Early Political Career
Blackburn began her political career in 1977 as a founding member of the Williamson County Young Republicans. She served as chairwoman of the Williamson County Republican Party from 1989 to 1991. Her elected political career began in 1992, when she won the Republican nomination for the 6th District, which at the time included her home in Brentwood. She lost by 16 percentage points to longtime congressman Bart Gordon. In 1995, she was appointed chairwoman of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment & Music Commission. She won elective office for the first time in 1998, when she was elected to the Tennessee State Senate, representing Williamson County and a sliver of Davidson County.
She led efforts to prevent the passage of a state income tax championed by Governor Don Sundquist and for this was referred to as "one of the heroes of the Great Tennessee Tax Revolt of 2000" by a writer for the online conservative magazine American Thinker in 2007. Later that year in an interview Blackburn said that this was the legislative action she was most proud of.
Read more about this topic: Marsha Blackburn
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