Cameron Sexton

Cameron A. Sexton (born November 11, 1970) is an American politician from Tennessee.

Cameron A. Sexton was born on November 11, 1970, in Tennessee.

His father, Dwight Sexton, was a high school chemistry and biology teacher, and his mother, Jane Sexton, was a teacher at Blue Grass Elementary School in Knoxville.

The bust, installed at the state Capitol in 1978, had faced calls for its removal, because Forrest was a Confederate general who founded the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War.

However, a majority of the Building Commission voted to remove the Forrest bust, as well as those of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and Admiral Albert Gleaves.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee, Sexton was a key architect of a special session of the legislature to pass bills banning municipalities within Tennessee from establishing face mask or COVID-19 vaccine requirements; the legislation specifically targeted Metro Nashville government's authority.

Sexton also opposed the federal OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate for companies with 100 or more employees.

Sexton attended public schools in Knox County before graduating from Oak Ridge High School in 1989.

He then attended the University of Tennessee, graduating in 1994.

After graduating from college, Sexton worked on the 1994 State Senate campaign of Randy McNally.

He had jobs in banking and marketing until 2008.

In 2008, he unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Crossville, Tennessee, losing by 60 votes.

Sexton was also a community liaison for U.S. Representative Van Hilleary.

Sexton was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2010.

He was elected as House Majority Whip for the 108th General Assembly, and served as the Majority Caucus Chairman for the 111th General Assembly.

Sexton was House Health Committee Chairman during the 109th and 110th General Assemblies.

A Republican, he has been a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 25th District since 2011, and has been the Speaker of the state House since 2019.

Before becoming Speaker, Sexton was Majority Caucus Chairman.

In 2016, former Speaker Beth Harwell appointed him to serve as chairman of a healthcare taskforce.

As Health Committee Chairman and later as Speaker, Sexton has opposed accepting federal Medicaid expansion funds to provide health insurance to uninsured Tennesseans.

Sexton instead supported seeking a waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to allow the state to get Medicaid funding in the form of a block grant, which would give state lawmakers more power to determine eligibility.

The state legislature passed, and Governor Bill Lee signed, legislation to authorize the program in January 2021, days before the end of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration.

In 2022, Sexton introduced legislation to regulate pharmacy benefit managers; he described the legislation as necessary to protect independent pharmacies.

In 2022, Sexton called for a new facility to replace Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, a state psychiatric hospital, as part of a larger effort to overhaul Tennessee's mental healthcare system.

Sexton became Speaker of the House in August 2019, replacing Speaker Glen Casada, who was ousted amid a scandal.

The previous month, Sexton was nominated by House Republicans as speaker after multiple rounds of voting, defeating Ryan Williams, Jay Reedy, Curtis Johnson, Mike Carter, and Matthew Hill in the internal party election.

He was reelected in 2021 and 2023, with the unanimous support of state House Republicans.

In 2019, President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing state governors to block refugee resettlement in their states under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Sexton, along with Lieutenant Governor McNally supported halting refugee resettlement in Tennessee, a position at odds with Governor Bill Lee.

In 2021, Sexton and McNally created a Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues that consisted of 10 Republican state senators and state representatives.

In a special legislative session in 2021, Sexton introduced legislation to make school board elections statewide partisan, rather than nonpartisan.

The initial legislation would have required all school board elections statewide to be partisan; after the legislation encountered objections, it was amended to allow local parties to call for partisan school board elections.

In 2020, Sexton and other Republicans in the state legislature introduced legislation to substantially increase criminal penalties for unauthorized camping on state-owned land and for writing graffiti on state property (increasing both offenses from misdemeanor to felonies).

The bill's sponsors introduced the measure in response to the George Floyd protests.

In 2022, Sexton, along with Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, cosponsored truth in sentencing legislation, which was enacted with the support of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

The legislation requires offenders to serve the full prison sentence (i.e., no parole) for certain crimes (such as attempted murder and burglary).

In 2020, Sexton opposed proposals to amend Tennessee law to legalize medical marijuana.

In 2023, Sexton said he was open to allowing "medical marijuana in the right forms" but continued to oppose legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, which he deemed a "terrible idea."

As Speaker, Sexton is a member of the State Building Commission, which governs the Tennessee State Capitol grounds.

In 2021, Sexton voted against the removal of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Bust from the Tennessee State Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum.