Tre Hargett
From Ballotpedia
| Tre Hargett | |
 | |
| Tennessee Secretary of State | |
| Elected by the Legislature | |
| Assumed office 2009 | |
| Political party | Republican |
| Website | Official Tennessee Secretary of State website |
Contents |
Tre Hargett (born February 7, 1969, in Ripley, Tennessee) is the current Republican Secretary of State of Tennessee. With the support of Governor Phil Bredesen, the newly elected Republican majority in the state legislature voted to replace longtime Secretary of State Riley Darnell, a Democrat, with Hargett. He officially took office on January 15, 2009.
Education
- Bachelor of Business Administration degree (with Honors), Memphis State University (1991) in accounting
- Master of Business Administration degree, Memphis State University (1992) in marketing
Political career
From 1996 to 2006, Hargett was elected to serve the public in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Twice he was selected by his Republican colleagues to act as their caucus leader, holding the position from 2003 to 2005. During his time in the Tennessee State House, Hargett co-sponsored a state constitutional amendment created specifically to facilitate property tax relief for senior citizens. The amendment won the approval of the people of Tennessee, garnering eighty-three percent of the vote. He was nominated in 2007 as director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA), which sets the rates and service standards of privately owned telephone, natural gas, electric, and water utilities within the state[1], a role he filled from February 2008 until he resigned in January 2009 in order to take up the office of Secretary of State.
Controversy
TVCA
Hargett has drawn the ire of Tennessee Democrats for his refusal to comply with the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA), which passed almost unanimously in the state legislature and was signed into law by the governor in 2008. The TVCA requires all 95 counties in Tennessee to purchase or lease optical scan voting machines and hand-count voter-verified paper ballots no later than the November 2010 elections. Hargett insists, however, that it is impossible to meet such a deadline[2]. He argues that while the act “requires counties to use only certified equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005,”[3] there currently exists no vendors certified to sell equipment that meet said standards.
Tennessee Democrats, however, are not buying it. Chip Forrester, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, accused Hargett and state Republicans of “conspiracy to steal elections through intimidation, fraud, and denial of basic constitutional rights.”[4] He went so far as to call for Hargett to be fired as the state’s secretary of state.
Other roles
| State Government |
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| State officials |
| State legislatures |
| Elections, 2010 |
| Primary election dates, 2010 |
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- Former Member, Alpha Tau Omega Housing Corporation
- Delegate/Lifelong Member, American Council of Young Political Leaders
- Member, American Legislative Exchange Council
- Member, Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce
- Member, Bartlett Northeast Shelby Republican Club
- Member, Bluegrass Baptish Church
- Member, Faith Baptist Church
- Former Member, Metropolitan Drug Commission, Knox County
- Former Member, Mid-South Workers' Compensation Association
- Former Member, National Association Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)
- Member, National Association of Secretaries of State
- Member, Northeast Shelby Republicans
- Member, Outstanding Young Men of America
- Former Chairman, Shelby County Republicans
- Member, Steering Committee, Shelby County Republican Party
- Former Member, Southeastern Association Regulatory Utility Commissioners
- Member, University of Tennessee-Memphis Chancellor's Roundtable
Family
Tre Hargett and his wife, Dawn, currently reside in Hendersonville, Tennessee with their two children. Hargett is a practicing Southern Baptist.
Contact information
Secretary of State
State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-1102
Phone:615-741-2819
tre.hargett@state.tn.us
External links
- Official Tennessee Secretary of State website
- Tre Hargett's Twitter Account
- Project Vote Smart - Tre Hargett biography
References
- ↑ Tennessee Regulatory Authority - 2007-08 Annual Report
- ↑ Election Defense Alliance - Tennessee Voter Confidence Act of 2007
- ↑ Nashville is Talking "Secretary of State calls Voter Confidence Act a ‘catch-22′" 7 July 2009
- ↑ Nashville is Talking "TNDP Chair Chip Forrester calls for General Assembly to fire Secretary of State Tre Hargett" 10 July, 2009
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