Jason Everett Mumpower was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 3rd District, which consists of all of Johnson County and part of Sullivan County. Mumpower was first elected to the Tennessee House in the 100th Tennessee General Assembly and served as the RepublicanMajority Leader, a position to which he was elected on December 13, 2006. He was a member of the Health and Human Resources Committee, the Government Operations Committee, and Finance, Ways and Means. He was previously Republican Caucus Assistant Leader. With the Republicans holding a slim 50-49 advantage over Democrats within the Tennessee House of Representatives following the 2008 state elections, it was anticipated within the TNGA Republican House Caucus that Mumpower would be the elected in 2009 as next Speaker of the House, succeeding DemocratJimmy Naifeh, who has held the position since 1991. However, Mumpower lost the House Speaker election to fellow Republican Kent Williams of Carter County. Williams was able to secure the vote of every House Democrat, plus his own, to become the first Republican Speaker of the House since 1969. Mumpower announced he would not seek reelection in 2010.
Legislative goals
2009
Mumpower co-sponsored the 2009 H.B. 1725 legislation sponsored by his fellow Bristol and Sullivan County member in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Rep. Jon Lundberg. H.B. 1725 – subject to approval by the Bristol Board of Aldermen – removes the right of all Bristol voters to participate within ballot questions for recall, initiative, and referendum provisions authorized by the city charter, and was enacted into law by the Tennessee GeneralAssembly and assigned Private Chapter Number 18 by the Tennessee Secretary of State.
2008
Mumpower voted for a measure to lift a cap preventing the construction toll bridge and toll road projects across Tennessee during the 2008 session. The toll road legislation failed to be enacted by the Tennessee Senate.
Early career
Mumpower graduated from Bristol Tennessee High School in 1991, later attending King College in Bristol and graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Administration. He is employed by Rep. Jon Lundberg at the Corporate Image, Inc. public relations and marketing firm in Bristol and also by his father-in-law at NWP Real Estate Appraisals of Rogersville, Tennessee, where he has worked as a registered real estate appraiser trainee since October 17, 2007. Mumpower is also a noted comic book collector in Tennessee, with approximately 17,000 comic books cataloged and organized within his private collection gathered over 23 years. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Mumpower as stating that he "read a comic book each night before going to bed", and Mumpower also stated that his current favorite comic book super hero is Spider-Man. Prior to being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, Mumpower bagged groceries at a Bristol, Tennessee grocery store. "I learned more about life working in the Food City than I could learn anywhere else", Mumpower stated in a December 2008 news article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "To me, a grocery store is a clearinghouse of life. Everybody has to eat."
