Though Tennessee does not register by party, it is estimated that there are roughly 272,000 Republican voters in Shelby County.
The party has its origins in the Lincoln League, which was founded by Robert Church Jr. in 1916 to promote black voter registration.
Church was one of the most prominent African-American businessmen in the nation and is credited with the early development of Beale Street.
It was scheduled for the same day as Tennessee's presidential primary, and represented the first partisan local elections in the County since before 1900.
The move meant the end of nearly a century of nonpartisan elections in the county.