Marsha Blackburn

Marsha Blackburn, 2019

Marsha Blackburn Wedgeworth (* 6. June 1952 in Laurel , Jones County , Mississippi ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . She has been a member of the US Senate for Tennessee since 2019, alongside Lamar Alexander . She was a member of the US House of Representatives from 2003 to 2019 .

Career

Marsha Blackburn attended Northeast Jones High School and then studied at Mississippi State University until 1973 . She then ran a marketing company in Williamson County , Tennessee. There she began her political career as a member of the Republican Party in 1977 . At that time she founded the party's regional youth organization. Between 1989 and 1991 she was party leader in that district. In 1992 she ran unsuccessfully for Congress . She served in the Tennessee Senate from 1998 to 2002 .

In the 2002 election , Blackburn was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the 7th Congressional constituency of Tennessee , where she succeeded Ed Bryant on January 3, 2003 . She was re-elected in all subsequent elections; her current mandate runs until January 3, 2019. In Congress, she is a member of the Committee on Energy and Trade and chairs the Subcommittee on Communication and Technology .

In early October 2017, Blackburn announced that after US Senator Bob Corker's announcement that he would not run again, he was running for the 2018 Senate election . She is considered a favorite, especially since the state governor Bill Haslam announced after a brief consideration that he would not run in the Republican primary . It has the support of the state leadership and President Donald Trump, and won the Republican primary with 84.5 percent of the vote. In the main election in November, she will meet the former Governor Phil Bredesen of the Democrats. The polls paint an unclear picture. Political scientist John Geer saw Bredesen in the lead in August 2018, among other things because the over 100,000 votes for Blackburn's unknown primary opponents show, in his view, that the Republican base is not united behind Blackburn. Blackburn took a poll lead after Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh's Senate hearing in early October, as the Republican party base was motivated and nationwide issues came to the fore.

Positions

Blackburn is a staunch opponent of President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare reform Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . As a member of the Republican Study Committee , she belongs to the conservative wing within her party . She supported Donald Trump's presidential election campaign in 2015/16 early on and was part of the transition team for the presidency after his election victory .

Private

Marsha Blackburn is married with two children. The couple live privately in Brentwood , a suburb of Nashville.

Web links

Commons : Marsha Blackburn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Web presence at the congress
• Marsha Blackburn in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Simone Pathé: Marsha Blackburn Running for Senate in Tennessee. In: Roll Call , October 5, 2017 (English).
2. ^ Dan Merica: Tennessee set for Senate battle, Pence-backed candidate loses governor's primary. In: CNN.com , August 3, 2018
3. ^ Dave Boucher: The 5 most important takeaways from Tennessee's primary election. In: The Tennessean , August 3, 2018.
4. ↑ Jennifer De Pinto, Kabir Khanna, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus: Senate races: GOP up in Texas, Tennessee; Dems up in Arizona, New Jersey - CBS News poll. In: CBS News , October 7, 2018.