Tom Leatherwood


Tom Leatherwood is an American politician serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives from Tennessee's 99th house district, since 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party. The 99th district includes the Northeast part of Shelby County, Tennessee, including the Town of Arlington, City of Lakeland, City of Millington, parts of North and East Bartlett, and unincorporated Northeast Shelby County.
Born and raised in Shelby County, Tom Leatherwood was elected State Representative to serve the people of District 99 in 2018. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Memphis, Tom spent several years in the energy industry. After this, he fulfilled a life-long dream of world travel and spent 14 months backpacking to over 20 countries. Tom came back home with a greater realization and appreciation of the many freedoms and blessings we enjoy in our nation.
He then earned his teaching certificate from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and taught at Millington Central High School for eight years. Tom was later elected to the State Senate after defeating the sponsor of the state income tax bill. As Vice Chairman of the Education Committee and member of the Finance Ways and Means Committee he played a critical role in education policy and passing fiscally responsible state budgets. After eight years, Tom Leatherwood kept his promise to only serve two terms and did not run again for the State Senate.
Tom then served as Shelby County Register of Deeds where he implemented a new recording system, streamlined the office, cut expenses, and reduced customer fees. His office was fully funded by customer fees at no cost to the taxpayers and he turned over excess revenue each year to help the county. He also won the Society of Tennessee Archivists’ Archival Advancement Award.
Tom is honored by the privilege to serve the people of Shelby County by shaping state policy. He and his wife, Melissa, have been married for 30 years and are active members of Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett. They live in Arlington and Melissa teaches first grade for Arlington Community Schools. They have five daughters and one son-in-law.

Background and Education

Leatherwood was born in Memphis, Tennessee on August 20, 1956. Leatherwood graduated from the University of Memphis with a B.S. in Geology in 1979. After graduation, he worked in the oil exploration industry. He decided to backpack through 25 countries around the world. His trip lasted fourteen months. After returning from the backpacking trip, he decided to become a teacher. He received his teaching certificate from Middle Tennessee State University. He then taught high school in Millington, TN for eight years.
He is married to Melissa and has five daughters.

Political History

Tennessee State Senate

In 1992, Leatherwood challenged popular Republican Senator Leonard Dunavant for the Tennessee Senate in District 32. According to the Nashville News, "Leatherwood said he ran against Dunavant simply because Dunavant sponsored a bill to impose a state income tax during former Gov. Ned McWherter’s administration."
Leatherwood was the victor in the election and attributes much of the success due to his opposing of the income tax in the state. In 2014, Tennessee passed a Constitutional Amendment banning the state income tax. The amendment was sponsored by Senator Brian Kelsey and Representative Glen Casada.

Original Run for State House

Tom Leatherwood Shelby County Republican Party chairman Lee Mills to become the Republican nominee for the state House seat held by the late Ron Lollar. The panel heard from Leatherwood and Mills before announcing its decision that Tom Leatherwood would be the Republican standard bearer in the November contest with Democratic nominee Dave Cambron.

Shelby County Register of Deeds

After leaving the Tennessee Senate in 2000, Leatherwood set his sights on the Shelby County Assessor's Office. He narrowly lost to Democrat Rita Clark in a four-way race.
Soon after his defeat, Leatherwood decided to run in a special election for the Shelby County Register of Deeds. Longtime Register of Deeds, Guy Bates, passed away while in office. This created a special election in November of 2000.
Leatherwood held the Register of Deeds position for 18 years. He won re-election in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. In 2010, term limits became effective and Leatherwood was unable to run for Register of Deeds again in 2018.
Because of the term limits, he decided to run for Shelby County Circuit Court Clerk in the 2018 election cycle. He won the Republican primary but lost the general election to the Democrat, Temiika Gipson.

Archiving Problems at Register's Office

In 2005, Leatherwood approached the State Legislature and lobbied to have the law on archiving records changed. The Senate Bill was SB1753 and was sponsored by Senator Curtis Person. The House Bill was HB2064 and sponsored by Representative Beverly Marrero and co-sponsored by Representative Tre Hargett. The House conformed to SB1753 and it was assigned by the Secretary of State.
In 2019, newly elected Register of Deeds Shelandra Ford made an unexpected announcement about the archiving of records in Shelby County. In a letter to clerks and other officials she stated, "the previous records retention, maintenance and pulling of records by my office for other elected officials, judges and or the public will cease 30 calendar days from receipt of this letter." In the same letter, Ford stated that the problem was one of, "...critical issue of the storage, maintenance and records retention."
Soon, she came before the Shelby County Commission and asked to hire new employees to alleviate the backlog of archiving. Initially, the Commission rejected her request. However, during the meeting she told those present that the Register's Office had a 14-year backlog and that Leatherwood had not properly overseen the archiving. She was quoted as saying, "...it would take one employee 246 years to scan the backlog of materials from 2005 through 2018. It would take five people 49 years, 10 people 25 years, 20 people 13 years and 50 people five years."
In December 2019, the Shelby County Commission approved $168,412 to hire two full-time employees and three temporary workers.
Ms. Ford said that the backlog of archiving was a "catastrophe" and that fixing the problem, "would take years and not be cheap."

Congressional Campaigns

While Shelby County Register of Deeds, Leatherwood attempted two separate runs for the United States Congress. In 2008, Leatherwood ran for the 7th Congressional District against sitting Republican Congressman Marsha Blackburn.
In 2016, Leatherwood once again decided to run for Congress. After the 2010 Census, Leatherwood's Congressional District changed from the 7th District to the 8th District. Unlike the 2008 race, the 2016 race had a very crowded primary field. Once Congressman Stephen Fincher announced his retirement, the Republican flood gates opened with potential candidates. In all, thirteen candidates were on the Republican primary ballot.

The Educational Savings Account (ESA)

In 2019, Governor Bill Lee announced that he would be introducing legislation that created Educational Savings Accounts in Tennessee. Under his proposal, $7300 of public money would provided to parents who unenroll a student from their school district and allow them to use the funds on private school or other education-related expenses. Parents enrolling in the program would get debit-type card to pay for tuition or the other approved expenses.
The bill was controversial from the start. Public school supporters say that using public funds to fund private education undermines the public education system. Pro-voucher supporters believe that parents with children in failing public schools should be able to send their children to private schools using taxpayer money.
Leatherwood, who is a former high school teacher and whose wife is a current elementary school teacher, originally voted against the bill in the House Education Subcommittee. During the subcommittee meeting he said, "“I am concerned that having these accounts out there could draw some people who aren’t as dedicated or concerned about home schooling as some have been in the past. … It just takes one or two bad cases to tarnish an entity or an institution.” Leatherwood was the only Republican on the subcommittee to vote against the bill.
The bill originally affected three counties in Tennessee; Davidson, Knox, and Shelby.
When the bill came to the floor for a vote, the vote total was 49-49. Speaker Glen Casada took the unprecedented step of leaving the vote open for 40-plus minutes. During that time, Speaker Casada and Governor Lee and his staff allegedly attempted to sway no-voters. Members were seen being taken one-by-one onto the patio behind the Speaker's desk. Eventually, Representative Jason Zachary changed his vote with the promise that Knoxville Schools would be removed from the bill.
In the end, the Educational Savings Account bill passed by a vote of 50-48.

Committees and Subcommittee Assignments

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