After graduation from Lipscomb University, Roberts worked for Touche Ross and Company. In 1985, he started his own accounting practice which he sold in 1990. In 1990, Roberts opened a chain of bicycle retailers. Roberts also served as President and Chairman of the National Bicycle Dealers Association. He closed his stores as a result of losses incurred by the 2010 Tennessee floods. Roberts now owns Resource Network LLC, a company that provides accounting, finance, and technology professionals on a temporary or contract basis.
Roberts sponsored legislation to create a “supplemental insurance program — commonly called a Katie Beckett waiver — to assist families of children with medically complex needs, regardless of their income.” Started by President Ronald Reagan, Tennessee was the last state to adopt a Katie Beckett waiver. Roberts sponsored the Fresh Start Act to “ensure that licensing authorities do not deny applications for professional licenses due to prior criminal convictions unless they are directly related to the profession, with the exception of certain felonies.”
2011 Campaign
Roberts won the Senate District 18 Republican Primary on January 20, 2011. Roberts won the Senate District 18 General Election on March 8, 2011.
2014 Campaign
Roberts announced his campaign for re-election to the Tennessee Senate on May 15, 2013. On September 24, 2013, Representative Joshua Evans of Greenbrier, TN, announced that he was running against Roberts. Other candidates included Tony Gross, Jim Summerville, and Wayne White. Roberts won the August 7, 2014, Republican primary with 42.16 percent of the vote in a highly-contest primary. Representative Joshua Evans came in second with 37.82 percent, followed by incumbent Senator Jim Summerville at 15.87 percent, and businessman Wayne White at 4.15 percent. In the November 4, 2014, general election, Roberts defeated Democratic Party nominee Tony Gross with 70.43 percent of the vote, compared to Gross' 29.57 percent.
2018 Campaign
In 2018, Roberts ran for re-election to the Tennessee Senate. He was unopposed in the August 2, 2018, Republican primary. On November 6, he won re-election with 11,392 votes. He defeated Democrat Wade Munday who only had 4,757 votes.
In September 2019 on his weekly talk radio show, The Kerry Roberts Show, Roberts made national news when he claimed that higher education should be abolished to limit the "liberal breeding ground." The Tennessee Star Report on Nashville's Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC welcomed Roberts to discuss his “hyperbole which was misunderstood by the liberal mainstream media” and incorrectly reported as a policy statement. Roberts’ website posted “His voting record demonstrates consistent support of higher education including the vote to make Tennessee one of the first states in the nation to provide two years of free college or technical education to high school graduates.”
