In the only competitive Republican primary for the state House, incumbent Tennessee state Rep. Michele Reneau of Hixson and challenger Tony Hullender of Signal Mountain will appear on the Aug. 6 ballot for Tennessee District 27.
In 2024, Reneau won the district, which represents part of Hamilton County stretching from Lookout Valley to Flat Top Mountain, in a razor-thin primary, unseating five-term state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, by fewer than 150 votes.
Two years later, district voters have another competitive primary face-off after Hullender, a Signal Mountain resident and former lawyer for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, stepped up to challenge Reneau.
Hullender has defended himself against the label of RINO, Republican in name only, and considers himself of the era of the 40th U.S. president, Ronald Reagan. Hullender has said he believes in limited government, limited taxes and strong security. He said he would focus on the cost of healthcare, daycare and caring for older people.
Reneau won her campaign through grassroots efforts and has focused on championing Make America Healthy Again objectives, the phrase coined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to describe his agenda for the country. Reneau considers herself a constitutional conservative and said she wants to continue to push for MAHA-aligned policies and stand on principles.
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Hullender has spent over three times the amount of campaign money as Reneau from April to June, according to financial disclosures. Reneau has over six times the amount of cash on hand as Hullender, of which most of it is an unpaid loan from himself.
However, the two have received nearly the same amount of individual campaign contributions in the three-month period. Hullender has received almost $31,000, while Reneau received just over $35,100.
CAMPAIGN MONEY
— Tony Hullender
$26,500 on hand, including a $20,000 unpaid loan from himself as of June
— Rep. Michele Reneau, R-Hixson
$160,000 on hand as of June
Source: Tennessee Online Campaign Finance
HULLENDER
Hullender said his deep roots in the Hamilton County community and professional work history will make him a good representative.
“I wouldn’t be laser-focused on certain things, because I have a broad range of experience,” Hullender said at a candidate forum meeting with Reneau last month. “I think, as a representative, it’s your obligation to find out what your constituents’ priorities are, and that should be your priorities.”
Hullender said bills like Reneau’s “chicken pot pie bill,” which deregulated state food laws to expand the sale of homemade goods in Tennessee, are not what he thinks constituents are concerned about.
“I don’t think it’s the chicken pot pie, though. I think it’s bigger issues, like the affordability of healthcare, the affordability of daycare,” Hullender said. “I know a lot of people like MAHA. I like components of it, but when I’m out in the community, knocking on doors, talking to people, or at small events, nobody mentions that. They mentioned these bigger issues. They mentioned roads maintenance and construction of new roads, more than they do something like that, something like baked goods, making it easier to sell baked goods from your home.”
Hullender has highlighted healthcare as a focus. He said his experience as an attorney for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, where he served as general counsel, and his work afterward in the Medicaid fraud division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, give him a unique ability to legislate on healthcare issues.
RENEAU
Reneau has passed eight bills in her first term that target issues from data centers and service dogs to farming. She said she wants to continue protecting taxpayers, supporting parents and defending constitutional rights.
A handful of the successful bills Reneau passed align with the MAHA agenda she vowed to push. Some of the new MAHA laws, like the ones that target limiting artificial dyes in schools and cell phone use, were passed largely on bipartisan lines.
“Most of the time, what all you see is the final vote on the board, but what you don’t see is the work that goes behind it. And as a freshman legislator, I really felt like I dug in, that I really work on building relationships,” Reneau said at the same candidate forum last month. “I spent a lot of time with committee members beforehand. I really worked to understand the fiscal notes and what we could do to change those. That helped in leading how we work on amendments in order to make the bills passable.”
(READ MORE: What to know about Hamilton County’s August 2026 election)
Reneau said she aims to continue pushing for tax reform. She sponsored a host of tax reform bills this past session, including taking unrealized property gains off property tax payments. She said they didn’t pass, but that she believes progress is being made and she will continue to work on the issue.
This month, Reneau helped organize a meeting hosted in Red Bank with citizens concerned about property tax increases.
“Good ideas take time, and I would like to be part of continuing that work. I’m not perfect, but you won’t find someone who works harder than I will,” Reneau said. “I’m definitely somebody who reads the bills, who asks a lot of questions, who will listen. But I’ve kept my word. I’ve stood on principle, done the quiet work behind the scenes. I want to make policy better.”
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: Representatives introduce bills and resolutions, offer amendments, serve on committees, vote on legislation and perform constituent services.
Area represented: Fairmount, Falling Water, Flat Top Mountain, Hixson, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Valley, Lupton City, Mountain Creek, Mowbray Mountain, North Chattanooga, North Shore, Northwoods, Pleasant Grove, Possum Creek, Red Bank, Sale Creek, Sequoyah, Signal Mountain, Soddy-Daisy, St. Elmo, Stuart Heights, Walden. Total population of 75,400.
Staff: Each representative has one staffer, two if the representative is a committee chair
Salary: $33,060
Health benefits: Yes
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
How would you approach the issue of AI data centers?
“I think that data centers, and I’m not an expert on data centers for AI, but from what I’m reading, they’re going to be a necessity. We’re going to have to have data centers, but there still needs to be a lot of work done to make sure they’re not a problem in terms of the water they use, the electricity they use and the noise that they make. I think until we figure out some regulations — and there are people working on that — there needs to be a pause on that.”
— Tony Hullender
“We do need to be cautious about them. I did cosponsor legislation that we passed last year regarding data centers’ duty to provide for their own infrastructure, and I carried legislation that didn’t quite move forward regarding this water issue. I did study it quite a bit in depth. It is a significant issue that many people have brought concerns about, because it is something, this is the new arms race — artificial intelligence and data centers are a part of that. I do believe we need to make sure that whatever we do, we need to be cautious about making sure that our resources, like water, electricity and even the noise pollution issue, does not affect residents.”
— Michele Reneau
Contact politics reporter Ruby Rayner at rrayner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.