Scott DesJarlais | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's4th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Lincoln Davis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Scott Eugene DesJarlais (1964-02-21)February 21, 1964 (age 61) Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Susan DesJarlais (div. 1998) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of South Dakota (BS,MD) |
| Website | House website |
Scott Eugene DesJarlais[1] (/ˌdeɪʒɑːrˈleɪ/DAY-zhar-LAY;[2] born February 21, 1964) is an American politician and physician serving as theU.S. representative forTennessee's 4th congressional district since 2011. The district stretches acrossEast andMiddle Tennessee. He is a member of theRepublican Party.
DesJarlais was born in 1964 inDes Moines, Iowa, to Joe DesJarlais, a barber, and Sylvia, a registered nurse. He grew up inSturgis, South Dakota.[3] Over ten years he, his parents and his brother and sister built their own house in Sturgis; his parents still live there.[4] DesJarlais earned his undergraduate degree inChemistry andPsychology from theUniversity of South Dakota in 1987 and hisDoctor of Medicine from theUniversity of South Dakota School of Medicine in 1991.[5] He moved to East Tennessee in 1993 to practice medicine as a generalist.[6]
DesJarlais is anEpiscopalian.[7]
DesJarlais is a member of theTea Party movement.[8] In 2009 he entered politics, filing papers to challenge Democratic incumbentLincoln Davis,[9][10] as well as Independents Paul H. Curtis, James Gray, Richard S. Johnson, and Gerald York.[11]
Late in the 2010 race, the Washington newspaperRoll Call reported details of DesJarlais's 2001 divorce proceedings, which showed that his ex-wife accused him of harassment, intimidation and physical abuse.[12][13][14] The Davis campaign used the material in print and TV attack ads and toldRoll Call that Fourth District voters "expect[ed] more than lip service about family values."[15]
DesJarlais defeated Davis 57%–39%.[16]
During his first term, DesJarlais represented a district that stretched almost diagonally across the state from coal-mining regions nearKnoxville, theTri-Cities andChattanooga to the outer suburbs ofNashville.
By the 2012 election, the Fourth District had been significantly altered as a result of redistricting. It lost all of its northeastern portion and was pushed west to take in suburban areas closer to Nashville, includingMurfreesboro, previously the heart of the 6th district. The redrawn 4th contained about half of the constituents who resided in the former 4th district, with 14 of 24 counties moved elsewhere.[17]
DesJarlais was challenged by Democratic nominee andstate senatorEric Stewart. For a time, it was thought that DesJarlais would face a primary challenge from state senatorBill Ketron, a Murfreesboro resident and the chairman of the state senate redistricting committee, but Ketron did not run. DesJarlais defeated Stewart 56%–44%,[18][19] joining all the other incumbent members of Tennessee congressional delegation in winning reelection.[20]
In 2014 DesJarlais's seat was considered vulnerable, as controversy over the divorce record revelations returned to the fore. He had been reelected in 2012 with a reduced majority.[21] DesJarlais held his seat.[22][23]
State senatorJim Tracy challenged DesJarlais in the primary.[24] At the end of June 2013, Tracy had raised nearly $750,000 (including over $300,000 in the second quarter of 2013) for his bid.[25] He raised an additional $150,000 in the fourth quarter and reported $840,000 cash on hand.[21] By contrast, at the end of September, DesJarlais reported $170,000 cash on hand.[21] DesJarlais won the primary by 38 votes. Tracy decided not to challenge the results, despite citing irregularities.[26]
In January 2016,Politico rated Tennessee's Fourth District one of the top five primary races to watch,[27] and in March ranked DesJarlais one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the 2016 cycle;[28] he was one of only two Tennessee incumbents to face serious challenge.[29] His primary opponents were attorney and conservative activistGrant Starrett, attorney and physician Yomi "Fapas" Faparusi and economic data specialist Erran Persley.[30] TheMurfreesboro Post described Starrett as "running to the right of DesJarlais". After winning the primary, DesJarlais beat Democrat Steven Reynolds in the general election by a margin of 30 points.[citation needed]
DesJarlais was again challenged in the primary, but won by 40 points. He went on to win the general election by almost 30 points.
In 2020 DesJarlais defeated Republican primary challenger Doug Meyer, a veteran and former police officer. Christopher Hale won the Democratic primary. Hale describes himself as a "pro-life Democrat" and strongly criticized DesJarlais for having pressured his mistress to get an abortion.[31]
In 2022 DesJarlais won re-election.
