Tennessee has a lot of Democrats. I don’t get it either but knew some people from there and their families and friends were all Dems. Anecdotal but just sayin’
University towns are demcrats. My Mother sister and her husband are Dem, they were Professor in UT.
We moved to East Tennessee because it is predominately Republican. It really has a fascinating history. Even during the Civil War, when the rest of the south were steadfast Democrats, and then even after, this area was solid Republican. They got attacked a lot during the war by their neighbors for it. But didn’t change. We kind of thought if they could make it through that they wouldn’t be changing these days either.