 During much of the 20th century, southeastern Tennessee was the only portion of heavily Republican East Tennessee where Democrats were able to compete on a more-or-less even basis.The Chattanooga papers—the moderate-to-progressive "Times" and the archconservative "Free Press" (now consolidated into the Chattanooga Times Free Press)--printed diametrically-opposed political editorials.The northern counties have predominantly voted Republican since the 1860s, in a manner similar to their neighbors in the present 1st and 2nd districts.