David Byrd (politician)

David Byrd (born September 8, 1957) is an American politician and retired basketball coach from the state of Tennessee. A Republican, Byrd has represented the 71st district of the Tennessee House of Representatives, based in Hardin, Lawrence, Lewis, and Wayne Counties in rural Middle Tennessee, since 2015.[1][2]

David Byrd
Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives
from the 71st district
Assumed office
January 13, 2015
Preceded byVance Dennis
Personal details
Born (1957-09-08) September 8, 1957
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Sherry
Children4
ResidenceWaynesboro, Tennessee
EducationFreed–Hardeman University (BS)
Tennessee State University (MS)
WebsiteOfficial website

Career

Byrd spent most of his career as a school administrator and basketball coach at Wayne County High School. He also served as a Wayne County Commissioner from 1990 through 1994.[3]

In 2014, Byrd announced he would challenge Vance Dennis, state representative for the 71st district, in the Republican primary. He narrowly defeated Dennis in the primary and went on to win the general election unopposed in the heavily Republican seat.[3][4]

Sexual abuse allegations

In March 2018, 3 women accused Byrd of sexually abusing them while they were underage members of the high school basketball team he coached. Each of the 3 women detailed instances of Byrd touching and kissing them and making unwanted advances over 30 years prior.[5] Byrd did not initially directly refute the allegations, and apologized to one of the women, but later issued a statement denying the accusations and "questioning the motives" of his accusers. He resisted calls to resign from influential Republicans such as Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell, and won re-election in 2018 in a landslide.[6]

Calls for his resignation or retirement continued into 2019 and 2020, including an unsuccessful resolution by Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson to expel Byrd from the House.[7] In August 2019, Byrd promised fellow lawmakers he would not seek re-election in 2020 at the request of Governor Bill Lee; however, he reneged on that promise in April 2020 and filed for re-election anyways.[8] He faces two challengers in the August 2020 Republican primary.

Personal life

Byrd lives in Waynesboro with his wife Sherry; they have four children and five grandchildren.[1]

gollark: There *may* be a god of some kind who rewards you for believing in them and their afterlife and such, but there is an infinity of possible gods including ones like "allocates you to heaven or hell entirely at random", "entirely indistinguishable from no god", "sends you to hell if you believe in the *other* god", "incomprehensible eldritch abomination" or "literal bees".
gollark: PASACL'S WAGER BAD
gollark: ÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆA
gollark: Whether there *is*... some supernatural thing after death, such as an afterlife... is pretty much independent of whether you believe it or not, and while the exact form of that *may* depend on your beliefs about it, that makes a LOT of presumptions about god or who/what created the system which are not supported.
gollark: Pascal's Wager BAD.

References
  1. "Representative David Byrd". Tennessee General Assembly. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  2. "David Byrd (Tennessee)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  3. Tom Humphrey (March 9, 2014). "Former basketball coach seeks House District 71 seat". Knox Blogs. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  4. "Campfield among 7 state legislature incumbents defeated". Jackson Sun. August 8, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  5. Alanna Autler (March 27, 2018). "3 former players accuse Rep. David Byrd of sexual misconduct while they were teens". WSMV - News 4 Nashville. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  6. Jon Garcia (February 20, 2019). "What to know about embattled Tennessee lawmaker David Byrd and the allegations against him". The Tennessean. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  7. Natalie Allison (February 5, 2020). "Resolution filed again to expel Rep. David Byrd from legislature over sexual assault allegations". The Tennessean. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  8. Stephen Elliott (April 1, 2020). "David Byrd will run for re-election after all". Nashville Post. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
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