Biography:

As a Tennessee state senator, Marsha Blackburn helped defeat efforts to implement a state income tax and she largely based her campaign for Congress on that success.

With her election to the U.S. House in 2002, Blackburn became the first woman elected to Congress from Tennessee without having been chosen to replace a dead spouse.

Blackburn, a native of Laurel, Miss., graduated from Mississippi State University in 1973 and has been involved in politics since 1977, when she helped found a Young Republicans chapter in Williamson County, Tenn.

She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1992 and later served as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission before her election in 1998 to the 23rd Senate District seat.

Blackburn and her husband, Chuck Blackburn, have two children.

Past Campaigns:

Marsha Blackburn was elected to the state Senate in 1998, becoming the first woman to represent the 23rd District.

She had previously run unsuccessfully against veteran U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon in the 6th District. Her hometown of Brentwood, an affluent suburb of Nashville, was moved into the 7th District by Democratic state lawmakersseeking to strengthen Gordon's district and make the 7th more Republican.

Blackburn defeated Democrat Tim Barron in the 2002 general election with 71 percent of the vote.

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