Memphis Is Voting for Two School Board Seats. The Winners' Power Is Not Yet Settled.

Update, August 7, 2026: The election is over. See Two New School Board Members Won Seats Whose Authority a Federal Court Has Suspended.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Early voting is underway in the election for two seats on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, even as a federal court fight over the state''s takeover of the district leaves the elected board''s future authority unresolved.

Voters will decide the District 6 and District 8 seats in the August 6 general election. In District 6, Democratic nominee T.L. Harris faces independent candidate Frederick Tappan. In District 8, Democratic nominee Tanya Frey faces independent candidate Leigh Ann Scarbrough. No Republicans qualified for either race. Two other seats, Districts 1 and 9, were settled in the May 5 primary, when incumbents Michelle McKissack and Joyce Dorse Coleman held their seats. The two winners in August will join a board that oversees the education of more than 110,000 children, with each of the nine members representing a specific region of the district.

Early voting runs from July 17 through August 1, and any registered Shelby County voter can cast an early ballot at any early voting location in the county. Election Day is August 6. The two new members are set to take office on September 1.

What those members will actually be able to do is the open question. This spring, the Tennessee legislature passed a law, Public Chapter 1057, creating a state-appointed oversight board with authority over key district decisions, including approval of the budget and school closures. That oversight board took control on July 1. The same day, U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. granted a temporary restraining order freezing the takeover and directing the state and the district to maintain the arrangement that existed before the law took effect, after the elected board and Shelby County officials sued to stop it. As of mid-July, that block remained in place and the state had filed a request to lift it, with no hearing date set to decide the matter.

The result is an election held in legal limbo. Voters are choosing board members whose powers could range from the full authority the elected board has traditionally held to a reduced role under a state oversight board, depending on how the federal court rules. The uncertainty does not change the mechanics of voting, but it does change the stakes.

Why It Matters for Memphis

School board members set policy for a district that educates more than 110,000 children and spends more than a billion dollars a year in public money. These two seats are a direct lever residents hold over that spending and those decisions. The added wrinkle this year is that the winners could take office into a governance structure that is still being decided in court. Voters are entitled to know both how to cast a complete ballot and why the outcome of the takeover case will shape what their vote actually buys.

The Oversight Question

What is a school board seat worth when its powers are unsettled? The answer depends on a federal judge, not on the voters, which is an unusual position for an election to occupy. The receipt worth keeping is simple: a complete ballot cast in these races, and a clear public accounting, once the court rules, of exactly how much authority the people Memphis just elected will hold.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.