Republican Marsha Blackburn won a closely watched race in 2018 to become the first woman elected to the Senate from Tennessee. A conservative firebrand who was a legislative activist and influential lawmaker in the House for 16 years, Blackburn represented a sharp shift from a pragmatic conservative—like Bob Corker, whom she replaced—to a tea party acolyte who was a fierce supporter of President Donald Trump. In the Senate, she’s kept up that tone, seizing on conservative complaints of online censorship by Silicon Valley and attacking the veracity of witnesses who claimed Trump had urged Ukraine to help dig up dirt on his eventual 2020 opponent­—a scandal that sparked his first impeachment.

Blackburn grew up in Laurel Mississippi, where her father sold oil-field production equipment. Her interest in gardening and canning won her a 4-H scholarship at Mississippi State University, where she majored in merchandising and clothing. She helped pay her way through college by selling books door to door for Southwestern Co., which sold educational materials that attracted many conservative students. Blackburn, however, was rejected when she first applied because there were concerns about a single woman going out to sell alone. The company finally hired her as one of its first saleswomen, albeit with a catch—she had to live in Mississippi with her parents, while the salesmen were allowed to go between cities. “People have been brainwashed that they think women aren’t capable of this type of work,” she told her college newspaper. Blackburn worked her way up and eventually became a sales manager and earned enough money to pay for her sophomore-year college tuition and buy a blue Ford sedan, which she called the “Can-Do.”

After graduation, she married and moved to Tennessee, settling in the tony Nashville suburb of Brentwood. Her hilltop home in Brentwood is known as “Up Yonder,” named by its former owner, Grand Ole Opry star Minnie Pearl. Blackburn became director of retail fashion for the Nashville department store Castner Knott Company and later founded her own marketing company. She was appointed by Republican Gov. Don Sundquist as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission, and her interest in politics grew. In 1992, she challenged Democrat Rep. Bart Gordon but lost, 57%-41%. She then won a state Senate seat, where she built a grassroots campaign to defeat Sundquist’s proposed income tax. In 2014, Tennessee voters approved a constitutional amendment that prohibited a state income tax.

When the 7th District seat, which then stretched from the Nashville to Memphis suburbs, opened, Blackburn was the only well-known candidate from the Nashville area. Of the six other candidates, three were familiar figures in the Memphis area. She benefited from financial support of the national anti-tax Club for Growth and from attacks by the Shelby County candidates on one another. She ran as an anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-military conservative and won the primary with 40 percent of the vote and then easily won the general election. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Tennessee without following her husband, though gender wasn’t something she emphasized—even asking to be called “congressman” rather than “congresswoman.”

Blackburn staked out conservative positions in the House, often seeking leadership roles. She was active on the Republican Study Committee, and in 2012 she co-chaired the Republican National Convention’s platform committee. She co-sponsored the “birther” bill, requiring future presidential candidates to prove they were born in the United States, a measure that played off attacks from the right on President Barack Obama’s qualifications to hold office, although the measure would not have applied to him. In 2015, she wrote a letter to the IRS challenging the tax-exempt status of the Clinton Foundation. A champion of gun owners’ rights, Blackburn has boasted about her perfect marksmanship score with her Smith & Wesson .38. After the Newtown Connecticut elementary school massacre, she said the debate should focus on mental health because disturbed people predisposed toward violence could use “a hammer, a hatchet, a car” instead of a gun. In 2016, she chaired the House’s Select Panel on Infant Lives, which was a special committee created to review allegations by anti-abortion activists of an illicit trade of fetal tissue. The panel held hearings and issued recommendations for changes in what Blackburn described as “the abortion and fetal tissue procurement industries.” Democrats opposed creation of the panel and its activities.

In the majority, Blackburn played a prominent role on technology policy at the Energy and Commerce Committee. A fervent advocate of the Nashville-based music industry and founder of the Congressional Songwriters Caucus, she fought to protect intellectual property rights of artists against illegal music downloads. The recording industry has given her a congressional Grammy. Blackburn has often challenged the Federal Communications Commission. In 2014, the House passed on a largely party-line vote her amendment to prevent the FCC from preempting state laws that block the ability of cities to create local government-run broadband networks. In 2015, she sought to deny funding for the FCC to implement its net-neutrality rules that were designed to bar tiered pricing for internet services; she contended that such authority is solely the responsibility of Congress.

When Corker announced in September 2017 he wouldn’t run for a third term, her attention turned to the open seat. After term-limited Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced he wouldn’t run, Blackburn became the GOP frontrunner. She made clear in her announcement video she would be a very different Senator than the collegial Corker. “I’m a hard-core, card-carrying Tennessee conservative. I’m politically incorrect and proud of it,” Blackburn said. “I know the Left calls me a wingnut, or a knuckle-dragging conservative. And you know what? I say that’s all right; bring it on.”

