User:NoltechProject22/1998 Tennessee State Senate 15th district election

The 1998 Tennessee Senate 15th district election was held on November 3, 1998 as part of that year's elections to the Tennessee Senate. The Democratic incumbent Tommy Burks, who had represented the seat since 1979 ran for re-election. Burks, a conservative Democrat was popular amongst his constituents, and was widely expected to easily win re-election over his Republican opponent, Putnam County Assessor Byron Looper. The dynamics of the race shifted completely when Burks was found dead in his pickup truck with a bullet wound to the head on October 19, only about two weeks before the election, and Looper was charged with his murder based off eyewitness testimony from a farmhand.

Tennessee state law prohibited deceased candidates from appearing on the ballot, and barred parties from naming replacement candidates within 30 days of the general election. This meant that Looper would be the only candidate to appear on the ballot. In a bid to prevent Looper from winning on a technicality, Burks' widow Charlotte was put forward as a write-in candidate, though she refused to campaign. With the support of prominent members of both major parties, Burks quickly built massive momentum against Looper, and ended up defeating him 93.09%-4.71% in the general election, receiving 30,252 votes to Looper's 1,531 and carrying every county in the district with over 85% of the vote. This made her the first person to be elected to the Tennessee Senate as a write-in candidate, and one of only a very small set of people to successfully be elected to any major office on a write-in ticket.