ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Sept. 12 said he would not seek to succeed Lamar Alexander in the Senate.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Fleischmann said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Department’s National Cleanup Workshop. “I’m staying in the House. I’m not running for the Senate.”
After Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced in December he would not seek re-election in 2020, Fleischmann was one of many GOP names floated as a possible successor. In July, President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Tennessee native Bill Hagerty, the administration’s ambassador to Japan, to succeed Alexander. The 60-year old Hagerty resigned his ambassador post in late July and formally launched his campaign earlier this month, according to The Tennessean newspaper.
Trump’s backing makes Hagerty a strong favorite for the GOP nomination, particularly since former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has announced he will not run, Roll Call noted recently. Phil Bredesen, 75, a former governor and an unsuccessful candidate for Senate in 2018, has been regularly mentioned as the potential Democratic Party nominee for the seat.
The 79-year-old Alexander, also a former Tennessee governor, has served in the Senate since 2003. He chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, which writes the first draft of the upper chamber’s annual budget plan for the Energy Department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, along with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Fleischmann, 56, has represented Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District since 2011. The district includes much of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Fleischmann has been an advocate for ample funding for the DOE mission in Tennessee, covering both the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration. He has also backed so-far unsuccessful efforts to provide funding for DOE and the NRC to resume licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
“My goal is to stay on the House Appropriations Committee,” Fleischmann told the National Cleanup Workshop.
Fleischmann is chairman of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, which promotes increased congressional funding for remediation of Cold War nuclear sites. He lamented the pending retirement of another member of that caucus, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who has unsuccessfully championed the case for Yucca Mountain.
“That is a big loss for us. John has really been the hero of Yucca,” Fleischmann said during a House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus presentation on Sept. 11, which Shimkus also attended.
“It’s all on you now,” Shimkus said to Fleischmann. “I have done all I can do personally in this fight,” the Illinois Republican added.
Political Landscape Could Change in New Mexico
Meanwhile, a Democrat within the House Nuclear Clean Caucus, Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), will run for Senate in 2020 in hopes of landing the seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). He formally announced his candidacy April 1.
Udall, 71, a backer of the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, said in March he would not seek re-election.
Luján, who has since 2009 represented 3rd Congressional District that includes the Los Alamos lab, is not the only Democrat interested in the Senate seat.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, 43, also announced her candidacy in April. She was first elected to the statewide office in 2016.
Republican Gavin Clarkson, 50, an unsuccessful candidate for New Mexico secretary of state in 2018 and a former Interior Department official in the Trump administration, has also declared his candidacy.
So far, 10 Democrats have already filed to run in a June 2020 primary to replace Luján. Only one Republican, Alexis Johnson, has registered to seek the GOP nomination. One of the more recognizable Democrats in the field is former CIA officer Valerie Plame, 56. Plame left the agency and received national attention after her identity was disclosed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak in 2003.
