U.S. House of Representatives · Public domain

First elected in 2006 to represent Memphis's majority-Black 9th congressional district, he became the first Jewish member of Congress from Tennessee and one of a small number of Jewish representatives to hold a majority-Black seat — a fact opponents have repeatedly tried to turn against him at the ballot box, without success, across two decades. He served twenty years in the Tennessee Senate beforehand and announced in 2026 that he would not seek reelection after redistricting reshaped his district.