Marsha Blackburn is an established, conservative, results-oriented legislator who solves problems. She was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives at the start of the 108th Congress where she was one of only a few newly-elected congressmen selected to serve as an assistant whip on the majority whip team and the first female in Tennessee elected in her own right to the US House.
Blackburn was elected State Senator in 1998, becoming the first woman to represent Tennessee's 23rd Senate District. While in the Tennessee Senate, Blackburn led a statewide grassroots campaign to defeat the proposed state income tax. Her frequent appearances on talk radio and positive mention in national publications like the Wall Street Journal made her a recognized national anti-tax and government reform advocate. She quickly earned a reputation for keeping her legislative focus on defending and expanding individual freedom and free enterprise.
Blackburn willingly accepts the responsibility of helping shape American fiscal policy as a member of the exclusive House Energy & Commerce Committee. For 208 years, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest legislative standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, has served as the principal guide for the House in matters relating to the promotion of commerce and to the public’s health and marketplace interests.
Representing both a portion of metropolitan Nashville and the suburbs of Memphis, Blackburn has strong ties with some of the nation’s premier songwriters and performers. In 2003, Blackburn founded the Congressional Songwriters Caucus to give the nation’s creative community access to Capitol Hill. The caucus focuses on the protection of intellectual property and tax policy.
Blackburn was selected to serve as an Assistant Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and an Assistant Minority Whip for the 109th Congress. Whip Roy Blunt has recently selected Congressman Blackburn to serve as a Deputy Whip for the 110th Congress .
She has been named the Communications Chairman for the Republican Study Committee, a large group of fiscally conservative Republicans that make up a majority of Republicans in Congress . Blackburn was also named by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) as the Communications Chairman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which recruits and supports Republican candidates for the United States Congress .
A graduate of Mississippi State University and a small business owner, Blackburn has been actively involved in Tennessee grassroots politics and civic organizations for more than 25 years. Blackburn was born on June 6, 1952. Marsha and Chuck Blackburn have been married for thirty-two years. They have two children, Mary Morgan Ketchel, and Chad Blackburn; and one grandson, Jack Ketchel.
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