ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Thursday said he would not seek to succeed Lamar Alexander in the Senate.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Fleischmann said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Department’s National Cleanup Workshop. “I’m staying in the House. I’m not running for the Senate.”
After Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced in December he would not seek re-election in 2020, Fleischmann was one of many GOP names floated as a possible successor. In July, President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Tennessee native Bill Hagerty, the administration’s ambassador to Japan, to succeed Alexander. The 60-year old Hagerty resigned his ambassador post in late July and formally launched his campaign earlier this month, according to The Tennessean newspaper.
Trump’s backing makes Hagerty look like a strong favorite for the GOP nomination, particularly since former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has announced he will not run, Roll Call noted recently. Phil Bredesen, 75, a former governor and an unsuccessful candidate for Senate in 2018, has been regularly mentioned as the potential Democratic Party nominee for the seat.
The 79-year-old Alexander, also a former Tennessee governor, has served in the Senate since 2003. He chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, which writes the first draft of the upper chamber’s annual budget plan for the Energy Department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, along with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Fleischmann, 56, has represented Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District since 2011. The district includes much of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Fleischmann has been an advocate for ample funding for the DOE mission in Tennessee, covering both the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Fleischmann is also chairman of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, which pushes for greater congressional funding for remediation of Cold War nuclear sites. He lamented the pending retirement of another member of that caucus, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who has unsuccessfully championed the case for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
