Marsha Blackburn

Congressman Blackburn began her elected service career in 1998 as a Tennessee State Senator. Blackburn’s Senate career was marked by her commitment to fiscal common sense and government accountability. She became known to Tennesseans for holding “Budget Schools” both in her district and across the state; identifying waste, proposing realistic spending cuts, and offering solutions for a state in a budget crunch.

While serving in the Tennessee Senate, Blackburn led a statewide grassroots campaign to defeat a proposed state income tax. While defeating the tax, she earned the reputation as a champion of anti-tax and government accountability issues, taking to the airwaves to make the case that government wrongly believes it never gets enough of the taxpayer’s paycheck. She earned the attention of publications like the Wall Street Journal and groups such as Americans for Tax Reform. In November 2014, the people of Tennessee passed an amendment to the state constitution to ‘expressly prohibit a state income tax’ – what a fitting cap to a 14 year battle. Her long time goal of permanently restoring the ability to deduct state and local sales taxes Tennesseans pay each year from their federal income tax filing was realized with the passage of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015.

Blackburn’s reputation for focusing on freedom, free people and free markets boosted her from the Tennessee Senate to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. She continued the fight for accountable government, becoming a leader in Congress and a leading voice advocating for a small, efficient federal government that is accountable to its citizens. She became the first woman in the state to win a Congressional seat in her own right.

Congressman Blackburn is often selected by her colleagues to lead the charge for common sense reform. In February 2010 she was selected to represent conservative views on health care reform at the President’s Blair House Summit. In 2012, she co-chaired the platform for the Republican Convention. She has served as a Republican whip every Congress, holds a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee serving as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.