LEGISLATOR US Senator LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN) IN OFFICE CONTACT Up for re-election in 2020 Email Contact Form LEADERSHIP POSITION http://www.alexander. senate.gov/public/index. Senate Republican Conference cfm/email Committee Web www.alexander.senate.gov 3rd Term http://www.alexander. Re-elected in 2014 senate.gov SENIORITY RANK Twitter @senalexander 29 https://twitter.com/ senalexander Out of 100 Facebook View on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ senatorlamaralexander DC Office 455 Dirksen Senate Office Building BGOV BIOGRAPHY By Greg Giroux, Bloomberg News Lamar Alexander spent years in the Senate Republican leadership and then relinquished his post because he said it was hampering his desire to focus on big issues and fashion bipartisan solutions in a gridlocked chamber. In the 114th Congress, Alexander became chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, allowing him to take a lead role in a bipartisan rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education law that implemented testing requirements for students and performance standards. A fix to the law, which expired in 2007, is ``long overdue,'' Alexander said at his panel's first hearing in January 2015. He also wants to curb student-loan costs. Education is an abiding concern for Alexander, a former federal Education secretary and university president whose parents were an elementary school principal and a kindergarten teacher. Alexander has enough of an independent streak that he generally ranks in the bottom half of Republican senators on vote scorecards from activist groups promoting deep cuts to spending and taxes. One such group, the Club for Growth, gave him a rating of 68 out of 100 for his 2014 votes. In March 2015, Alexander was among seven Republican senators who declined to sign a letter to Iranian leaders warning against any nuclear deal. In June 2013, Alexander was among 14 Republicans who voted with Democrats for an immigration bill that would provide a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. In 2009, he backed President Barack Obama's choice of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, one of nine Republicans to do so. He sometimes bucks his party to support federal environmental protections. Alexander was chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from late 2007 until he stepped down voluntarily -- and surprisingly -- from that third-ranking post in January 2012. Leaving the leadership ``will liberate me to spend more time © 2015 Bloomberg Finance L.P. All Rights Reserved surprisingly -- from that third-ranking post in January 2012. Leaving the leadership ``will liberate me to spend more time trying to work for results on issues that I care the most about,'' he said in announcing his decision in September 2011, just months after saying he would try to move up to the No. 2 whip position. Alexander sought the whip spot in 2006, losing by one vote to Trent Lott. ``If I could get a 100 percent Republican solution of any of our legislative issues, I would do it in a minute,'' Alexander said. ``I know the Senate usually requires 60 votes for a solution on serious issues, and we simply cannot get that with only Republican votes or only Democratic votes.'' His more parochial concerns include looking out for Tennessee's automotive industry, including Nissan, which located its North America operations in Tennessee at Alexander's urging. He leads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for Oak Ridge National Laboratory in his state. Early Years A seventh-generation Tennessean, Alexander grew up in the eastern Tennessee city of Maryville, about 20 miles south of Knoxville, and graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. After law school in New York, Alexander worked for Tennessee Republican Howard Baker, who was elected in 1966 to the first of three Senate terms and later became majority leader and then chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan. Alexander was playing softball on Baker's Senate staff team when he met his future wife, who was on the opposing squad of Texas Republican John Tower. ``No one has had more impact on my life, outside my own family, than Howard Baker,'' Alexander said after Baker's death in June 2014. His ties to Baker helped Alexander land a job in Richard Nixon's White House in 1969 as an aide to Bryce Harlow, the president's liaison to Congress. ``I got a Ph.D. in politics and government from sitting there'' and ``listening to all the conversations that Bryce Harlow had with the whole world,'' Alexander said in a 2007 oral history interview. Harlow encouraged Alexander to return to Tennessee in 1970, when he managed Republican Winfield Dunn's successful campaign for governor. Alexander sought the office himself in 1974, losing to Democrat Ray Blanton after the Watergate scandal hurt Republican candidates nationwide. In the 2007 interview, Alexander said he turned down an offer by President Gerald Ford to run his 1976 campaign, opting to stay in Tennessee. Alexander was elected governor on his second try in 1978, walking 