In December 2020, DesJarlais was one of 126 Republican members of theHouse of Representatives to sign anamicus brief in support ofTexas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at theUnited States Supreme Court contesting the results of the2020 presidential election, in whichJoe Biden defeated[32] incumbentDonald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lackedstanding underArticle III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.[33][34][35]
In June 2021, DesJarlais was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against legislation to establish June 19, orJuneteenth, as a federal holiday.[36]
In 2022, DesJarlais was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.[37][38]
DesJarlais was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of theFiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.[39]
DesJarlais voted to provide Israel with support following2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[40][41]
In July 2021, DesJarlais voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase by 8,000 the number ofspecial immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military duringits invasion of Afghanistan, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed in the House 407–16.[42]
Scott DesJarlais has an "F" rating from theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for his voting history regardingcannabis-related causes.[43]
DesJarlais was the first member of the HouseFreedom Caucus to endorseDonald Trump for president of the United States.[48]
In October 2012 theHuffington Post obtained a transcript of a September 2000 phone conversation in which DesJarlais pressured a mistress to get an abortion.[49][50] He repeatedly denied that he had taped the conversation. In October he wrote to supporters on Facebook, "The media wrongly reported that I recorded the conversation myself. I was recorded unknowingly and without my consent."[51] Nine days before the general election a second woman said that she began dating DesJarlais while she was his patient. She alleged that the two smoked marijuana together and that he prescribed opioids for her while she was at his house.[52][53]
Two weeks after DesJarlais won the 2012 election, theChattanooga Times Free Press obtained a full transcript of his 2001 divorce proceedings.[54] The transcript revealed that he had admitted under oath to at least six sexual relationships with people he came in contact with while chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center inJasper, Tennessee. Among them were three co-workers, two patients and a drug representative.[55] The transcript also revealed that his former wife had had two abortions,[55][56][57] and that DesJarlais had admitted under oath that he and his former wife had recorded the phone conversation with the mistress.[51] "One of the biggest mistakes I made was I commented to the press before I had the opportunity to go back and read a transcript that was 13, 14 years old," he said in an interview with theKnoxville News Sentinel. "It was never my intention to mislead anyone, and had I read this, I don't think the inaccuracies that occurred would have taken place."[51]
Three weeks after he won the election, DesJarlais said on aconservative talk radio show onWWTN that "God has forgiven me" and asked "fellow Christians" and constituents "to consider doing the same."[58]
In October 2012, thewatchdog groupCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) requested that the Tennessee Board of Health investigate evidence that DesJarlais had had a sexual relationship with a patient, in violation of the Tennessee Medical Practice Act.[59][60][61] The complaint was investigated and in May 2013 the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners formally reprimanded DesJarlais for having sex with patients and fined him $500, calculated by the Board as "$250 per patient",[62] and $1,000 in costs. He did not contest the charges.[57][63]
In November 2012, after further details of the divorce proceedings were published, CREW asked the House of Representatives'Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether DesJarlais had violated House ethics rules, asserting that he had "blatantly" lied when he denied having taped the telephone conversation.[64][65][66]
DesJarlais and his second wife, Amy, have three children.[67] They live inSouth Pittsburg. They are members of the Epiphany Mission Episcopal Church inSherwood, Tennessee.[68]
During a trial for his divorce from his first wife in 2000, DesJarlais testified that he had sexual affairs with at least two patients, three coworkers and a drug representative while he was working as a hospital chief of staff.[69]
Despite his public opposition to legal abortion, DesJarlais encouraged his ex-wife to terminate two pregnancies and encouraged a former patient with whom he was having an affair to get an abortion.[70]
In divorce documents, DesJarlais's first wife accused him of "dry firing a gun outside [her] locked bedroom door, admission of suicidal ideation, holding a gun in his mouth for three hours, an incident of physical intimidation at the hospital; and previous threatening behavior … i.e. shoving, tripping, pushing down, etc."[71]
In July 2014, DesJarlais announced he was undergoing aggressive chemotherapy to treat cancer in his neck that had spread to a lymph node.[72][73] In a campaign appearance during his illness he said the cancer had affected his voice[74] but added that the type is curable 90% of the time.[72] The cancer and chemotherapy caused him to lose over 40 pounds, limiting his ability to make appearances and campaign.[75] In June 2015, DesJarlais announced that he was cancer-free.[76]
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 4th congressional district 2011–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 81st | Succeeded by |
