Republican Rep. Jason Zachary was projected to win reelection in Tennessee House District 14, fending off Democratic challenger Lindsay Young Honaker in a district that stretches across Farragut and West Knox County. With all precincts reporting, Zachary pulled in 17,097 votes, or 55.80 percent, to Honaker's 13,543 votes, or 44.20 percent.
WBIR reported a projection for Zachary. The outlet's count had all 102 precincts reporting, matching the full tally shown on Knox News's results page, which listed Honaker and Zachary as the district's two candidates alongside early-voting and absentee totals. Polls across Tennessee closed at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, setting off the overnight count.
A District Spanning Farragut and West Knox County
District 14 sits entirely within Knox County, covering what the Tennessee Lookout's voter guide describes as the southwest portion of the county. Compass, in its coverage of the 2024 race, described the same district as including Farragut and a swath of West Knox County. The area has leaned reliably Republican in recent cycles, and this year's result kept that pattern intact.
Honaker, the Democratic candidate, is a Knox County native who works on the project management team at Cellular Sales' corporate office.
Zachary's Record and a Contested Timeline
Zachary's tenure in the legislature has included at least one high-profile reversal. According to the Tennessee Lookout, he flipped his vote in 2019 to support Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher program after initially voting against it, a switch that gave the governor's signature initiative its win.
The 2019 vote was part of a narrow, city-focused pilot: Tennessee’s Education Savings Account law initially covered eligible students in Davidson and Shelby counties, leaving Knox County outside the program. Court challenges delayed the program’s start until 2022, when the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned lower-court rulings that had blocked it. The program later expanded to Hamilton County, and the state comptroller’s office now describes it as serving students in those three counties. The comptroller’s program evaluation traces that path from the original law through its expansion.
Zachary has held the seat since 2015, according to WBIR. Compass similarly reported he was first elected to District 14 in a special election that year after the previous occupant left midterm.
Zachary’s role in the legislature has since expanded beyond representing District 14: he is now deputy speaker of the Tennessee House. The position places him among the chamber’s leadership, alongside Speaker Cameron Sexton, while Zachary also serves on committees including Finance, Ways and Means, and Commerce. The House’s leadership roster lists him as deputy speaker, and his legislative profile identifies his committee assignments.
A History of Comfortable Margins
Whatever the exact start date, Zachary has built a consistent winning streak in the district. Compass's reporting on past cycles shows him taking 73 percent of the vote in 2016, 66 percent in 2018, 65 percent in 2020, and 64 percent in 2022.
The 2026 contest was substantially closer than Zachary’s previous general-election race. In 2024, he defeated Amanda Collins by 12,413 votes, winning about 64.8% of the vote; this time, his margin over Honaker was 3,554 votes, or 11.6 percentage points. The 2024 statewide results and Knox County’s 2026 tally show a narrower win, even as Zachary retained the seat.
His fundraising has typically dwarfed his opponents' as well. In the 2024 cycle, Compass reported Zachary brought in $35,796.06 in contributions, with all but $96.06 of it coming from political action committees or fellow Republican elected officials. That year's Democratic challenger, Amanda Collins, was making her second bid for the seat after losing to Zachary in 2022, and raised just $4,825, including $2,000 of her own money, per the same Compass report.
