Tennessee Senate

The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.

Senate of Tennessee
Tennessee General Assembly
Type
Type	Upper house
Term limits	None
History
New session started	January 8, 2019
Leadership
Speaker of the Senate	Randy McNally (R) since January 10, 2017
Speaker pro tempore	Ferrell Haile (R) since January 19, 2018
Majority Leader	Jack Johnson (R) since January 8, 2019
Minority Leader	Jeff Yarbro (D) since January 8, 2019
Structure
Seats	33
Political groups	Majority party   Republican (27) Minority party   Democratic (6)
Length of term	4 years
Authority	Article III, Tennessee Constitution
Salary	$19,009/year + per diem
Elections
Last election	November 3, 2020 (16 seats)
Next election	November 8, 2022 (17 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative Control
Meeting place
State Senate Chamber Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, Tennessee
Website
www.capitol.tn.gov/senate

The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any issue regarding the state, country, or world. The Senate also has the power to create and enforce its own rules and qualifications for its members. The Senate shares these powers with the Tennessee House of Representatives. The Senate alone has the power to host impeachment proceeding and remove impeached members of office with a 2/3 majority. The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators are to be elected from districts of substantially equal population. According to the constitution, a county is not to be joined to a portion of another county for purposes of creating a district; this provision has been overridden by the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States in Baker v. Carr (369 U.S. 182, 1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (337 U.S. 356, 1964). The Tennessee constitution has been amended to allow that if these rulings are ever changed or reversed, a referendum may be held to allow the senate districts to be drawn on a basis other than substantially equal population.

Until 1966, Tennessee state senators served two-year terms. That year the system was changed, by constitutional amendment, to allow four-year terms. In that year, senators in even-numbered districts were elected to two-year terms and those in odd-numbered districts were elected to four-year terms. This created a staggered system in which only half of the senate is up for election at any one time. Senators from even-numbered districts are elected in the same years as presidential elections, and senators from odd-numbered districts are elected in the same years as mid-term elections. Districts are to be sequentially and consecutively numbered; the scheme basically runs from east to west and north to south.

Republicans attained an elected majority in the Senate in the 104th General Assembly (2005–07) for the first time since Reconstruction; a brief majority in the 1990s was the result of two outgoing senators switching parties.