Knoxville · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1892–2024 · 34 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Franklin D. Roosevelt1940
50.0%
71,118 votes · D+0.6
Runner-up · Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 · 50.0%
Republican
Herbert Hoover1928
76.4%
79,787 votes · R+52.9
Runner-up · Warren G. Harding, 1920 · 74.7%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
John Kerry2004
182,029votes
35.4% of the vote · R+28.5
Runner-up · Joe Biden, 2020 · 180,971 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
479,003votes
72.4% of the vote · R+45.9
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 447,615 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Jimmy Carter1976
−3.1pts D vs U.S.
Place R+1.0 · U.S. D+2.1
Runner-up · Bill Clinton, 1992 · −9.2 pts
Republican
Donald Trump2016
+47.4pts R vs U.S.
Place R+45.3 · U.S. D+2.1
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · +46.1 pts
U.S. House elections · 3 House
Senate and governor results are in the Office selector at the top of this page.
U.S. House
On a multi-state Place, each row sums votes cast in the separate U.S. House races held inside the Place that year. It is a geographic vote total, not one contest or a seat tally.
Knoxville · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Knoxville, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Clinton22115,209 votes · 22 of 22 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Clinton19Sanders357,966 votes · 22 of 22 countiesprimary
Biden2290,423 votes · 22 of 22 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Republicannot ingested
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Registered voters
† Some years predate full county coverage; a flagged year sums only the counties reporting it.
Voter registration in Knoxville
Year
Total registered
2016 (partial)
835,584
2018 (partial)
848,699
2020 (partial)
878,019
2022 (partial)
895,585
2024
1,002,646
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+13,799 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +158,481 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Knoxville in Knoxville: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+4,877
2012
+3,470
2013
+3,968
2014
+4,968
2015
+5,576
2016
+8,507
2017
+11,531
2018
+10,080
2019
+10,163
2021
+19,238
2022
+25,298
2023
+21,560
2024
+15,446
2025
+13,799
The Knoxville media market blends a mid-size college city with heavily Republican surrounding counties, producing lopsided federal margins even as municipal races occasionally trend more competitive.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 4.4 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 52.9 points in 1928. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 4.3 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 45.9 points.
A population of 1,449,375, a 86% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $66,040 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Chattanooga and Tri-Cities, TN-VA.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Knoxville, Tennessee. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/557/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Knoxville, Tennessee voted Republican by 45.9 points (R+45.9), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 661,816 votes cast, 175,041 went Democratic and 479,003 went Republican.
When did Knoxville, Tennessee last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Knoxville, Tennessee voted Democratic was 1940.
How many people live in Knoxville, Tennessee?
Knoxville, Tennessee has a population of 1,449,375 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Knoxville, Tennessee?
Median household income in Knoxville, Tennessee is $66,040 — below the national median of $80,734. The Tennessee state median is $69,595.
What is the political history of Knoxville, Tennessee?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Knoxville, Tennessee from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 2 went Democratic and 31 went Republican.
