Scott Eugene DesJarlais is a Republican politician who has represented Tennessee’s 4th congressional district since 2011. The district encompasses East and Middle Tennessee. He belongs to the Republican Party. He is also a physician.

He entered politics in 2009, filing papers to run against Democratic incumbent Lincoln Davis, as well as Independents Paul H. Curtis, James Gray, Richard S. Johnson, and Gerald York.

DesJarlais is a supporter of the Tea Party Movement.

DesJarlais was born in 1964 in Des Moines, Iowa, to barber Joe DesJarlais and registered nurse Sylvia. He was raised in Sturgis, South Dakota.

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DesJarlais has three kids with his second wife, Amy. They are South Pittsburgh residents. They belong to Sherwood, Tennessee’s Epiphany Mission Episcopal Church.

DesJarlais received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and psychology from the University of South Dakota in 1987 and his doctorate from the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in 1991. He relocated to East Tennessee in 1993 to practise general medicine.

During his first term, DesJarlais represented a district that stretched almost diagonally across the state, from coal-mining regions near Knoxville, the Tri-Cities, and Chattanooga to Nashville’s outskirts.

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Redistricting had significantly altered the Fourth District by the 2012 election. It lost its entire northeastern portion and was pushed west to include suburban areas closer to Nashville, including Murfreesboro, which was previously the heart of the 6th district. The redrawn 4th district contained roughly half of the constituents from the former 4th district, with 14 of the 24 counties relocated elsewhere.

In the Republican primary in 2020, veteran and ex-police officer Doug Meyer was defeated by DesJarlais. 

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DesJarlais signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a case brought before the US Supreme Court challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump, along with 126 other Republican members of the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the grounds that Texas lacked constitutional standing to contest the results of an election conducted by another state under Article III of the Constitution.

DesJarlais testified in a divorce trial for his first wife in 2000 that he had extramarital relationships with at least two patients, three coworkers, and a drug salesman while employed as a hospital chief of staff.