Tim BurchettRepublican · incumbent
Knoxville · Campaign website
Facts
- U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 2nd District since January 2019.[22] [23]
- Knox County Mayor, 2010–2018.[22] [23]
- Tennessee House of Representatives, 1994–1998, and Tennessee Senate, 1998–2010.[22] [23]
- Serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform, Foreign Affairs, and Transportation and Infrastructure committees; chairman of the Oversight subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.[22]
- Bachelor's degree in education from the University of Tennessee.[24]
- Previously ran a small business converting grass waste into mulch and compost.[22] [24]
Why they're running
He says he ran for Congress because he was fed up with the status quo in Washington. He says he wants to keep fighting for East Tennessee's families, factory workers, and small business owners as the divide grows between Washington politicians and their constituents.[24]
Platform
- Economy & jobs
- Remove burdensome federal regulations that discourage investment and job creation.[1]
- Taxes & spending
- Oppose tax increases, support a Balanced Budget Amendment, and cut wasteful spending.[5] [6]
- Immigration
- Complete the border wall and deport anyone who enters the country illegally, while welcoming immigrants who come legally.[13]
- Firearms
- Protect the constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.[15] [16]
- Abortion
- Protect unborn life and keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.[17]
- Government & elections
- Ban members of Congress and their immediate families from owning or trading individual stocks (his End Congressional Stock Trading Act), and support congressional term limits.[18] [19]
- Military & veterans
- Fight for veterans and make sure they receive recognition and respect for their service.[21]
Arguments
Arguments for
- Decades of service in the state legislature, as county mayor, and in Congress have given him a long record of accomplishments for his community.[22] [25]
- He votes his conscience and has broken with his own party's leadership, including voting to remove the House speaker in 2023 and initially opposing a 2025 spending bill over deficit concerns.[26]
- Having run his own small business, he knows firsthand how government regulations and red tape burden small businesses.[24]
- As county mayor he blocked one of the largest property tax increases in county history, never raised taxes over eight years, and cut county debt by $45 million.[5] [22] [24]
- He is leading the push to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks, with steep fines for violators, so lawmakers serve the public rather than their own portfolios.[18]
Arguments against
- He has not held an in-person town hall since 2020, declined to attend a 2025 constituent town hall in Knoxville, and did not debate his challengers in 2020, 2022, or 2024.[12] [27]
- He voted for the 2025 tax-and-spending law, which added trillions to the national debt, gave nearly half of its tax cuts to the wealthiest 5 percent, and paid for them by cutting Medicaid and food assistance, raising health costs, ending coverage for more than 29,000 East Tennesseans, and cutting funding for rural hospitals.[11] [12]
- He voted to block states from regulating artificial intelligence and data centers for 10 years, limiting local control over water, land, and electricity.[12]
- He voted against federal investments in the district's energy, industry, and transportation that would have lowered energy costs and created jobs, and he voted against capping insulin prices.[12]
- He voted to extend the war in Iran, which has driven up gas, diesel, and grocery prices for East Tennessee households.[12]
- After more than three decades in elected office and seven years in Congress, none of the bills he has introduced in Congress has itself become law.[12] [28] [29]