Jeff Yarbro
Jeff Yarbro (Democratic Party) is a member of the Tennessee State Senate, representing District 21. He assumed office on November 4, 2014. His current term ends on November 3, 2026.
Yarbro (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Tennessee State Senate to represent District 21. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.
Yarbro served as state Senate minority leader from 2018 to January 10, 2023.[1]
Biography
Yarbro received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. His professional experience included working as an attorney in private practice focusing on consumer financial services, constitutional law, and government contracts.[2][3]
Committee assignments
2023-2024
Yarbro was assigned to the following committees:
- Finance, Ways and Means Committee
- Health and Welfare Committee
- Senate Rules Committee
- State & Local Government Committee
- Fiscal Review Committee
- Pensions and Insurance Committee
2021-2022
Yarbro was assigned to the following committees:
2019-2020
Yarbro was assigned to the following committees:
- TACIR Committee
- Health and Welfare Committee
- Finance, Ways and Means Committee
- State & Local Government Committee
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| Tennessee committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • State & Local Government |
| • Transportation and Safety |
| • TACIR |
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Yarbro served on the following committees:
| Tennessee committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Health and Welfare |
| • Transportation and Safety |
| • Rules |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2026
See also: Tennessee State Senate elections, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for Tennessee State Senate District 21
Incumbent Jeff Yarbro is running in the general election for Tennessee State Senate District 21 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Jeff Yarbro (D) | |
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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2023
See also: Mayoral election in Nashville, Tennessee (2023)
General runoff election
General runoff election for Mayor of Nashville
Freddie O'Connell defeated Alice Rolli in the general runoff election for Mayor of Nashville on September 14, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Freddie O'Connell (Nonpartisan) | 63.8 | 72,989 |
 | Alice Rolli (Nonpartisan) | 36.0 | 41,205 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 123 | ||
| Total votes: 114,317 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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General election
General election for Mayor of Nashville
The following candidates ran in the general election for Mayor of Nashville on August 3, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Freddie O'Connell (Nonpartisan) | 27.1 | 27,503 |
| ✔ | | Alice Rolli (Nonpartisan) | 20.2 | 20,472 |
 | Matthew Wiltshire (Nonpartisan) | 17.0 | 17,193 | |
| Jeff Yarbro (Nonpartisan) | 12.2 | 12,356 | |
 | Heidi Campbell (Nonpartisan) | 8.2 | 8,337 | |
 | Sharon Hurt (Nonpartisan) | 6.0 | 6,104 | |
 | Vivian Wilhoite (Nonpartisan) | 4.7 | 4,758 | |
 | Jim Gingrich (Nonpartisan) (Unofficially withdrew) | 1.6 | 1,668 | |
 | Natisha Brooks (Nonpartisan) | 1.4 | 1,458 | |
 | Stephanie Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 0.6 | 581 | |
| Fran Bush (Nonpartisan) | 0.5 | 503 | |
 | Bernie Cox (Nonpartisan) | 0.3 | 322 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 80 | ||
| Total votes: 101,335 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- William Domann (Nonpartisan)
- Michael Rowan (Nonpartisan)
- Wisdom Zerit Teklay (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Yarbro in this election.
