Gus Lusk "Tré" Hargett III (born February 7, 1969) is an American Republican Party politician who is serving as the 37th

Secretary of State of Tennessee The Tennessee Secretary of State is an office created by the Tennessee State Constitution. The Secretary of State is responsible for many of the administrative aspects of the operation of state government of Tennessee. The current Secretary of ...

since 2009.

Early life and education

He is the son of Tennessee

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

Gus L. Hargett Jr. and Mrs. Pat Vaughan. He is a Southern Baptist. Hargett earned a B.B.A. in accounting with honors, as well as an M.B.A. from the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering, the Center for Ea ...

Career

In the private sector, Hargett worked for

Rural/Metro Rural Metro Fire, founded in 1948, is an American private fire department that provides fire protection and emergency medical services to individual homeowners and commercial businesses in unincorporated locations throughout the United States, prim ...

, an emergency services provider. At the time of his appointment as TRA chairman, Hargett was serving as the corporation's Vice President for the Southern Region.

Politics

Hargett served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1996 to 2006 representing District 97 (Bartlett and Memphis). He was twice elected Republican Leader by his colleagues. In 2007, he was nominated to the position of Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) chairman, which sets the rates and service standards of privately owned telephone, natural gas, electric and water utilities. He was confirmed by the Tennessee General Assembly and served from February 2008 through January 2009. He was succeeded by Dr. Kenneth Hill. In January 2009, the state legislature's new Republican majority voted to replace longtime Secretary of State

Riley Darnell Riley Carlisle Darnell (May 13, 1940 – October 2, 2020) was an American politician and lawyer who served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from the 67th district, Tennessee Senate from the 22nd district, Majority Leader of the Tenne ...

with Hargett. Hargett immediately resigned from his position as TRA chairman and took office as secretary of state on January 15, 2009. In September 2017, Hargett said he was in favor of keeping the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a

Confederate general The general officers of the Confederate States Army (CSA) were the senior military leaders of the Confederacy during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. They were often former officers from the United States Army (the regular army) prior to ...

and the first

grand wizard The Grand Wizard (later the Grand and Imperial Wizard simplified as the Imperial Wizard and eventually, the National Director) referred to the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad. The t ...

of the Ku Klux Klan, inside the

Tennessee State Capitol The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tenn ...

. In 2019, Hargett supported legislation which would make it possible to fine voter registration groups that submitted incomplete voter registrations. Critics charged that the legislation was intended to reduce registration of new voters. Hargett rejected that the bill was intended to reduce registration of black voters. In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Tennessee on March 5, 2020. As of June 5, 2022, there are 2,023,815 confirmed cases, 26,103 deaths, and 12,825,885 reported tests. As of June 9, 2022, Tennessee ranks 21st b ...

, Hargett opposed allowing voters who fear catching or spreading the coronavirus to vote by mail in the 2020 elections. However, a state judge overruled Hargett's position, holding that Tennessee must allow vote by mail for all voters and that the restrictions on vote by mail that Hargett sought to impose were "an unreasonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the

Tennessee Constitution The Constitution of the State of Tennessee defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules (and means for changing them) of the U.S. State of Tennessee. The original constitution of Tennessee came into effect on June 1, ...

." On June 18, 2022, it was reported that Hargett had been arrested for

DUI Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

after leaving the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

References

External links

Tennessee Department of State
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hargett, Tre 1969 births 21st-century American politicians Living people Republican Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives People from Bartlett, Tennessee Secretaries of State of Tennessee