of it from PACs. His contributors included the Tennessee Apartment PAC, which represents the rental-housing industry; the Tennessee Firefighters; and homebuilders. He had $100,563.64 on hand heading into the general election.

DeBord, meanwhile, reported raising only $243 through the end of July — about one-quarter of 1 percent of Lafferty’s on-hand amount.