Dr. Jesse Cannon, a Republican and Naifeh's personal physician, announced that he would oppose Naifeh in 2004. Dr. Cannon counted heavily on support from outside the immediate region and was fairly successful raising campaign funds among affluent Republicans in the Nashville area. In an interesting dynamic to the race, the only other county in the district, added in the most recent redistricting, Haywood County, is Tennessee's only black-majority county. However, on November 2, 2004, Naifeh defeated Cannon by a margin of approximately 58% to 42%. Challenges to speakership The Democratic majority in the Tennessee House was narrowed to 53-46 by the overall statewide outcome of this election. Shortly after the election some pundits suggested scenarios in which another Democrat considered to be less partisan, such as Frank Buck of Dowelltown in Middle Tennessee, could have been elected Speaker if he could get the unanimous support of the Republican minority and the help of a few dissident Democrats from the eastern two-thirds of the state. From 1973 until January 2007, when state senator John S. Wilder was defeated in his reelection bid for the speakership of the state senate, both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly had been led by West Tennesseans. However, Republicans could not agree on a replacement, and when the issue came to a vote (Buck declined to be nominated), nine Republicans joined with all of the Democrats to reelect Naifeh. These Republican members were warned of the possibility, even the probability, of facing officially-party-endorsed opponents in the August 2006 primary election, should they choose to stand for another term. Republican majority in 2008 In the 2008 November elections Republicans won the majority of the state House, winning 50 of the 99 seats, with the Democrats holding 49. This is the first time the GOP has had a majority in the Tennessee House since 1971, and the first time both House and Senate have had Republican majorities since Reconstruction. This ended Naifeh's long term as Speaker, but the Republicans' narrow majority in the House did not allow them to elect their preferred Speaker. While 49 Republicans voted for Jason Mumpower, the 49 Democrats and Republican Representative Kent Williams voted for Williams to succeed Naifeh as Speaker. Naifeh, who was chairing the House for the last time, helped to engineer Williams' election by instructing the House clerk to depart from the normal practice of conducting a roll call of