Get to know the East Tennessee Senate and House members - some new and some familiar

Tennessee's political maps look a little different this year, but the overall makeup is about the same in East Tennessee.

But that doesn't mean all the faces are familiar ones. There were some shakeups.

Get to know the leaders who will represent East Tennessee after their wins in the 2022 midterms on Tuesday.

Here are their names, their districts and bit about their priorities:

Tennessee Senate District 5

Rep. Randy McNally was reelected for a 10th term to represent the 5th District in Tennessee’s Senate. He ran uncontested.

McNally, a retired pharmacist, is lieutenant governor of Tennessee and has been speaker of the Senate since 2017.

McNally ran unopposed.

Tennessee Senate District 7

Republican Richard Briggs will continue to represent Tennessee’s 7th District for his third consecutive term.

“When we stick to our Republican principles, we win every time … and I don’t really know why we just can’t do a (national) sweep,” Briggs said Tuesday. “We may not do it now, but we’re going to do it, and we’re going to do it in 2024. … We understand what kitchen table issues are to the public.”

Briggs previously told Knox News his primary focus will be on the economy this term, with the “financial uncertainty of inflation” as a top concern and “making Tennessee a business-friendly state” as a top priority.

With 99% of the ballots counted, Briggs won 62% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 14

Republican Jason Zachary will remain in office after winning the race for 14th District.

Zachary has been serving the 14th District since he replaced Ryan Haynes, who resigned in 2015 to become the state's Republican Party chairman.

“Maintaining a thriving economy that firewalls us, to the extent possible, from the destructive policies in D.C., will continue to be a top priority,” he previously told Knox News.

With 99% of the ballots counted, Zachary won 64% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 15

Democrat Sam McKenzie will serve a second term representing the 15th District, which includes downtown Knoxville and neighborhoods to the east and south.

He has pushed for equality in education and support for teachers.

“I’m glad folks have enough trust in me to keep this thing going," he said Tuesday. "My priorities are definitely going to be similar to last term, primarily trying to get many of our incarcerated citizens back engaged, restore their rights to vote.

"We just redid the way we funded education for the first time in 30 years, and it’s not perfect. But the bottom line is I want to increase funding to K-12 education."

With 79% of the ballots counted, McKenzie won 71% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 16

Republican Rep. Michele Carringer was reelected for a second term to represent the 16th District in Tennessee’s House. She ran uncontested.

"I'm very humbled, and I'm very honored to be able to be here tonight and accept the next two years in Nashville," Carringer said Tuesday at a GOP party. “And I can't say enough about how much I love Knox County and the state of Tennessee and how much I appreciate you all."

Carringer spoke about her upbringing in a military family and cited her mother as “the backbone and the reason why I’ve always been involved in politics.” Her mother recently had a stroke and could not attend the GOP watch party as previously planned, she said.

Carringer served a four-year term as Knox County commissioner until 2020.

Carringer ran unopposed.

Tennessee House District 18

All eyes were on the race for the empty 18th District seat, which Republican Elaine Davis won Tuesday, despite a controversial campaign path.

Democratic opponent Greg Kaplan recently threatened to sue Republicans, who created an ad distorting his face in a way the Knoxville Jewish Alliance said was “wildly dangerous.”

Davis said she had nothing to do with the mailers and steps into office with a focus on public safety, infrastructure and fighting against higher taxes.

"There have been so many families that have introduced me to either their foster child or an adopted child, and I know that with the kind of the Casey decision and the Roe decision, that was one thing that really touched my heart," Davis said Tuesday night. "And so that's one thing I would like to work on in Nashville is make that process easier, because that was one thing that I've heard from a lot of families was that sometimes some of the red tape was difficult in getting things done in order to serve them and those children better."

With 99% of the ballots counted, Davis won with 54% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 19

State Rep. Dave Wright easily won reelection, taking three-quarters of the vote with an estimated 82% of the ballots counted. He was first elected in 2018.

"I am just so proud to be able to have been on County Commission and then take the knowledge and stuff that I've developed in that 10 years and then represent the people of East (Knox) County," Wright said. "People that I'm in extreme agreement with, rural, conservative folk, and be able to be their representative. I'm just humbled by that being a part of my life."

With 99% of the ballots counted, Wright won with 75% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 89

Republican Justin Lafferty, who has represented the 89th District since he was elected in 2018, will serve another two years.

Lafferty received national media attention in 2021 after suggesting on the House floor that the Three-Fifths Compromise, which declared in 1787 that three-fifths of a state’s enslaved people would count toward its population, was a move to end slavery. It was, in fact, made to accommodate Southern states that wanted enslaved people to count toward states' representation in Congress without providing rights to people held in bondage.

It's been roundly criticized as a stain on the Constitutional Convention, and Lafferty's speech was condemned by colleagues who viewed his comments as ignorant of and insensitive to the horrors of slavery.

"I was blessed today with a whole lot of people who came out, helped me at the polls," he said Tuesday night. "They didn't do it because we're paying huge sums of money. They do it because they're on board and like what we're doing in Nashville, and they like how I'm representing us in the 89th District."

With 99% of the ballots counted, Lafferty won with 66% of the vote.

Tennessee House District 90

Voters selected Democrat Gloria Johnson to lead the newly created 90th District, marking the start of her third consecutive term in the Tennessee House of Representatives and fourth term overall.

Johnson has been the representative of the 13th District since 2018. However, when Tennessee's GOP-led state Senate voted to combine Knoxville’s two Democratic-leaning state House districts, they carved her home out of the district she has been representing.

Johnson moved to the new district and plans to focus on fully funding public education, improving the Department of Children’s Services and working on issues related to women’s reproductive health.

“We’ve got to make some changes,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I don’t know if the appetite is there in the legislature, but the appetite is there in Tennessee, and they are putting women in danger, and we need to fix that.”

With 97% of the ballots counted, Johnson won with 58% of the vote.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee Senate and House election 2022 results: Meet the winners