Heidi Kuhn wins District 8 Democratic Party primary

Heidi Kuhn will be the Democratic nominee for Tennessee Congressional District 8, beating out three opponents by a large margin. Kuhn, Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk since 2018, won the four-person contested race with about 59.31% of the vote as of 9:50 p.m. She will face Republican incumbent Da

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What is the story about?

Heidi Kuhn will be the Democratic nominee for Tennessee Congressional District 8, beating out three opponents by a large margin.

Kuhn, Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk since 2018, won the four-person contested race with about 59.31% of the vote as of 9:50 p.m.

She will face Republican incumbent David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, who ran unopposed for his party's primary and has held the seat since 2017.

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“I want to thank the voters of West TN for believing in me,” Kuhn said Aug. 6, noting she had only three months to pull together a campaign for the race.

Defeating incumbent Rep. David Kustoff will be difficult, she said, but she’s “up for the challenge.”

The two candidates

will face off over the newly redrawn District 8, which now stretches from East Memphis to Perry County, about halfway between Jackson and Nashville.

Heidi Kuhn, the outgoing Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk, announces her campaign for U.S. House District 8 next to a Walmart Supercenter and Murphy USA gas station in Cordova, Tenn., on June 4, 2026. Kuhn said the spot was chosen to emphasize her focus on lowering gas and grocery prices and raising the minimum wage.

Here are the voting results for District 8 as of 9:50 p.m., according to the Secretary of State Election results without all precincts reporting:

Heidi Kuhn: 19,200 votes, 59.31%
Dewey Gordon Bryan: 6,245 votes, 19.29%
Jordan Hinders: 2,920 votes, 9.02%
Leonard Perkins: 3,877 votes, 11.98%

Who is Heidi Kuhn and what are her major positions?

A longtime government employee, Kuhn spent 18 years working in Shelby County government, including time with the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. She has served as Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk since 2018, having been reelected in 2022.

Kuhn's campaign run was a short one, announced on June 4 just under a month after losing her Democratic primary bid for Shelby County mayor. As of August 4, she had also raised the least amount of money of any District 8 Democrat candidate, receiving $38,805 and spending $26,326. Conversely, she quickly received endorsements from Steve Cohen, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Former Congressman Harold Ford Sr., former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and former Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh.

Kuhn has focused her campaign and platform on improving affordability for the most essential purchases, and increasing the federal minimum wage, her top priority.

Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering Dining, Retail and Real Estate in the Memphis area. You can reach him at jacob.wilt@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Heidi Kuhn wins District 8 Democratic Party primary