Tennessee Electoral College Guide
Tennessee casts 11 electoral votes in presidential elections. Tennessee's 11 EV are safely Republican. Al Gore lost his own home state in 2000 — one of the most consequential individual state results in modern electoral history.
Role in the Electoral College
Tennessee's 11 EV are safely Republican. Al Gore lost his own home state in 2000 — one of the most consequential individual state results in modern electoral history.
Electoral Vote History
Gore lost TN in 2000. If he had won his home state, Florida would have been irrelevant and Gore would have been president.
Electoral College Basics
The United States uses an Electoral College system to elect the president. Each state receives electoral votes equal to its total congressional representation: number of House seats + 2 (senators). Tennessee has 9 House seats + 2 senators = 11 electoral votes.
A candidate needs 270 out of 538 electoral votes to win the presidency. Tennessee’s 11 electoral votes represent 2.0% of the total needed.
Most states use a winner-take-all system — the popular vote winner receives all electoral votes. The exception is Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electoral votes by congressional district. Tennessee uses the winner-take-all system.