2022
See also: Tennessee State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Tennessee State Senate District 21
Incumbent Jeff Yarbro defeated Rueben Dockery in the general election for Tennessee State Senate District 21 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jeff Yarbro (D) | 76.7 | 33,061 |
 | Rueben Dockery (Independent) | 23.3 | 10,038 | |
| Total votes: 43,099 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Tennessee State Senate District 21
Incumbent Jeff Yarbro advanced from the Democratic primary for Tennessee State Senate District 21 on August 4, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jeff Yarbro | 100.0 | 11,496 |
| Total votes: 11,496 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2018
See also: Tennessee State Senate elections, 2018
General election
General election for Tennessee State Senate District 21
Incumbent Jeff Yarbro won election in the general election for Tennessee State Senate District 21 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jeff Yarbro (D) | 100.0 | 55,905 |
| Total votes: 55,905 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Tennessee State Senate District 21
Incumbent Jeff Yarbro advanced from the Democratic primary for Tennessee State Senate District 21 on August 2, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jeff Yarbro | 100.0 | 19,402 |
| Total votes: 19,402 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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2014
- See also: Tennessee State Senate elections, 2014
Elections for 18 seats in the Tennessee State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on August 7, 2014. A general election took place on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was April 3, 2014. Mary Mancini was defeated by Jeff Yarbro in the Democratic primary. Diana Cuellar defeated Mwafaq Aljabbary and Quincy McKnight in the Republican primary. Yarbro defeated Cuellar in the general election.[4][5]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Jeff Yarbro |
66.6% | 25,402 | |
| Republican | Diana Cuellar | 33.4% | 12,714 | |
| Total Votes | 38,116 | |||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Jeff Yarbro |
56.7% | 6,830 |
| Mary Mancini | 43.3% | 5,217 |
| Total Votes | 12,047 | |
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Diana Cuellar |
61.3% | 2,960 |
| Quincy McKnight | 31.5% | 1,523 |
| Mwafaq Aljabbary | 7.2% | 346 |
| Total Votes | 4,829 | |
2010
- See also: Tennessee State Senate elections, 2010
Initial vote counts showed Douglas Henry narrowly defeating Yarbro, with the most recent vote count showing a 13-vote victory out of 11,285 total votes cast in the August 5 primary.[6] An official recount took place and Henry advanced to the general election.[7][8]
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
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2023
Jeff Yarbro did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Yarbro's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Education Right now, in Nashville, across Tennessee and around the whole country, we’re facing a teacher shortage. This makes sense when you look at what teachers are paid and the chronic underfunding of education, not to mention our affordable housing problem here in Nashville. So our next Mayor needs to be a full partner with the school system in recruiting and retaining our teacher corps — because you can’t invest in public education unless you’re investing in public educators. The Mayor also needs to take a good look at what we can do to help families before kids even get to school, and after they leave school, too. We need to focus on high-quality child care options and pre-K, and we need to look closely at how we can transition kids out of high school, into community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and technical and vocational schools — and into the workforce. GROWTH & INFRASTRUCTURE Buying a house that you can afford in the neighborhood you love shouldn’t feel like you’re winning the lottery. And dropping your kids off at school or driving to work shouldn’t feel like you’re navigating around road closures and dodging potholes constantly. But that’s what we’ve got right now. We need to take advantage of density where there’s demand and infrastructure for it so that we don’t have constant spread. We also need to have a laser-focus on what’s happening in people’s neighborhoods. Because where we run into problems with growth is when there’s no place for families to take a walk in their neighborhood, or no place to take their kids to play. We need to improve pedestrian infrastructure and small-scale infrastructure where people live their lives. And finally, we need to get real about our transit problems. We are one of the only major cities in the country that doesn’t have a built-out transit system, and we’re about 30 years behind on this. The most important thing when it comes to solving this problem is thinking in terms of decades — not four-year mayoral terms. We can’t come up with a new vision every time we elect a new Mayor. Instead, we need to think about the long term and start making incremental improvements to our systems — making them more reliable, more frequent, and easier to use — while we collaborate with the people around us to think about transit regionally, too. AFFORDABILITY & HOUSING Not only does pricing people out of our city clash with our values, it’s also an economic imperative for the city, from our tourism sector to almost any employer you’re talking to. We’ve got to be able to house more people in our city affordably if we want to have a thriving and inclusive Nashville. To do that, we have to start with preserving more housing and improving property tax freezes so we don’t lose the affordable housing we’ve got. We also need to better utilize the Barnes Funds and public properties to bring the private sector off the sidelines on this issue. And finally, we need to clean up and speed up our zoning, permitting, and code process to ensure that you can make money by building affordable housing — because if we’re not bringing the private sector into the solution, we’re not going to solve this problem in Nashville. CRIME & SAFETY Our next Mayor needs to work hand-in-glove with both the Chief of Police and the people who are out working in the field. And part of that is looking at the responsibilities we put on the police. Because we have a lot of police officers, we tend to ask them to do everything. But we need to have a real conversation about when there are other people who are better suited to step into a situation, like mental health services professionals. By focusing on and investing in wraparound services, we can allow our police officers to focus on the work they are trained and equipped to do. Nashville also needs to be much more intentional about having a trauma response strategy, especially for instances of significant violence. The tragedy at the Covenant School is a clear example of where more support on the trauma inflicted was needed, but it’s not just the obvious examples — if there’s a homicide on the street, we know from the data that kids’ test scores go down on that same street. There’s a broader effect of crime and violence, and we need to holistically respond to the trauma caused by lack of safety for our kids and families.[9][10] |
” |
2022
Jeff Yarbro did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2014
Yarbro's campaign website highlighted the following issues:[11]
Supporting Teachers & Improving Schools
- Excerpt: "Jeff will fight in the State Senate to support our teachers and expand pre-K to ensure our children start school ready to learn."
