Chuck Fleischmann

Charles Joseph Fleischmann (born October 11, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. representative for TN's 3rd congressional district since 2011.

The district is based in Chattanooga and includes a large part of East Tennessee, including Oak Ridge.

He is a member of the Republican Party.

Fleischmann was born in Manhattan, New York City, and is a resident of Ooltewah, an unincorporated suburban community east of Chattanooga.

He is the son of Rose Marie (née Salvo) and Max Fleischmann, Jr. Fleischmann is of Italian, English, and Austro-Hungarian descent, and is a distant relative of Harry Houdini.

Fleischmann graduated from Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

He received both Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude honors.

He then earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville.

He was the first member of his family to attend college.

After graduating from law school, Fleischmann moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and founded an independent law firm, Fleischmann and Fleischmann, in 1987.

He is a former president of the Chattanooga Bar Association and former chair of the Chattanooga Lawyers Pro Bono Committee.

Republican incumbent Zach Wamp retired in order to run for governor, leaving this an open seat.

Fleischmann entered an 11-way Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district.

None of the candidates had ever run for elected office before.

Fleischmann's biggest competition came from former state GOP chair Robin Smith, who was considered the front-runner.

She was endorsed by former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich and The Club for Growth.

Fleischmann won the primary with a plurality of 30% of the vote, defeating Smith by 1,415 votes.

He won most of the counties in the district, which were mostly in the northern part of the district, while Smith won three counties: Rhea, Hamilton (home to Chattanooga), and Polk counties.

Third-place finisher Tim Gobble won only Bradley County, his home county.

Fleischmann's Democratic opponent in the general election was John Wolfe, a fellow attorney.

Fleischmann had faced Wolfe in his first case as an attorney.

He said he won that case and the appeal "and now I want to defeat him a third time."

His other opponent was independent candidate Savas Kyriakidis, an attorney, restaurant owner and Iraq War veteran.

Fleischmann won the race with 57% of the vote.

In his first reelection campaign, Fleischmann defeated Scottie Mayfield and Weston Wamp in the Republican primary, 39%-31%-29%.

He defeated Democratic nominee Mary Headrick in the general election with a large majority of the vote.

A December 2010 Tennessee Comptroller's Office report concluded that funds for the program had been "wasted or misspent".

Fleischmann's office estimated that if this bill passed it would save taxpayers $2.1 billion over the next decade.

In July 2011, Fleischmann originally supported Speaker John Boehner's debt limit bill, but voted against the final debt ceiling agreement.

In November 2011, Fleischmann filed a new bill, the Stop Green Initiative Abuse Act of 2011, which would repeal the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program.

This program attempts to assist low-income families in lowering their energy bills by adding energy-efficient caulking and insulation to homes.

On November 4, 2014, Fleischmann defeated Headrick again with 62.3% of the vote.

On November 8, 2016, Fleischmann defeated Democrat Melody Shekari and independent Rick Tyler with 66.4% of the vote.

On November 6, 2018, Fleischmann defeated Democrat Danielle Mitchell and independent Rick Tyler with 63.7% of the vote.

On November 3, 2020, Fleischmann defeated Democrat Meg Gorman with 67.3% of the vote.

Fleischmann tends to vote conservative.

The conservative policy advocacy organization, Heritage Action, gave Fleischmann a lifetime score of 74 percent.

The conservative and libertarian advocacy group, FreedomWorks, gave him a lifetime score of 70.6 percent.

The largest federation of unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO, gave Fleischmann a lifetime score of 12 percent.