U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican, is running for a second term representing Tennessee in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.
Hagerty has held the seat since Jan. 3, 2021, according to U.S. Senate records. He faces nine other candidates on the ballot, including Democrat Marquita Bradshaw and independents Andrew Gerena, Catherine Barcel Whitson, David Sutman Jr., James William Macon III, Jeremy Dean Hearn, Robert Jones, Tharon Chandler and Yoshi D. Matthews, according to BallotReady election data.
Candidate information
- Party: Republican
- Residence: Davidson County. Lives with his wife, Chrissy, and their four children, according to his campaign website.
- Birthplace: Gallatin, Tennessee. Hagerty says he was raised in a working-class family. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father, a veteran, worked road construction, according to his campaign website.
- Education: Bachelor of arts in economics from Vanderbilt University, 1981. J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, 1984. Hagerty graduated Phi Beta Kappa and attended law school as a Patrick Wilson Scholar, according to Vanderbilt Law School.
Experience and public service
Hagerty says he serves on four Senate committees: the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; the Committee on Foreign Relations; the Committee on Appropriations; and the Committee on Rules and Administration, according to his campaign website.
Before the Senate, Hagerty served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2019, according to Vanderbilt Law School. He served as Tennessee's commissioner of economic and community development from 2011 to 2014, a period in which he says Tennessee became the top state for jobs created through direct foreign investment and earned back-to-back "State of the Year for Economic Development" awards, according to his campaign website.
Hagerty was a senior leader on the 2016 Trump transition team, according to BallotReady. He served as a White House fellow in the Office of the Vice President during the George H.W. Bush administration, according to Vanderbilt Law School. He also worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group, according to his campaign website. He founded and served as managing director of Hagerty Peterson & Co., a private equity firm, according to Vanderbilt Law School.
On the issues
The following positions are drawn from Hagerty's campaign website and BallotReady questionnaire responses. They reflect the candidate's own statements. Some positions may have been published during a prior campaign cycle and may not reflect his priorities for 2026.
Economy and technology: Hagerty says he wrote the GENIUS Act, which he describes as a conservative initiative to restore American leadership in next-generation technologies, strengthen domestic capital formation and counter threats from China. He says the legislation has become a centerpiece of the national debate on economic competitiveness.
Taxes and budget: Hagerty says he supports making the tax code "simple, fair, low, and permanent" and backs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He says he is committed to cutting federal spending and opposing tax increases.
Infrastructure: Hagerty says he will work across party lines to close the digital divide and ensure all Tennesseans have access to reliable internet.
Energy and environment: Hagerty says he opposes the Green New Deal and supports the exploration and development of fossil fuels. He says he would work to repeal renewable fuels standards and scale back environmental regulations on resource development.
Drug policy: Hagerty says three Tennesseans lose their lives each day to the opioid epidemic. He says all levels of government must work together on prevention, enforcement, treatment and recovery programs.
Endorsements
Hagerty has received endorsements from the following, according to his campaign website and BallotReady:
- Donald J. Trump
- Senate Conservatives Fund
Candidate positions and biographical claims attributed to the candidate's campaign website or BallotReady questionnaire responses reflect the candidate's own statements and have not been independently verified by the Mt. Juliet Journal. This profile was compiled from publicly available sources and is AI-curated and human-edited.
