It's official. Beth Harwell Is Running for Congress.

From the Beth Harwell for Congress website:

ABOUT BETH HARWELL

Beth has called Tennessee home since moving to Nashville to attend Lipscomb University for college. Following graduation, she moved on to Vanderbilt University for her PhD. Beth currently serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. After having fallen in love with Nashville and her husband, Sam, Beth started her own family, raising three children: Allie, Sam, and Tucker.

She began as an assistant professor of political science at Belmont University in 1986, but because of her love for service and her community, Beth made the decision to run for the 56th legislative district. While she lost her first run, she came back again two years later to win the seat.

In her time as the State Representative of the 56th District, Beth worked her way up from the Chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee to House Republican Caucus Whip, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House in Tennessee and the entire Southeast.

Under her leadership, Tennessee cut more taxes in her eight-year tenure than any other time in Tennessee history including the eliminating the Hall Income Tax, repealing the Death Tax, and reducing the state sales tax on food. She also led the fight to reform the state pension program which brought Tennessee into the Top 5 states to fund state pensions.

Beth has impacted Tennessee’s education system in numerous ways, always maintaining a legislative focus on innovative education policy. In 2009, she passed landmark education reform legislation by making charter schools accessible to families all over the state. In addition, she pushed passage of legislation to direct additional funds for improvement of training for daycare workers.

In 2019, Beth was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which covers Tennessee and surrounding states, it is a federally owned electric utility corporation.

Beth served as chair of the state Republican Party from 2001 to 2004. During that time, she was instrumental in the Republicans taking control of the State Senate for the first time in 105 years.

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