1978Flipped from DemocraticFinal resultsIncumbent defeated
1978 election for Tennessee Senate District 9
Tennessee State Senate · Tennessee
Ben Longley (R) won with 58.1% of the vote, defeating Robert T. Byrd III (D) by 16.3 points, a seat Democrats won last time.
Ben LongleyRepublican · winner
58.1%19,731
Robert T. Byrd IIIDemocrat · incumbent
41.9%14,203
33,934 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1978
Races before and after
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET