Republican · Tennessee's 1st District · 2026
Diana Harshbarger
Harshbarger grew up in Bloomingdale, outside Kingsport, and became the first person in her immediate family to graduate from both high school and college.
Biography
Diana Harshbarger and her husband, Robert, live in Kingsport and also spend time at their farm in Unicoi.1 She has one son and two grandsons, and her professional life before Congress centered on running a business and working as a pharmacist.1
She grew up in Bloomingdale, just outside Kingsport, and became the first person in her immediate family to graduate from both high school and college.1 She attended East Tennessee State University, earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Mercer University and returned home to build her career.1 Her pharmacy and business work spans more than three decades.1 First elected in 2020, she entered Congress the following January.2
Harshbarger is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee.1 She also serves on its Energy Subcommittee and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, adding energy policy and federal oversight to her assignments.1 In May 2026, she introduced the Patients Before Monopolies Act with five original cosponsors.3 The proposal would prohibit common ownership of pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers or insurers, requiring affected owners to divest their pharmacies within a year of enactment.4
Her stated priorities include health care reform, economic development, rural broadband and addressing the opioid crisis.1 She faces Democrat Kristi Burke and five independent candidates in Tennessee's First District.5
Record and controversies
Late financial disclosures in 2021
Business Insider reported on August 19, 2021 that Harshbarger and her spouse had reported more than 700 stock trades late.6 Her office blamed a financial adviser's failure to follow reporting procedures, said she accepted responsibility and described correcting the paperwork.6 Campaign Legal Center requested an investigation into possible intentional disclosure violations; its complaint was a request for review, not an official ethics finding.7 A later public agency disposition was not verified for this review.7
Medication abortion safety claim
In May 2026, Harshbarger said 11% of women taking mifepristone would experience severe effects including sepsis or hemorrhage, citing an Ethics and Public Policy Center report.8 Reproductive health researchers challenged the report's undisclosed data and how it classified serious complications.8 The FDA's 2023 label reported serious adverse reactions in under 0.5% of women in ten clinical studies of mifepristone with misoprostol.9 Her office defended the larger insurance claims dataset as a safety signal warranting FDA review.8