Expanding Access to Health Care
- Excerpt: "As your State Senator, Jeff will work to expand access to preventative care to reduce infant mortality rates, childhood obesity, and Type II diabetes."
Advocating for Nashville
- Excerpt: "Jeff will stand up for Nashville when the legislature tries to overturn Metro's laws, micromanage our city's transit planning, and spend our local tax dollars on vouchers for private schools."
- Excerpt: "Jeff will work to ensure that every resident has a part in Nashville's success through quality jobs and affordable living."
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Endorsements
2014
In 2014, Yarbro's endorsements included the following:[12]
- Hon. Phil Bredesen, Fmr. Governor of Tennessee
- Hon. Darren Jernigan, State Representative Dist. 60
- Hon. Sherry Jones, State Representative Dist. 59
- Hon. Jason Powell, State Representative Dist.53
- Hon. Mike Stewart, State Representative Dist.52
- Tennessee Education Association
- Stand for Children
- IAFF Local 140
- Fraternal Order of Police
- Nashville Building and Construction Trades Council
- The Tennessean[13]
Notable endorsements
This section displays endorsements this individual made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
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Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Tennessee scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Tennessee State Legislature was in session from January 10 to April 21.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the Tennessee State Legislature was in session from January 11 to April 28.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Tennessee State Legislature was in session from January 12 to May 5.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Tennessee State Legislature was in session from January 14 to June 19.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Tennessee General Assembly was in session January 8 through May 2.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the 110th Tennessee General Assembly, second session, was in session January 9 to April 27.
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2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the 110th Tennessee General Assembly, first session, was in session January 10 to May 10.
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2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the 109th Tennessee General Assembly, second year, was in session from January 12 through April 22
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2015
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2015, click [show]. |
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In 2015, the 109th Tennessee General Assembly, first year, was in session from January 13 through April 22.
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2014
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2014, click [show]. |
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In 2014, the 108th Tennessee General Assembly, second year, was in session from January 14 to April 18.
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See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Tennessean, "Akbari elected new Senate minority leader, Republicans keep current leadership in place," December 15, 2022
- ↑ Jeff Yarbro's campaign website (2023), "Meet Jeff," accessed June 30, 2023
- ↑ Tennessee General Assembly, "Jeff Yarbro," accessed June 30, 2023
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "August 7, 2014 Election Results," accessed September 11, 2014
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "Petitions Filed for State Senate and State House of Representatives," accessed April 5, 2014
- ↑ Unofficial Democratic state senate primary results from the TN Secretary of State, 2010
- ↑ "Yarbro to ask for recount in bid to unseat Sen. Henry" Nashville Public Radio
- ↑ List of 2010 candidates for Tennessee State Senate
- ↑ Jeff Yarbro campaign website, "Issues," accessed June 30, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Jeff Yarbro for State Senate, "Priorities," accessed July 17, 2014
- ↑ Jeff Yarbro for State Senate, "Endorsements," accessed July 17, 2014
- ↑ tennessean.com, "Yarbro will be a bridge-builder," August 2, 2014
- ↑ Tennessee Bar Association, "Nashville Chamber Releases 2015 Legislative Scorecard," accessed November 10, 2015
- ↑ Tennessee Bar Association, "Nashville Chamber Releases 2015 Legislative Scorecard," accessed November 10, 2015
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Douglas Henry (D) |
Tennessee State Senate District 21 2014-Present |
Succeeded by - |
