Van Hilleary

On December 11, 2018, it was announced that Hilleary would be returning to Congress as the Chief of Staff for John Rose, Representative-elect for Tennessee's 6th congressional district which contains much of the former territory Hilleary had represented.

According to a disclosure of personal finances from 2004 and part of 2005, as required by his 2006 Senate candidacy, Hilleary made $300,000 in salary in 2004 from Washington lobbying firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, and more than $150,000 in salary from the firm through August 12, 2005.

Shortly after the November 2004 election, Hilleary moved his family to Murfreesboro, just outside Nashville. He now lives there primarily on weekends and through the week was employed as a consultant in Washington, D.C. until December 2018.

Hilleary was considered a logical choice for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2002, withstanding a challenge from the party's moderate wing made by Jim Henry, former minority leader in the Tennessee House of Representatives and former mayor of Kingston. Henry's race was largely supported and financed by members of the inner circle of unpopular outgoing GOP governor Don Sundquist, a fact resented by many grassroots activists, and Hilleary defeated him by a wide margin.

Hilleary was a candidate for the United States Senate seat then held by Congress Majority Leader Bill Frist, who did not run for re-election because he had promised not to serve more than two terms when first elected in 1994.

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1994, write-ins received 4 votes. In 1996, Preston T. Spaulding received 561 votes and write-ins received 5 votes. In 1998, write-ins received 23 votes. In 2000, write-ins received 5 votes.

Following his return from the Middle East, he entered a race for the Tennessee State Senate in 1992. His opponent was Anna Belle Clement O'Brien, younger sister and political confidante of the late former governor of Tennessee Frank G. Clement. While Hilleary was defeated, he ran such a competitive race that he was recruited to enter the Republican primary in 1994 for the Fourth Congressional District. This seat was coming open as the incumbent, six-term Democrat Jim Cooper, was running for the United States Senate. Hilleary easily won the Republican primary and faced Democratic nominee Jeff Whorley, a former aide to Cooper, in the general election. It was the first serious effort the Republicans had made in the district since its creation after the 1980 census. Hilleary won by a 14-point margin. Even allowing for the massive Republican tide that swept through the state that year, Hilleary's convincing win came as something of a surprise.

On paper, the 4th District was one of the few districts in the country that was not safe for either party. It stretched from the Virginia border in East Tennessee to the Mississippi border in Middle Tennessee. Prior to Cooper's election in 1982, much of the district's eastern portion hadn't been represented by a Democrat since before the Civil War. However, its configuration made it very difficult to unseat an incumbent in a normal election year. Then as now, the district spills across five television markets (the Tri-Cities, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville and Huntsville, Alabama) and two time zones. Frequently, advertising budgets in the 4th rival those for statewide races. Continuing this pattern, Hilleary was reelected three times from this district without much difficulty, and actually increased his margin each time; his 56 percent in 1994 would be the lowest margin of his congressional career. He even won easily in 1996 even as Bill Clinton carried the district in the presidential election mainly on the strength of Al Gore's presence on the ticket; Gore had represented much of the western portion of the district in Congress from 1977 to 1983.

Hilleary was born in Dayton, Tennessee, the seat of Rhea County, and raised in nearby Spring City, where his family operated a textile manufacturing concern. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1981 where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He participated in the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Tennessee and served on active duty from 1982 to 1984 and has been a member of the Air Force Reserve since that time. Hilleary graduated from the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama in 1990. He served two volunteer tours of duty during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. While in the Gulf War, Hilleary flew 24 missions as a navigator on C-130 aircraft.

William Vanderpool "Van" Hilleary (born June 20, 1959) is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 4th congressional district from 1995 to 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.

One of his clients was the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, which is seeking federal status from Congress and $77 million in funding for education, health care and economic development that would come with recognition. The tribe was recognized in 1956, but was not awarded the same monetary benefits given to other American Indian groups. Another client was Pennsylvania House Speaker John M. Perzel. Other clients listed by Hilleary included the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Balfour Ventures, Federal-Mogul Corporation, L-3 Communications, SMS Holdings Corp. and VPI Technologies.