Bill Powers (American politician)


Bill Powers is an American politician who has served in the 111th Tennessee General Assembly since being elected in April 2019 and represents the Tennessee Senate's 22nd district.

Early life, family, and education

He was born in Clarksville, Tennessee and continues to live there to this day. He is the husband of Fran Powers, and they are parents of three children: Spence, Louise, and Henry. He graduated with honors from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts, English/History.

Political career

Local politics

He was elected two terms on the Clarksville City Council. Throughout his two terms Powers served as Chairman of Clarksville Gas & Water; Clarksville Department of Electricity/ Lightband Board of Directors; Parks & Recreation; and Board of Zoning Appeals for the city.

State politics

Powers began his campaign for the Tennessee Senate on January 11, 2019, due to Tennessee Senator Mark Green stepping down from his position, causing a vacancy. On March 7, Powers won the Republican primary with 39.1% of the vote. On April 23, Powers won the general election with 53.6% of the vote, defeating Democrat Juanita Charles and Independent candidates Doyle Clark and David Cutting. Powers was sworn in on April 25, on the same day he voted in favor of governor Bill Lee's education savings account legislation.
On February 14, 2020, Powers co-sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 723, which called for the Tennessee Valley Authority, United States Army Corps of Engineers, and other federal authorities to join Tennessee in “aggressively addressing the Asian carp invasion in Tennessee waterways.” On May 11, Powers announced that the Tennessee Department of Health had received $118,309 to expand COVID-19 testing into Stewart County, to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Positions and committees

He is a member of multiple Senate committees and subcommittees which include:

Elections

A special election was held on April 23, 2019 in which powers ran as a Republican against Democratic Juanita Charles as well as Independent party members Doyle Clark and David Cutting. The results of the special election are shown in the table below.
Candidates%Votes
Bill Powers 53.66,461
Juanita Charles  44.45,352
Doyle Clark  1.3155
David Cutting 0,784