RON RAMSEY
Party: Republican
Office sought: District 2 Senate seat, Tennessee General Assembly.
Previous service: State House of Representatives (1994-96), state Senate (1996-present), lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate (2007- present).
Education: Bachelor’s degree in industrial technology (surveying) from East Tennessee State University.
Occupation: Businessman; owns the real estate auction firm Ron Ramsey and Associates
Family: Wife, Sindy; and three daughters, Tiffany, 27, Sheena, 25, and Madison, 23.
Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-1st, admits he has seriously considered seeking the Tennessee governor’s office in the November 2010 election.
But this year, Ramsey said, he is focused solely on keeping his seat in the state Senate and his job as lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate.
“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself,” said Ramsey, who has represented Sullivan and Johnson counties in the state Senate since 1996.
“You start looking forward on Nov. 5, [the day after the election],” he said.
Ramsey is seeking his fourth term in the Senate. He is being challenged by Democrat Bill Jones, a retired accountant from Kingsport. The general election is Nov. 4, but early voting in the state is underway, and closes Oct. 30. Polls are open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Ramsey spent two terms in the state House of Representatives before he joined the Senate. He was named the state’s lieutenant governor in January 2007.
“I like being lieutenant governor,” Ramsey said. “I absolutely love it.”
Unlike Virginia, where the lieutenant governor is chosen by a popular vote, members of the Tennessee Senate pick one of their own to hold this office.
Ramsey took over the office Jan. 9, 2007, after beating the state’s previous lieutenant governor, Sen. Jim Wilder, D-26, by an 18-15 vote.
That three-vote margin could shrink after this election because 11 of the Senate’s 33 seats are being contested; and six of these seats belong to Ramsey supporters.
He’s already lost one supporter, Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-22, who lost a controversial primary in August and is now running a write-in campaign.
But Ramsey remains confident he’ll survive this election both as a state Senator and as lieutenant governor. He said his support, along with his party’s majority in the Senate, could actually grow after Nov. 4 because “Republicans have an honest to goodness shot of picking up four seats.”
Ramsey said it’s important he stay as the state’s lieutenant governor because it helps him fulfill his first objective in state government, which is to “remind people that the state of Tennessee does not stop in Knoxville.”
He said holding the office helps him get what local governments and agencies in his district need from the state government.
But getting anything from the state government will be tough next year, Ramsey said, because the Tennessee General Assembly must close a $400 million to $600 million budget deficit in its upcoming session.
“You can lay out an agenda all day long, but if it’s going to cost the state of Tennessee a cent, it’s not going to pass,” he said, adding many state agencies and programs will be “struggling to keep what they have.”
Ramsey has lived in the Blountville-area all of his life and manages his real estate auction firm, Ron Ramsey and Associates, with his wife, Sindy. He has a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology (surveying) from East Tennessee State University and three daughters who are in their 20s.
Ramsey’s favorite color is light blue, but because he is color-blind he said it could be light green and he wouldn’t know the difference.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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