David Byrd (politician)

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]

In March 2018, three women accused Byrd of sexually abusing them while they were underage members of the high school basketball team he coached. Each of the three women detailed instances of Byrd touching and kissing them and making unwanted advances over 30 years prior, in 1988.[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.[8] Byrd drew two challengers in the August 2020 primary, but he beat both easily with 59% of the vote.

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

In December 2020, Byrd was hospitalized with COVID-19. On December 10 he posted on Facebook that his condition was so severe, that he’ll probably have to be put on a ventilator.[9] He had attended a caucus meeting with nearly 70 House Republicans in the House chamber on Nov 24, a week-and-a-half before he was hospitalized with the virus. Byrd in June 2020 voted in support of a House resolution stating that "mainstream media has sensationalized the reporting on COVID-19 in the service of political agendas."