Charlotte Burks

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Charlotte Gentry Burks (b. October 3, 1942) is a farmer and Democratic party politician in Tennessee, USA. In 1998, she became the first write-in candidate to win a seat in the Tennessee State Senate, taking the seat formerly held by her husband Tommy Burks, who had been assassinated during an election campaign by his Republican challenger Byron Looper. (The state Republican Party had distanced itself from Looper, and numerous Republicans worked for Burks' campaign.) She was reelected in 2002 with no substantive opposition.

She served as the secretary of the senate's education committee; and was a member of the joint study economic development; government operations; select on children and youth; and the environment, conservation, and tourism committees.

Her voting record has largely been a carbon copy of that of her husband, one of the more conservative Democrats in the state legislature. According to the Tennessee Conservation Voters' 2003 scorecard¹, Burks was, along with Mae Beavers and Tommy Kilby, one of the worst ranked environmental legislators in the Tennessee General Assembly.