Tom Leatherwood

In 2019, newly elected Register of Deeds Shelandra Ford made an unexpected announcement about the archiving of records in Shelby County. In a letter to clerks and other officials she stated, "the previous records retention, maintenance and pulling of records by my office for other elected officials, judges and or the public will cease 30 calendar days from receipt of this letter." In the same letter, Ford stated that the problem was one of, "...critical issue of the storage, maintenance and records retention."

In December 2019, the Shelby County Commission approved $168,412 to hire two full-time employees and three temporary workers.

A Collierville, TN resident then made a FEC complaint against Leatherwood. The complaint alleged that, "Leatherwood’s advertisements didn’t have him approving the message in his own voice, didn’t disclose who paid for his yard signs, and didn’t show his campaign’s website as an expense on his campaign disclosure reports."

In 2019, Governor Bill Lee announced that he would be introducing legislation that created Educational Savings Accounts (a.k.a. School Vouchers) in Tennessee. Under his proposal, $7300 of public money would provided to parents who unenroll a student from their school district and allow them to use the funds on private school or other education-related expenses. Parents enrolling in the program would get debit-type card to pay for tuition or the other approved expenses.

Leatherwood, who is a former high school teacher and whose wife is a current elementary school teacher, originally voted against the bill in the House Education Subcommittee. During the subcommittee meeting he said, "“I am concerned that having these accounts out there could draw some people who aren’t as dedicated or concerned about home schooling as some have been in the past. … It just takes one or two bad cases to tarnish an entity or an institution.” Leatherwood was the only Republican on the subcommittee to vote against the bill.

Because of the term limits, he decided to run for Shelby County Circuit Court Clerk in the 2018 election cycle. He won the Republican primary but lost the general election to the Democrat, Temiika Gipson.

In 2016, Leatherwood once again decided to run for Congress. After the 2010 Census, Leatherwood's Congressional District changed from the 7th District to the 8th District. Unlike the 2008 race, the 2016 race had a very crowded primary field. Once Congressman Stephen Fincher announced his retirement, the Republican flood gates opened with potential candidates. In all, thirteen candidates were on the Republican primary ballot.

In 2014, Tennessee passed a Constitutional Amendment banning the state income tax. The amendment was sponsored by Senator Brian Kelsey (Republican - District 31) and Representative Glen Casada (Republican - District 63).

While Shelby County Register of Deeds, Leatherwood attempted two separate runs for the United States Congress. In 2008, Leatherwood ran for the 7th Congressional District against sitting Republican Congressman Marsha Blackburn. The race became heated when Leatherwood sent a letter to supporters accusing Blackburn of illegally using campaign money and, "talking the talk" but not "walking the walk".

In 2005, Leatherwood approached the State Legislature and lobbied to have the law on archiving records changed. The Senate Bill was SB1753 and was sponsored by Senator Curtis Person. The House Bill was HB2064 and sponsored by Representative Beverly Marrero and co-sponsored by Representative Tre Hargett. The House conformed to SB1753 and it was assigned Public Chapter Number 144 by the Secretary of State.

Soon, she came before the Shelby County Commission and asked to hire new employees to alleviate the backlog of archiving. Initially, the Commission rejected her request. However, during the meeting she told those present that the Register's Office had a 14-year backlog and that Leatherwood had not properly overseen the archiving. She was quoted as saying, "...it would take one employee 246 years to scan the backlog of materials from 2005 through 2018. It would take five people 49 years, 10 people 25 years, 20 people 13 years and 50 people five years."

Leatherwood held the Register of Deeds position for 18 years. He won re-election in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. In 2010, term limits (two terms) became effective and Leatherwood was unable to run for Register of Deeds again in 2018.

After leaving the Tennessee Senate in 2000, Leatherwood set his sights on the Shelby County Assessor's Office. He narrowly lost to Democrat Rita Clark in a four-way race.

Soon after his defeat, Leatherwood decided to run in a special election for the Shelby County Register of Deeds. Longtime Register of Deeds, Guy Bates, passed away while in office. This created a special election in November of 2000.

In 1992, Leatherwood challenged popular Republican Senator Leonard Dunavant for the Tennessee Senate in District 32. According to the Nashville News, "Leatherwood said he ran against Dunavant simply because Dunavant sponsored a bill to impose a state income tax during former Gov. Ned McWherter’s administration."

Tom Leatherwood (born August 20, 1956) is an American politician serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives from Tennessee's 99th house district, since 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party. The 99th district includes the Northeast part of Shelby County, Tennessee, including the Town of Arlington, City of Lakeland, City of Millington, parts of North and East Bartlett, and unincorporated Northeast Shelby County.

Leatherwood was born in Memphis, Tennessee on August 20, 1956. Leatherwood graduated from the University of Memphis with a B.S. in Geology in 1979. After graduation, he worked in the oil exploration industry. He decided to backpack through 25 countries around the world. His trip lasted fourteen months. After returning from the backpacking trip, he decided to become a teacher. He received his teaching certificate from Middle Tennessee State University. He then taught high school in Millington, TN for eight years.