How Knox County Voted in the Presidential Election
By Jack Vaughan
KNOXVILLE, TN (November 13, 2020) – Knox County shifted 8.5% in Democrats’ favor from 2016 to 2020, Trump’s vote share shrank 1.9%. Trump won with a +23.7 margin in 2016 and then a +15.2 margin this year.
This shift is the 3rd highest in the state behind only Rutherford and Williamson Counties. Biden won much of the third-party vote that Clinton did not. It’s the best result for a Democratic ticket since 1996. There were 8 precincts that flipped from Trump ’16 to Biden ’20, many of which were in districts where we ran strong local campaigns (in the August Election and the November Election).
Biden received a higher percentage of the vote in nearly every precinct, but the biggest improvements were within the City of Knoxville and the outside precincts. Republicans saw a 17.55% growth in Knox County voters compared to 2016 while Democrats saw a 44.87% growth in Knox County voters.
Similar to what happened across the country in similarly-sized counties, there were precincts where Biden did not improve margins from Clinton’s in 2016. They were typically precincts where Democrats have historically receive over 90% of the vote.
The precincts in Knox County that shifted to Trump from 2016 were mostly in East Knoxville. These shifts were mostly fractions of percentage points. For example, Fair Garden went from 81.95% Clinton to 81.62% Biden but Biden received 181 more votes than Clinton (1,076 in 2016 to 1,257 in 2020). Trump saw an increase from 178 votes in ’16 to 259 votes in 2020 in that precinct.
For reference, click on this map of Knox County Voting Precincts.
Precincts that flipped Trump ’16 to Biden ’20:
23 – West View School
27 – S. Knoxville Optimist Club
32 – Spring Hill School
33 – Richard Yoakley School
34 – Fountain City Public Library
36 – Gresham Middle School
43 – West Haven School
46 – 1st Church of the Nazarene
Top 10 precincts with the biggest 2016 to 2020 shift towards Democrats:
10S – Howard Baker: 18.82%
29 – Anderson: 18.13%
17 – Christenberry: 17.91%
23 – Westview: 17.86%
27 – Optimist Club: 17.31%
45 – Bearden Middle: 15.38%
36 – Gresham Middle: 15.04%
26 – Dogwood School: 14.98%
11 – Central United: 14.16%
34 – Fountain City Library: 13.75%
Jack Vaughan is a Field Organizer for the Knox County Democratic Party.
