James Rand McNally III (born January 30, 1944) is an American politician. He is the 50th

lieutenant governor of Tennessee The Speaker of the Tennessee Senate, who also serves as lieutenant Governor of Tennessee is the Speaker (politics), presiding officer of the Tennessee Senate and first in line in the succession to the office of governor of Tennessee in the event ...

. A member of the Republican Party, he has been the state senator from the 5th district since 1987.

Early life and education

McNally was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

,https://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/24356/randy-mcnally#.XL6ooehKjIU "Randy McNally's Biography - Vote Smart. Massachusetts and later graduated from Oak Ridge High School, Tennessee in 1962, obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(BS) from

Memphis State University The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

in 1967, and graduated from

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

College of Pharmacy in 1969.

Career

Beginning in the late 1960s, he worked as a

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

in chain drug stores. In 1978, he began employment as a hospital pharmacist at Methodist Medical Center in

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's po ...

. McNally has served in the

Tennessee General Assembly The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Tennessee Senate, Senate and a Tennessee House of Representa ...

since 1979. He was elected to the 91st through 94th General Assemblies as a member of the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

. He was a key figure in the Operation Rocky Top investigation in the late 1980s, when he worked undercover to help the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation obtain evidence on political corruption in the Tennessee state government. He moved to the State Senate for the 95th General Assembly in 1987 and has served there continuously since then. McNally was a candidate for lieutenant governor and Speaker of the Senate in 2007, but fellow Republican Ron Ramsey was elected. On January 10, 2017, he was elected lieutenant governor and Senate Speaker by the state senate.

Personal life

McNally is

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. He and his wife, Janice, have two daughters. In February 2023, McNally underwent emergency heart surgery after having symptoms of an irregular heartbeat. Doctors at

Vanderbilt University Medical Center The Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a medical provider with multiple hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as clinics and facilities throughout Middle Tennessee. VUMC is an independent non-profit organization, but maintains a ...

installed a pacemaker for McNally. He returned to 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 ...

one week later.

Instagram controversy

In March 2023, it was reported McNally had used his verified

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account to ‘like’ and comment on sexually suggestive social media posts on the Instagram account of a 20-year-old gay man. Various

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

groups criticized McNally and accused him of hypocrisy, due to his support for socially conservative laws, including the Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act. A spokesman for McNally stated he "enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of all religions, backgrounds and orientations on social media" and "has no intention of stopping". About a week later, state Rep. Todd Warner released a statement calling on McNally to step down and accusing him of being a predator. A meeting of the Senate GOP caucus voted to retain McNally as speaker.

References

External links

Senator Randy McNally
Tennessee General Assembly website
Senator James Randy McNally

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is an American non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected offic ...