Tennessee’s John Wilder: The Longest Tenured State Legislator in Tennessee History

The Honorable John S. Wilder has served the constituents of Tennessee for over forty-years, and this historical accomplishment serves as the foundation of this work. In his political life, Lieutenant Governor Wilder has directly or indirectly impacted some of the most important administrative and public policy decisions over this period of time. Through archival document analysis and personal interviews with the Lieutenant Governor and many of his closest aids, political colleagues, and staunch opponents, the authors of this text have traced the history of John S. Wilder’s accomplishments and defeats from the late 1950s to the present. This triangulation of data collection and analysis helped the authors uncover forgotten political stories, and assisted in substantiating facts about many of the Lieutenant Governor’s major political decisions. Highlighted in the text are Wilder’s political triumphs over two coup attempts within the Democratic Party to oust him as Speaker of the Senate in the late 1980s. These efforts failed when the longest serving State Legislator in American history reached across party lines to maintain control of the second most powerful position in Tennessee state government. Now in his late 80’s, Wilder is still determined as ever to continue leading the Tennessee Senate well into the twenty-first century. This book chronicles the political career of the man from Somerville.