Chuck Fleischmann has been the congressman for Tennessee's 3rd District since 2011. That's 15 years — long enough that we don't have to guess what kind of representative he is. We can just look at the record. Here are three things Tennesseans should know.

1. He said "never" to holding a town hall

Most jobs come with a performance review. Fleischmann has decided his doesn't.

In August 2025 he told the Chattanooga Times Free Press flatly that he would "never" hold an open town hall meeting. Local 3 News reported the same thing. The only mention of in-person town halls anywhere on his congressional website, the Times Free Press found, dates to 2011 — his first year in office. He has also refused to debate his general-election opponents in recent years, on the grounds that he always wins overwhelmingly.

This isn't for lack of people asking. Constituents in Red Bank protested to demand he hold a town hall about DOGE and Elon Musk's cuts to federal agencies. Three weeks later, hundreds attended a constituent-organized town hall in Hixson hoping to put questions to him. He didn't come.

A congressman who won't stand in a room and answer questions isn't confident. He's hiding.

2. He voted to overturn the 2020 election — and kept casting doubt on it

On January 6, 2021, a mob attacked the Capitol. Hours later, after the building was cleared, Fleischmann voted to reject Arizona's electoral votes and Pennsylvania's — voting to throw out other Americans' legally cast ballots. He was one of the 147 Republicans the New York Times tracked who objected that night.

Before that, he had signed a brief backing the Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to throw out the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. After that, he kept voting to make sure nobody looked too closely:

• Voted against impeaching Trump, saying the president had committed to "a peaceful transition of power."
• Voted against an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.
• Voted against the House select committee that ended up investigating it instead.

And months later, in May 2021, he was still at it, telling the Times Free Press: "We had a fundamentally flawed process in many states. I fervently believe that."

3. He voted to keep a tariff on your groceries to back Trump

You've felt this one at the register. Nearly half of Americans say they find groceries, utility bills, health care, housing and transportation difficult to afford. A big driver is tariffs — which are just taxes on imports, paid by us.

Fleischmann had a chance to do something. On February 11, 2026, the House voted 219–211 to end the Canadian tariffs, with six Republicans joining in. Fleischmann voted no, and he explained why with unusual honesty: he didn't vote to end them because he wanted to give Trump as much support as possible in his tariff negotiations with Canada. Not because it was good for Tennessee. Because of loyalty.

He's praised the tariffs publicly even as economists warned about the fallout. Before that vote, House leadership had rewritten the chamber's own calendar to block votes on rescinding the tariffs at all. When one finally got through, he voted to keep them.

One pattern, three examples

A hard "never" to facing voters, a vote to throw out votes, and a vote to keep a tariff in place on purpose. Different issues, same instinct — when the choice is between what Tennesseans need and what the party wants, Chuck Fleischmann has already made up his mind, and it isn't close.

Fifteen years in, that's not a rough patch. It's the job as he understands it. The question on the 2026 ballot is whether the 3rd District still wants it done that way.