David Kustoff
The second-term congressman from Tennessee’s 8th District was elected in 2016 after edging out several name Republican candidates in a hotly contested GOP primary, and was handily re-elected in 2018. Kustoff was a long-term law partner with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a close friend from their days as University of Memphis undergraduates and at the UM Law School. He served as Tennessee campaign manager for the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and made an unsuccessful first congressional try in the Republican primary for the 7th Congressional District in 2002. Appointed by Bush as U.S. Attorney for Tennessee’s Western Division, he served until 2008. Kustoff was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. He is one of only two GOP Jewish members of the House and, with U.S. Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat, one of two Jewish members serving the Memphis area.