Some in the Tennessee Republican establishment had concerns about Blackburn’s statewide viability—especially after popular centrist former Gov. Phil Bredesen got in on the Democratic side—and began encouraging Corker to reconsider his decision to retire. Corker’s office said he was “listening closely.” A spokeswoman for Blackburn issued an irate response: “Anyone who thinks Marsha Blackburn can’t win a general election is just a plain sexist pig. … We aren’t worried about these ego-driven, tired old men.” Corker stuck with his original decision. Blackburn won the primary with 85 percent of the vote against a little-known challenger.

Corker gave Blackburn only a tepid endorsement, repeatedly refusing to say her name during one live TV interview. Bredesen was a strong recruit for Democrats—their last candidate to win statewide. He argued the race was a test of the centrist brand he had built in the state and would show whether a Southern Democrat could still be victorious despite a national party very much disliked in Tennessee. Instead, the low-key policy wonk tried to localize issues, holding small events with a focus on topics like agriculture and trade—emphasizing his opposition to Trump’s tariffs. The former businessman and healthcare executive also pointed out places where he agreed with Trump, such as rolling back regulations. Bredesen made the case he was the centrist choice and would bring that mentality to Washington.

Blackburn worked to nationalize the race as much as possible—a smart strategy in a state that Trump won by 26 percentage points. The Tennessee seat was a key piece to Democrats’ path to a majority—another thing Blackburn and other Republicans repeatedly emphasized. Trump traveled to Tennessee to campaign for Blackburn several times, telling voters that she would be the best person to uphold his agenda. Her biggest break may have been the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Blackburn’s fervent support for the president’s nominee to replace him, Brett Kavanaugh, underscored just how important having a Republican vote in the Senate would be, and she stood by Kavanaugh even after he was accused of sexual assault, a charge he denied.

Outside money poured into the race, with $19.4 million spent hitting Bredesen compared with $17.5 attacking Blackburn. Both had large war chests of their own—Bredesen spent $19.2 million, including $7.5 million of his own money, while Blackburn spent $16.3 million. Republicans worried about this seat up until the end, but Blackburn won, 55%-44%. Blackburn’s victory was a major shift in Tennessee politics—away from the genial, bipartisan lawmakers who have typically won in the state and toward vocal, conservative partisans.

Blackburn and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst got seats on the Judiciary Committee—adding Republican women to the panel just months after their absence was especially stark during the hearings into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. In 2019, along with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, she proposed the Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy Act, which would have moved federal departments out of Washington D.C. and into areas struggling economically throughout the nation; Tennessee would get the Department of Education.

Blackburn maintained her frequent presence on conservative TV and penchant for contentious language. After National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified before the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry about a phone call he’d been on in which Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden or else he’d withhold military aid, she launched a long campaign against the Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart winner. Tweeting at first that he was “Vindictive Vindman,” she questioned on Twitter why House Democratic impeachment managers were hailing Vindman as a “hero”: “How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America’s greatest enemy?” Blackburn later blocked election security bills proposed by Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia, including two that would require campaigns to alert the FBI if they’re offered help by a foreign power.

She joined the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the technology issues she pursued in the House. In 2019, amid growing furor and claims of censorship from conservatives against tech giants, she was tapped to lead a Judiciary Committee tech task force. Blackburn didn’t go as far as Trump, who wanted to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes tech companies from lawsuits related to content posted on their sites by third parties and allows them to broadly moderate what is posted on their sites. She and Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced a bill to modify the law, allowing companies to remove only content that is illegal, promotes terrorism or promotes self-harm. “Big Tech companies have stretched their liability shield past its limits, and the national discourse now suffers because of it,” Blackburn said.

After Biden was elected, Blackburn called him the “president-elect” in an ABC interview, a comment her staff later walked back as Trump refused to concede and was pushing unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud. As the certification of the Electoral College votes neared, Blackburn said she “cannot in good conscience turn a blind eye to the countless allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election” and that she would vote to object to the certification of votes from certain states. However, in a rare break from Trump, she and her newly elected in-state colleague, Bill Hagerty, reversed course after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the vote, and they both voted to certify Biden’s win.

Blackburn continued to carve out a conservative voting record in the Senate, opposing bipartisan bills that passed during Biden’s first two years. She opposed the gun control bill, which drew support from 13 Republicans, that strengthened background checks for those under 21 and encouraged implementation of red flag laws. She continued her focus on tech issues, and along with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal proposed a bill requiring social media platforms, streaming services, websites and video games to allow parents of children under 16 ways to limit screen time, protect their data privacy, and bar certain content. “In hearings over the last year, Senator Blumenthal and I have heard countless stories of physical and emotional damage affecting young users, and Big Tech’s unwillingness to change,” Sen. Blackburn said. “The Kids Online Safety Act will address those harms by setting necessary safety guiderails for online platforms to follow that will require transparency and give parents more peace of mind.” She also introduced the End Child Trafficking Now Act to require DNA testing at the border.

Blackburn is up for reelection in 2024, at age 72. Given the Volunteer State’s solid red status, she should have no problem holding this seat for as long as she wants.