(The Center Students) – Tennessee students picked former president Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn as their favorites in the 2024 Student Mock Election, Secretary of State Tre Hargett said Friday.
Trump received 65% of the 43,744 votes cast by pre-K through 12th-grade students from 168 public, private or home school associations. Vice President Kamala Harris received 35%, according to a release.
The former president also won the 2020 election with 52.3% to President Joe Biden’s 32.7%. Just over 37,000 students from 264 schools cast their ballot four years ago.
Blackburn won 63.4% of ballots cast, while state Rep. Gloria Johnson received 36.6%. Just over 37,000 students from 156 schools cast their ballots in that vote, according to Hargett’s office.
“Through their participation, these future leaders experienced how registered Tennessee voters select their elected officials,” said Hargett, who started the mock elections in 2016. “We are excited about the enthusiasm we saw from this year’s participants, and we hope this experience has inspired them to become future voters.”
Early voting for Tuesday’s general election ended Thursday, with 2,214,870 Tennesseans casting their ballots, which is 45.88% of registered voters, according to the secretary of state’s website.
The turnout is nearly 3% less than in 2020, when a majority of Tennessee voters cast their early ballots by absentee due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early voting totals are 32.2% higher than 2016, according to the website.
Each county decides when polls will open on Tuesday. View a list here. All polls in Tennessee close at 8 p.m. Eastern.
