John Ray Clemmons

In the 2014 elections, at 36 years of age Clemmons challenged Gary Odom, the incumbent representative for the 55th district in the Tennessee House of Representatives in the Democratic primary, who had held the seat since Clemmons was eight years old.[7][8] Odom had served in the Tennessee General Assembly since 1986, and was a former House majority leader.[7] Clemmons defeated Odom, with 54% of the vote.[9][7] Clemmons was then unopposed in the general election.[8]

In 2016, Clemmons ran for reelection to his House seat, and was unopposed in both the Democratic primary and general elections.[8] In 2018, he ran again for his House seat, and was unopposed in the Democratic primary and won the general election with 100% of the vote.[8]

Clemmons ran for Mayor of Nashville in the 2019 Nashville mayoral election.[10][11] One of the youngest candidates in the race, he focused on public education, affordable housing, and infrastructure.[12] In the 10-candidate race he finished in fourth place behind incumbent Nashville Mayor David Briley, eventual winner John Cooper, and Vanderbilt University professor Carol M. Swain, failing to make the two-candidate runoff election.[13]

In 2020, Clemmons ran for reelection to his House seat, and was unopposed in both the Democratic primary and general elections.[8] In 2021-2022 he was on the House Civil Justice Committee, Education Administration Committee, and Health Committee.[8] In 2022 he was rated 92% by NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).[14]

In January 2022, when the board of trustees of McMinn County Schools in Tennessee, in a 10–0 decision, removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus from its curriculum for 8th grade English classes, overriding a State curriculum decision, Clemmons was critical of the decision.[15] Clemmons said "Books are being stripped out of public libraries that give detailed personal accounts from survivors and about victims of the Holocaust."[16]