The new congresswoman from the 6th District is Diane Black, a Republican elected in 2010 to succeed conservative Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon, who retired after a 25-year career. Read More

The new congresswoman from the 6th District is Diane Black, a Republican elected in 2010 to succeed conservative Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon, who retired after a 25-year career.

Black was born in Baltimore and lived in the area for most of her early life. She obtained an associate’s degree in nursing from a local community college in 1971. In 1985, she and her husband, David Black —currently the president and CEO of Aegis Science, a Nashville company—moved to Tennessee. Black returned to school to get her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Belmont University. She got into politics in 1998, when she was elected to the first of three terms in the Tennessee House. By 2001, she was involved in an anti-tax protest that foreshadowed her involvement in the tea party eight years later. In 2004, Black moved up to the state Senate. During her six-year tenure, she became the first woman to chair the Senate Republican Caucus. She also earned her stripes as a small-government conservative, repeatedly voting against a state income tax and increases to the state sales tax. Late in the 2010 General Assembly session, Black championed an unsuccessful bill to allow Tennessee residents to opt out of the federal health care law. She pushed for a traditional definition of marriage, a zero tolerance policy for illegal immigrants, and a balanced budget constitutional amendment.

She decided to run for the House after Gordon announced his retirement in December 2009. Black’s campaign hit an initial bump when one of her legislative aides sent a racist e-mail from her government account portraying President Barack Obama as two eyes peering out of a black background in a presidential portrait. The incident received widespread media coverage, and Black reprimanded the staffer but did not fire her. Black subsequently survived a bruising three-way GOP primary with 31% of the vote, edging out second-place finisher Lou Ann Zelenik by 283 votes. Zelenik, the Rutherford County GOP chair, drew considerable attention for making her opposition to a local Muslim community center a top issue and accusing Black of not taking a strong enough stand against it.

In the general election, Black’s conservative views made her a tea party favorite, and she racked up endorsement from Republican luminaries, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. She also was backed by the National Rifle Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In calling for repeal of the health care law, Black invoked her experience a nurse in emergency rooms. She raised $2.4 million, with more than half coming from her own wallet and more than 10 times the amount mustered by her opponent, Iraq war veteran Brett Carter. She won 67%-to-29%, carrying every county in the district.

In the House, Black’s health care background helped her land a coveted seat on the Ways and Means Committee, a rare assignment for a freshman. Her first piece of legislation was a bill to deny federal funding to Planned Parenthood in a fiscal 2011 spending bill because of the group’s involvement with abortion —an issue that eventually became one of the main sticking points in a final budget deal between Obama and House Republicans that year. Black also was given a seat on the Budget Committee, where she staunchly defended GOP Chairman Paul Ryan’s effort to cut more than $6 trillion in spending.

In recognition of her fundraising acumen, she was named as one of four freshmen regional directors of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Black is among the House’s wealthiest members, with an average net worth of $49 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.