Tennessee's 6th congressional district

Tennessee's 6th congressional district
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative	John Rose R–Cookeville
Distribution	51.77% rural[1] 48.23% urban
Population (2022)	783,125[2]
Median household income	$64,687[3]
Ethnicity	77.7% White 9.0% Black 7.7% Hispanic 3.9% Two or more races 1.1% Asian 0.6% other
Cook PVI	R+17[4]

The 6th congressional district of Tennessee is a congressional district in Middle Tennessee. It has been represented by Republican John Rose since January 2019.

Much of the sixth district is rural and wooded. It is spread across the geographic regions known as the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland Rim, and the Central Basin. The area is known for its waterfalls, such as Burgess Falls and Cummins Falls. Much of the western part of the district is located in the Nashville metropolitan area, along with a portion of Nashville itself.

With close access to interstates 24, 40, and 65, subdivisions are sprouting almost exponentially, fast filling with new economy managers. Recently, many companies have opened either manufacturing or distribution centers in the 6th district. This includes Amazon^[5] and Bridgestone-Firestone^[6] in Lebanon, gun manufacturer Beretta in Gallatin,^[7] and clothing manufacturer Under Armour in Mt. Juliet.^[8]

Politically speaking, the region was traditionally a "Yellow Dog Democrat" district. However, it began shifting rightward as Nashville's suburbs bled into the district and the rural counties trended Republican. It supported Bill Clinton in 1992, partly due to the presence of Al Gore, who represented it from 1977 to 1985, as Clinton's running mate. However, it has not supported a Democrat for president since. Longtime Democratic incumbent Bart Gordon consistently won reelection easily even as the district swung rightward after the turn of the millennium. By the mid-2000s, however, it was believed that the Democrats would have a hard time keeping the seat after Gordon retired.

Gordon retired in 2010, and Republican state senator Diane Black won the seat in a landslide, proving just how Republican this district had become. The 2010 redistricting made the district even more Republican, even as its longtime anchor of Murfreesboro was drawn into the neighboring 4th District. Since 2012, no Democrat has won an entire county within the district in any presidential, gubernatorial, senate, or congressional election.^[9][10] Indeed, no Democrat has crossed the 30 percent mark in the district since Gordon's retirement.