NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, a driving force in the Republican boom in Tennessee, is taking a final victory lap before retiring from politics.
The Blountville auctioneer was scheduled to be honored at the state GOP’s annual Statesmen’s Dinner in Nashville on Friday evening, an event that has grown along with the fortunes of Republicans in Tennessee politics.
Having presided over vast Republican gains in the Tennessee General Assembly that took the GOP from an afterthought to near complete control, Speaker Ramsey, who served two terms in the state House before being elected to the Senate in 1996, announced earlier this year that he would not seek another term.
“There’s not a lot more to accomplish,” Ramsey told The Associated Press in an interview in his legislative office this week. “On top of the fact that I have five grandkids, it made that decision not that hard, honestly.”
Along with the Democrats’ paltry five seats in the Senate, they hold only 26 of 99 seats in the House. And they haven’t fielded a competitive non-incumbent in a statewide race since former U.S. Rep Harold Ford Jr. narrowly lost a U.S. Senate race to former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker in 2006.