Lamar Alexander is the senior senator from Tennessee. A seventh-generation Tennessean, he chairs the Senate Republican Conference and serves on committees overseeing education, clean air, highways, science, appropriations and the Tennessee Valley Authority. He is the only Tennessean ever popularly elected both governor and U.S. senator.

Alexander has served as the U.S. Secretary of Education, the University of Tennessee president, and a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was responsible for starting Tennessee’s Governor’s Schools for outstanding students. In addition, he chaired the National Governors Association and President Reagan’s Commission on Americans Outdoors. In private life, Alexander helped found the nation’s largest provider of worksite day care.

In his campaign for governor, Alexander walked one thousand miles across Tennessee in his now famous red-and-black plaid shirt. Once elected, he helped Tennessee become the third-largest auto producer and the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well.

He is a classical and country pianist and the author of seven books, including Six Months Off, the story of his family’s life in Australia after he was governor.