classic Yellow Dog Democrat district. The area's Democrats were nowhere near as liberal as their counterparts in Nashville and Memphis, and the area's voters were willing to split their tickets in national elections from the 1960s onward. However, the GOP was almost nonexistent at the state and local level, with Republicans only fielding "sacrificial lamb" candidates on the few times they fielded candidates at all. However, Republicans gradually began eroding the Democratic advantage at the turn of the century. It was swept up in the statewide Republican wave of 2008, with Republicans capturing most of the district's seats in the Tennessee General Assembly. This culminated in 2011, when Republican businessman Stephen Fincher defeated Democratic state senator Roy Herron in a landslide, taking 58 percent of the vote to Herron's 39 percent. It marked the first time since Reconstruction that a Republican had represented northwest Tennessee. Since then, no Democrat has managed even 40 percent of the vote. Following the 2010 census, the district lost its remaining territory in Middle Tennessee, meaning it was entirely within West Tennessee for the first time since 1968. In the same census, it picked up the 7th's share of Shelby County, meaning that since 2012, any area of Shelby County that is not in the 9th is in the 8th. The 8th also absorbed all of Fayette County. The eastern Memphis suburbs, particularly eastern Shelby County, are the most Republican areas of the state outside of East Tennessee. Their addition gave the 8th a character similar to the 7th; it is now the most Republican district in the state outside East Tennessee and one of the most Republican districts in the South. In 2016, Fincher retired and was succeeded by Republican David Kustoff, a Germantown resident and former United States Attorney. List of members representing the district Historical district boundaries See also Tennessee's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts References Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present 08