Jeff Yarbro
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Jeff Yarbro (born February 16, 1977) is an American attorney and politician from
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented
District 21 A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
in the
Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...
since 2015, and served as Senate Minority Leader between 2019 and 2023. In 2023, Yarbro ran for
Mayor of Nashville The Mayoralty in the United States, Mayor of Nashville is the chief executive of the government of Nashville, Tennessee. The current mayor is Freddie O'Connell. Each mayor serves a term of four years, with a limit of two consecutive terms, unless ...
in the 2023 election, and finished in fourth place.


Early life and education

Jeff Yarbro was born in
Dyersburg, Tennessee Dyersburg is a city in and the county seat of Dyer County, Tennessee, United States. It is located in northwest Tennessee, northeast of Memphis on the Forked Deer River. The population was 16,164 at the 2020 census, down 5.72% from the 2010 ce ...
, his father, Paul Yarbro, a farmer; and his mother, Joetta, a sexual abuse investigator for the state. As a child, he attended public schools. After graduating from high school in 1995, he attended
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where he earned a B.A. in government with honors. He met his wife on the campaign trail, and after the election they both went on to pursue law degrees at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
. While studying law, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the ''
Virginia Law Review The ''Virginia Law Review'' is a law review edited and published by students at University of Virginia School of Law. It was established on March 15, 1913, and permanently organized later that year. The stated objective of the ''Virginia Law Revi ...
''. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Thomas Marshall Miller Prize.


Career

Yarbro clerked for Judge Gilbert Merritt of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of K ...
. He began practicing law at the firm Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville. He assisted in implementing the firm's formal
pro bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
program. Yarbo's work defending an inmate on death row helped gain recognition for his firm by the bar for outstanding service to the indigent. Yarbro primarily focuses on civil and appellate litigation, consumer financial services, constitutional law, and public contracts.


Political activity

Yarbro worked on the New Hampshire Primary on the Advance Staff, and was the assistant to the chief political strategist for Democratic candidate
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
's presidential campaign in 2000. He was also the GOTV director for
Harold Ford Jr. Harold Eugene Ford Jr. (born May 11, 1970) is an American financial managing director, pundit, author, and former U.S. Congressman who served from 1997 to 2007 in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party fro ...
's 2006 run for the United States Senate. Recently, Yarbro served as an education policy adviser to Nashville Mayor
Karl Dean Karl Foster Dean (born September 20, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 6th Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as Nashville's Director of Law under Mayor Bill P ...
, and received th
PENCIL Foundation
's Volunteer of the Year award for 2010-11 for his work with public education. In his first campaign for public office in 2010, Yarbro came within seventeen votes of defeating forty-year incumbent Senator
Douglas Henry Douglas Selph "Duck" Henry Jr. (May 18, 1926 – March 5, 2017) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the longest-serving member of the Tennessee legislature. He was a member of the Tennessee Senate, representing the 21st ...
, who retained his seat as the state senator for Tennessee's twenty-first district. He beat
Mary Mancini Mary Mancini is an American political activist and former candidate, who served as Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party from 2015 to 2021. She was elected as Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party on January 10, 2015 as the second woman to b ...
in the 2014 Democratic primary in the 21st district of Tennessee to go on and win the general election to join the 109th General Assembly. Yarbro is a co-chair of Superintendent Jesse Register's Transformational Leadership Group for high schools in Nashville. He is also one of the founding board members of East End Prep, co-founder of Nashville's Kitchen Cabinet, serves as co-chair for the Conexion Americas capital campaign for the Casa Azafran community center, and the chair of the Metropolitan Transit Authority board in Nashville. He rain for Metropolitan Mayor of Nashville in summer 2023 and was disqualified after coming in fourth place with 12.19 percent of the vote with 12,356 votes in total.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yarbro, Jeff 1977 births 21st-century members of the Tennessee General Assembly American lawyers Democratic Party Tennessee state senators Harvard College alumni Living people People from Dyersburg, Tennessee Politicians from Nashville, Tennessee University of Virginia School of Law alumni