Andy Berke

He joined his family law practice, Berke, Berke, and Berke in Chattanooga, which was founded in 1934 by his grandfather Harry Berke.

Andrew Lawrence Berke (born March 31, 1968) is an American attorney and politician from Tennessee.

Berke returned home to Chattanooga and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1994.

A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Hamilton and Marion counties in the 10th district as a state senator from 2007 to 2012.

Berke entered a 2007 special election to replace longtime state senator Ward Crutchfield and defeated Republican Oscar Brock, son of former U.S. Senator Bill Brock, 63% to 37%.

He was sworn into the Tennessee Senate on November 21, 2007.

Berke was reelected in 2008, defeating Republican Oscar Brown.

He received over 70% of the vote.

On November 24, 2008, Berke was elected secretary and treasurer of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

During the 105th General Assembly, Berke served as secretary of the Senate Education Committee and as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee.

As a member of the 106th General Assembly, Berke served as secretary of the Senate Education Committee and as a member of the Senate Transportation committee.

During Berke's first term, Chattanooga's unemployment rate fell from a June 2011 high of 9.5% to 4.1% in May 2016, a nine-year low, and the city created over 8,000 new jobs.

On May 8, 2012, Berke announced his candidacy for Mayor of Chattanooga.

He served as the mayor of Chattanooga from 2013 to 2021.

On March 5, 2013, he became Chattanooga's mayor-elect, winning more than 72% of the vote, and he was inaugurated on April 15, 2013.

He became mayor-elect on March 5, 2013, after receiving 72% of the vote.

Within a month of taking office, Berke reorganized city government, merging the Departments of Parks and Recreation and Human Services into a new Department of Youth and Family Development, the Departments of Neighborhood Services and Community Development into a new Department of Economic and Community Development, eliminating the Department of Education, Arts, and Culture, and creating a new Department of Transportation to handle transportation matters once handled by the Department of Public Works.

In his first year as mayor, he formed a task force to reform the City of Chattanooga Police and Fire Pension and overhauled the Pension Plan, saving taxpayers over $227 million while preserving benefits for first responders.

On July 14, 2014, Berke joined other local and state officials to announce that the Volkswagen Crossblue would be manufactured in Chattanooga, resulting in over 2,000 new jobs for residents.

In addition to a boom of manufacturing jobs, Chattanooga's 10 Gigabit fiber optic infrastructure helped fuel wage growth, resulting in the country's third-fastest wage growth for medium-sized metro areas.

On January 14, 2015, Berke established an Innovation District, making Chattanooga the first midsized city with an innovation district.

In his 2015 State of the City Address, Berke also announced a new partnership with Chattanooga's Electric Power Board (EPB) to offer discounted high-speed internet access to students on free and reduced lunch through a program called NetBridge.

Six months after the launch of the Innovation District, four Marines and a sailor were killed during a terror-inspired attack in Chattanooga.

In the following hours, Berke called the incident a "nightmare for the city of Chattanooga" and pledged all available resources to aid the FBI in its investigation.

The creation of an Innovation District and his response to the July 16 attack were both cited as factors in Berke's recognition as American City & County's 2015 Municipal Leader of the Year.

On December 15, 2015, OZY.com recognized Berke as a Rising Star, citing Chattanooga's technology boom as the major factor in the city's turnaround.

Since then, Chattanooga's Innovation District has been a catalyst for change downtown, resulting in $700 million in new retail, office and residential space, and 868 new business licenses issued in 2016 alone.

Under Berke, Chattanooga has received national recognition for its work in digital equity.

A new program called Tech Goes Home, modeled after an award-winning program in Boston, ensures equal access to technology by offering technology training, skills, and access to families.

Because of his leadership during and following the attack, he was invited to lead the U.S. delegation at the first annual Strong Cities Network Global Summit held in Antalya, Turkey, on May 11, 2016.

Berke was re-elected on March 7, 2017, and served until April 19, 2021, when he was succeeded by Tim Kelly.

On October 6, 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Berke to serve as administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Berke was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Marvin and Kandy Berke.

He has one sister, Julie.

He attended Rivermont Elementary and Baylor School in Chattanooga, where he was a standout tennis player, and Stanford University, where he met his wife, Monique.

He lives in Chattanooga with his wife and their two daughters.

He is Jewish.

After graduating from Stanford with honors, Berke worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Representative Bart Gordon.

After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, he worked as a clerk for Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Lawrence, Kansas.

During this time he also taught at the University of Kansas School of Law as an adjunct professor.