The Tennessee Democratic Party was born out of President Andrew Jackson's populist philosophy of Jacksonian democracy in the mid to late-1820s.

[2] By the time the Election of 1860 rolled around, the political climate had dramatically shifted due the sectional strife around the issue of Slavery, and its expansion into the territories.

Tennessee had been under military control since February 1862 when Union forces captured the State Capitol of Nashville.

[10] When civilian control had returned, aided by a wartime edict by then Military Governor Andrew Johnson that barred Confederate sympathizers from holding political office, the Republican Party took control of Tennessee State Government in March 1865.

[14] During the years Republicans had control of the General Assembly, they expanded the right to vote to newly freed slaves, disenfranchised former Confederates, and passed a law that would allow the Governor to declare Martial Law in individual counties in order to combat the influence of the Ku Klux Klan.

[2] Between 1869 and 1900, only two Republicans would be elected Governor of Tennessee those were Dewitt Clinton Senter and Alvin Hawkins.

Around 1900 the Temperance movement had really started to gain momentum in the state, and by 1908 the prohibitionists were had a powerful ally in newspaper publisher Edward Carmack.

[2][17] During the late 20's and early 30's, highly regard members of the Democratic Party in Tennessee began to be recognized on a national level.

[3] Since then, the Party is considered to be irrelevant in Tennessee Politics as Republicans have firm control over state government.

[26] It was over Jones, Pearson, and Johnson's protest for gun violence prevention and them standing in the well of the House.

Speaker Cameron Sexton of Crossville compared their protest to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

[26] Subsequently, Jones and Pearson were both sent back to the House by both their local governments and by voters in their respective districts.

[32] Currently Tennessee's Congressional Delegation contains only one Democrat out of the state's nine U.S. House of Representatives seats.

Tennessee has not elected a Democrat statewide since former Governor Phil Bredesen won re-election in 2006.

[52] On January 25, 2024, the Tennessee Democratic Party's State Executive Committee elected Rachel Campbell[53] to be Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, along with Dr. J. Nathan Higdon as Vice Chair, Ryan Scofield as Secretary, and Carol V. Abney as Treasurer.

Currently the Executive Committee has seven ex-officio members that represents groups that "facilitate communication between the bodies and to advance goals of Democrats in the State of Tennessee.