District 63 state Rep. Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn

District 63 state Rep. Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn

 Photo: Hamilton Matthew Masters

District 63 state Rep. Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) hosted his fourth annual Cars and Guitars fundraiser on Dec. 6 in Franklin, touting support from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and state Sen. Majority Leader Jack Johnson ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Blackburn called McCalmon a “leader on how we protect children in our state and how we give educational choice for kids and parents.”

Her remarks were a nod to several bills sponsored and co-sponsored by McCalmon related to criminal statutes where children are victimized, including House Bill 45, signed into law this summer. The law increased the penalty for someone who “commits child abuse by knowingly treating a child between 9 and 17 in such a manner as to inflict injury.”

“We're going to continue to fight the fight on protecting kids from human trafficking. We're going to continue to protect our kids from child abuse. We're going to focus on making sure that Tennessee has the best educational platform in this state, and that's by empowering parents first and foremost, and lastly, we're going to continue to keep our taxes low,” McCalmon told a group of more than 100 supporters, including numerous Williamson County elected officials.

McCalmon has not yet filed any new bills for the upcoming January 2026 legislative session, but told the Williamson Scene that he expects to do so in the coming weeks.

“I know we have an election coming up, but my mind is gonna be focused on legislating, doing the job that the people elect me to do,” McCalmon said. “Once we're done with that, go home, and then I'll be full steam ahead for the campaign.”

He said that school vouchers, also known as the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which he supported earlier this year, is “still a topic of conversation” for the legislature, as well as a focus on infrastructure bills.

“All of Middle Tennessee is just growing, and we need to find creative ways to fund that,” McCalmon said.

“Being on the transportation committee, we were all tasked with finding new ways and creative ways for new revenue to fund those [ongoing infrastructure] projects. So that's gonna be something I think all of us are gonna be looking at.”

McCalmon is running for reelection in a rematch against Democratic challenger and Franklin OBGYN Dr. Laura Andreson, who unsuccessfully ran against McCalmon in 2024.

Democrats are reenergized following Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election, despite Democrat Aftyn Behn’s defeat to newly sworn-in Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, citing shifts in Democratic favorability in recent elections, but McCalmon said he’s not worried about the shifts.

“Williamson County has proved time and time again that we are deeply red… I'm not overly concerned about a blue shift in this state, let alone Williamson County.”