Editing Percy Priest (section)

== Congress ==
In 1940, Priest was encouraged to run for the United States House of Representatives as an [[independent (politics)|independent]] in [[Tennessee's 5th congressional district]], which is based in Nashville. He won in an upset, running as an [[Independent (politics)|Independent]],
defeating the incumbent, one-term [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] Congressman [[Joseph W. Byrns Jr.|Jo Byrns Jr.]]  Upon swearing-in, he immediately joined the Democratic [[caucus]], and was reelected seven times. The district was renumbered the 6th District in 1943 and became the 5th once again in 1953. He served as the [[House majority whip]] between 1949 and 1953. Priest was one of three Democrats in the Tennessee House delegation who did not sign the 1956 [[Southern Manifesto]], the others being [[Joe L. Evins|Joe Evins]] and [[Ross Bass]].

At the time of his death, Priest was serving as the chairman of the [[United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce|House Commerce Committee]] and had already secured the Democratic nomination for a ninth term, which had essentially assured him of reelection since no [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] has been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Nashville since [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}