1,000 miles across the state in a red-and-black plaid shirt that became a staple of his political campaigns. He won another four-year term in 1982, then spent three years as president of the University of Tennessee and two years as President George H.W. Bush's Education secretary. Alexander set his sights on the White House in 1996, when he finished third in the kickoff nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire before his effort faded. A 2000 presidential bid also failed. In 2002, Republican Fred Thompson declined to run for re-election to the Senate, and Alexander ran for his vacant seat and defeated Democratic Representative Bob Clement by 10 percentage points. He won re-election in 2008 by 33 percentage points, winning 94 of 95 counties. In 2014, Alexander was pushed in the Republican primary by Joe Carr, a state representative aligned with the small- government Tea Party movement. Carr attacked Alexander's votes on immigration and for a 2008 bailout of banks; Alexander touted his seniority and aired commercials of him quibbling with Obama on how the president's health care plan would affect premiums. Alexander won the primary by 9 percentage points. That was the determinative election in strongly Republican Tennessee; Alexander won a third term in November by 30 percentage points, again winning every county in the state except the one enveloping Democratic Nashville. Updated March 24, 2015 BIO FROM REPRESENTATIVE'S WEBSITE From the Senator's Website Lamar Alexander represents Tennesseans with a conservative voice in the U.S. Senate. In its most recent evaluation, the National Rifle Association (NRA) gave Lamar an A rating. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) both gave his record a 100% for his pro-business votes in their most recent ratings. Similarly, the National Right to Life Committee also gave his voting record a 100% in its most recent rating for his efforts to protect © 2015 Bloomberg Finance L.P. All Rights Reserved the National Right to Life Committee also gave his voting record a 100% in its most recent rating for his efforts to protect life. Lamar Alexander was born in Maryville, the son of a kindergarten teacher and an elementary school principal. He is a seventh-generation Tennessean. He is the only Tennessean ever popularly elected both governor and U.S. Senator. He has been U.S. Education Secretary and University of Tennessee president. He chaired the National Governors Association and President Reagan's Commission on Americans Outdoors. When elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, Alexander had spent more adult years in the private sector than in public life. In 1972 he co-founded a Nashville law firm. In 1987 he and his wife and three others, including Bob Keeshan, television's Captain Kangaroo, founded Corporate Child Care, Inc. The company became publicly traded in 1997 (NASDAQ) and later merged with Bright Horizons, Inc., creating the world's largest provider of worksite daycare. Three times between 2007 and 2012, his colleagues elected Sen. Alexander Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference ^ the third-ranking Republican position in the United States Senate. He is the ranking Senate Republican overseeing education, labor and health, as well as energy appropriations. In his campaign for governor, Alexander walked 1,000 miles across Tennessee in his now-famous red and black plaid shirt. Once elected, he helped Tennessee become the third largest auto producer, the state with the top-rated four-lane highway system and the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well. He started Tennessee's Governor's Schools for outstanding students. When he left the governor's office, the state had a Triple AAA bond rating, fewer employees and no long-term highway debt. He is a classical and country pianist and the author of seven books, including Six Months Off, the story of his family's life in Australia after he was governor. Lamar Alexander and Honey Buhler were married in 1969. They have four children and six grandchildren. He is a Presbyterian elder. PERSONAL PROFILE COMMITTEES Birthdate 07/03/1940 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Senate Committee on Education Appropriations Birthplace Maryville, TN Senate Committee on Health, Political Vanderbilt University Education, Labor, and Pensions Republican Party Party Bachelor's Degree 1962 Chairman Senate Committee on Energy and Marital Married New York Univ Schl of Law Natural Resources Status JD 1965 Senate Committee on Rules and Spouse Honey Buhler Administration CAUCUSES 4 children; 6 Family grandchildren President, University of Tennessee Valley Authority Tennessee/Knoxville 1979 - 1987 Governor, Congressional Caucus State of Tennessee 1985 - 1986 Chairman, Religion Presbyterian Natl Governors Assn 1991 - 1993 Secretary, Senate Charter Schools Caucus United States of America 2002 - Present Congressional Fire Services Caucus Senator:Tennessee, (US)Senate 2008 - 2012 Chairman, Senate Republican Conference Present Chairman, Simplexis.Com Present Chairman, CO-Nect Inc © 2015 Bloomberg Finance L.P.