Jim Bryson (born July 14, 1961) is a Tennessee politician, a former Republican member of the State Senate representing the 23rd District, which encompasses Williamson County and part of Davidson County, and the 2006 Republican nominee for Governor of Tennessee. Bryson is mentioned as a possible Republican appointee to the office of Tennessee Secretary of State once the state legislature convenes in January 2009.
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Bryson was elected to the State Senate in 2002, serving in the 103rd and 104th General Assemblies. He served as Secretary of the Government Operations Committee and as a member of the Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee, the Senate Education Committee, and the Fiscal Review Committee. He was noted as one of the Assembly's most vocal advocates of Right to Life and anti-gun control views.
On August 3, 2006, Bryson won the nomination to run for Governor against incumbent Phil Bredesen. Bryson, upon entering the race immediately assumed the position of front-runner for the Republican nomination, since the other announced contenders were political near-unknowns and the state party endorsed him before the primary. Bryson won the nomination with a vote total approximately equal to that of all of his rivals combined.
Since his Senate district is considered to be the most affluent and reliably Republican in Middle Tennessee and his re-election was all but assured, some have questioned why he would give it up. Any Republican candidate would have been a decided underdog in the general election to Bredesen. In the election of November 2006, Republican Jack Johnson was elected to succeed Senator Bryson.[1]
As expected, Bryson was heavily defeated in the November 7 election, taking only 29.7 percent of the vote. He lost all 95 counties in the state, including Williamson County. It was the most one-sided gubernatorial contest (in terms of margin of defeat) in Tennessee's history.
Bryson was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He married Carol Ratcliff, from Greeneville, TN, in 1991. They have four children together: Maria, Nadia, Nick, and Alex. Bryson earned his bachelor's degree from Baylor University and his MBA from Vanderbilt University and is the owner of 20/20 Research, Inc, a marketing research firm with offices in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida.
| Tennessee Senate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Marsha Blackburn |
Member from the 23rd district 2003–2007 |
Succeeded by Jack Johnson |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Van Hilleary |
Republican Party nominee for Governor of Tennessee 2006 |
Succeeded by Bill Haslam |