U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, will serve an eighth term representing Southeast Tennessee in Congress, according to a race call by The Associated Press.
His district consists of 10 counties, including Hamilton, Bradley and McMinn. Fleischmann defeated Democrat Jack Allen, a retired bank president, at the polls.
“I’m very thankful,” Fleischmann said in an interview. “We knew we were going to do well, but we did exceedingly well. It may be our best night ever.”
Fleischmann said he is excited to maintain his role as a senior appropriator.
“I’m in that coveted role that I worked so hard to achieve,” Fleischmann said in an interview. “I want to stay there and continue to get the right policies done and to fund the key initiatives that keep our country moving forward.”
(READ MORE: U.S. House Democratic nominee Jack Allen wants to close divisions between people)
Fleischmann has served on the Appropriations Committee and on subcommittees focused on labor, health, education and defense. He has chaired a subcommittee focused on energy and water projects. Fleischmann has also served on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and as a member of its energy subcommittee.
The congressman is best known for his work to fund the lock at Chickamauga Dam and his supervision of the Oak Ridge Reservation. He is referred to as a “cardinal” due to the budgetary power he’s held as one of the dozen appropriations subcommittee chairs.
Fleischmann raised 10 times more than Allen, with about $1.8 million in contributions, and spent $580,000. Allen spent nearly all of the $182,000 he raised as of the most recent reporting deadline. The position pays a salary of $174,000.
“I think we made a lot of progress, particularly for the Democratic Party,” Allen said in an interview. “We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re going to do it.”
ABOUT FLEISCHMANN
Fleischmann, 62, was born in New York and moved often as a child. By the time he graduated high school, he had lived in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Fleischmann was a first-generation college graduate and received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois. He then attended the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he met his wife, Brenda. The two moved to Chattanooga after graduation and opened a law firm downtown.
In November 2010, Fleischmann was elected to serve his first term in the U.S. House and has held the seat since.
(READ MORE: Fleischmann says excessive regulation, taxes put opportunities at risk)
POLICIES
Fleischmann has said the main issues for those living in his district are inflation, jobs, foreign policy and socially conservative values. He has said excessive regulation and excessive taxation are the reasons why the opportunities he pursued when he was younger are at risk today and that he ran for Congress to preserve for others the same opportunities he had.
Fleischmann has said he was happy that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision was overturned in 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion. He touts a voting record opposing abortion at the federal level, and has said he is comfortable with abortion decisions being made at the state level.
As an appropriator, Fleischmann works to fund the Department of Education. Former president Donald Trump has called for the department to be abolished and the responsibility for education to rest with the states. But Fleischmann has said he does not think the department should be abolished but that it should undergo reforms to give state and local governments more say in how they spend federal funding.
Fleischmann does not own a gun. He has said he does not think Congress should ban assault weapons and that a sick mind, and not a weapon, is the problem when it comes to gun violence.
Fleischmann will begin his eighth term in the first week of January when the 119th U.S. Congress commences.
OPPONENT
Allen, 73, grew up in LaFayette, Georgia, and has a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting from Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia. He worked at Citizens National Bank of Athens for 38 years, starting his career as an accountant and ending as bank president. He and his wife, Connie, raised their daughter, Betsy, in Athens.
(READ MORE: U.S. House Democratic nominee Jack Allen wants to close divisions between people)
Connie Allen died in 2014 from ovarian cancer. After her death, Jack Allen became the first male lobbyist for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
Allen has a bank consulting firm called Shared Resource Management. It is still in business but has been in inactive status while Allen ran for Congress.
Allen said he wanted to work across the aisle to pass border legislation and use his accounting background to help small businesses and attack the national debt. He has said he doesn’t think an accountant like himself should decide what women do in the examination room but thinks there should be national leadership on abortion legislation, and he planned to work with doctors to address the issue. Allen is a gun owner, but he has said he doesn’t see the need for people to have assault weapons and wanted to incrementally approach gun control. He has said he doesn’t think the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished but thinks it should be fine-tuned.
Staff writer David Floyd contributed to this report.
Contact Sarah Dolgin at sdolgin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.