David Kustoff

In 2006, President Bush nominated Kustoff as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.[5][12] During his tenure in office, Kustoff prosecuted the Operation Tennessee Waltz, after which John Ford, a prominent Tennessee politician, and others were sent to prison.[13] Kustoff also worked to reduce crime in the Memphis area, joining a group of Memphis leaders and law enforcement officials called Operation Safe Community.[14]

Kustoff resigned as U.S. Attorney shortly before the 2008 election and chose to return to his private practice.[12]

In February 2016, Stephen Fincher announced that he would not run for re-election in Tennessee's 8th congressional district. Kustoff announced his campaign in February; eastern Memphis had been shifted from the 7th to the 8th in the 2010s round of redistricting. Kustoff began to emerge from the crowded pack when he was endorsed by former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who filmed ads for Kustoff and campaigned with him.[15][12][16] He narrowly won the primary with a plurality of 27.45% with Shelby County Commissioner George Flinn behind with 23.08%. Kustoff faced Democratic nominee Rickey Hobson, a Delta Air Lines manager and Somerville, Tennessee resident. Kustoff visited all 15 counties in the district and urged skeptical Republicans to support Donald Trump for the presidency.[17] Kustoff defeated Hobson in the general election.[18] However, he had effectively assured himself of a seat in Congress with his primary victory. The addition of the Memphis suburbs had turned the 8th into one of the most Republican districts in the nation; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+15, it was the most Republican district in the state outside of East Tennessee.

During the 2018 elections George Flinn mounted a primary challenge against Kustoff and spent millions against him, but Kustoff won with 56.00% against Flinn's 39.67%.[19]

• Republican Study Committee.[20]

Kustoff voted for the American Health Care Act in May 2017. "[O]ur current health care system is failing Tennesseans", he said afterwards. Later that month, a woman angrily confronted him about that vote during a town hall meeting at the University of Tennessee at Martin; after the meeting ended and Kustoff along with some of his staff got into their car, she gave chase and allegedly attempted to run them off the road, then confronted them again about Kustoff's vote, reportedly banging on the windows of his car in the process. Police later arrested her on a felony charge of reckless endangerment.[21]

Kustoff supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. He stated that “I believe President Trump is putting American safety first, and I will encourage a long-term plan that is consistent with the values and compassion on which our great nation was founded.”[22]

In December 2020, Kustoff was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden prevailed[23] over incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of the election held by another state.[24][25][26]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion." Additionally, Pelosi reprimanded Kustoff and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions."[27][28] New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Kustoff and the other Republicans who signed the brief supporting the suit. Pascrell argued that "the text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."[29]