Law, politics and family tradition. These things and their intersection with government have shaped me and my family for several generations and ultimately guided my life and career. It’s hard to escape your upbringing—and your genes! Most folks think it started with my father, former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson. But there is more to the family story and what and who had an influence on him. If you’re interested, read on…

I think it may have started with William Holliman “Bid” Lindsey, Sr., my maternal great-grandfather.  “Pap” as he was known was a handsome, fiery, charismatic character who was one of twelve children born to a poor and war-ravaged family in Wayne County, Tennessee, shortly after the end of the Civil War.  As a young man, he took a keen interest in government and law.  Because he was poor, he didn’t go to law school, but did what many did in those days—and later: he “read the law,” studying with several well-known and respected lawyers in southern Middle Tennessee. He passed the bar and set up his practice in Lawrenceburg, TN--where I was born. PICTURE

While I was too young to “know” my great-grandfather Pap I do remember sitting on his knee in a rocking chair on the front porch and the smell of his pipe tobacco. (When I was born, I had all four grandparents, all eight great-grandparents and one great-great grandparent alive.) I also know a few of the stories. Pap was a family man, who led the Lindsey Clan with a strong and loving hand.  His dining room table was the site of nightly family discussions where law, politics, religion, and current events were discussed and argued – each family member taking a different point of view and presenting his or her ideas in hopes of “winning” the debate. These lively and studied discussions even included the grandchildren in the family, including my very young parents, with each child expected to have something to say worth hearing. Pap himself was a successful lawyer who owned one of the first cars in Lawrenceburg.  He served as a judge for several years and served a term in the US Attorney’s Office in Nashville.  Pap’s strong interest in local, state and national politics influenced every member of my mother’s Lindsey family and including her young husband, my father “Freddie” Thompson. That influence is evidenced in many ways to this day, having been passed along for multiple generations.

Pap had four boys, the oldest boy in the family, my great uncle, A.D. Lindsey, “read the law” with his father.  After passing the bar, the US entered World War II and A.D. signed up for the JAG Corps where he served until returning to Lawrenceburg to practice law with his father.  Evidently, many of their clients called the father-son-duo “the judge” and “the boy.” A.D. later made his own name as a competent and respected lawyer and was elected as the county judge for several terms. 

Pap’s four sons, my grandfather and three great uncles were involved in local politics. At one point in the fifties, the family led a movement to oust a number of office holders.  The campaign resulted with A.D as county judge, his brother Ed as Mayor of Lawrenceburg, and his brother Bid, Jr. as police chief.  The fourth brother, Oscar, my grandfather, was too involved in running Lindsey’s Furniture Manufacturing Co., to run for office but he was considered a major advisor to the campaign, along with Pap. PICTURE

During this time in the late fifties, my father was a good high school athlete but not a particularly good student. His ambition didn’t go much farther than winning the next basketball game. The Lindsey family was not impressed with him because they knew my mother was smart and ambitious and wanted to have a career. But the couple wanted to get married so a family conference (a somewhat common occurrence) was held with the four boys and my mother and father, and Pap sitting in charge.  Each one made an argument as to what my mother should do (not marry Freddie)– Pap went against the boys and agreed my mother could marry this boy, Freddie Thompson. When the Patriarch spoke, that was the end of the discussion. This only solidified my father’s respect and admiration for Pap.

The young high school couple married and soon had their first child, me. As the first in both of their families to attend college, the times were tough paying their own way and juggling classes with their kid. The brightest spot during those tough years was that Pap and my dad became very close. There were many long evening discussions the two had out on the front porch smoking their pipes. Often Uncle A.D. would also join in. These two Lindsey men greatly influenced my dad and his interest in the law and in politics. The interest Pap and Uncle A.D. showed in my father resulted in his working hard to become a top student in college and ultimately going on to attend Vanderbilt Law School.

After Law School, my parents returned to Lawrenceburg where my dad gained his first legal experience working with my Uncle A.D. During this time, he also got his first political experience running a longshot congressional campaign for John T. Williams who was running in a district which then ran all the way from Lawrence County to Memphis.  It was a losing battle, but my dad caught the eye of Senator Howard Baker. Dad would bec0me Howard Baker’s middle Tennessee campaign manager. He later told me that back in the day this basically meant that he was Senator Baker’s driver! During that time, the two began a friendship that lasted their whole lives.  PICTURE

 After Baker won the senate race, my family soon left Lawrenceburg for Nashville. At that time in Tennessee there weren’t many republicans in politically appointed positions. Senator Baker got my dad, then still in his twenties, appointed to serve as an Assistant US. Attorney. Baker later, in 1972, asked him to serve as Chief Minority Council to the Watergate Committee at the age of 30.

During my childhood and even after we moved to Nashville my family spent many days and all holidays in Lawrenceburg. At least half the time was at my grandfather Lindsey’s home. It was there that I also witnessed and listened to the Lindsey men, the four brothers, and my father sitting around the table after big family meals discussing the days current events and politics. For me, as a kid, I think that was where it really sank in that these men, including my father, were talking about things that really mattered and were important to our lives. All I really knew was that I wanted to be like them.

The summer of 1973 I was 13 years old and remember watching the Watergate hearings and seeing my then 30-year-old father questioning some of the most powerful men in politics about their actions relating to the illegal political break in. Although I was too young to truly know what I was watching, I did have a vague understanding that it involved what I had been growing up around--the government, the law and politics--and mostly that all those things were very important. Even though I didn’t fully comprehend it all until many years later, my family, the Lindsey family, my father, and that summer in particular had a lasting impact on me. PICTURE

My father’s career, of course, took off after Watergate and his work intersected the world of law and politics for the next 4 decades. Ultimately, he was elected and served as U.S. Senator in his mentor Howard Baker’s former seat from 1994 until 2002. He later even made a brief run for President in 2008. Most people only know a part of my father’s story and assume that only he influenced my path. The truth is my father, Howard Baker-who always reminded me of my grandfather, and all the Lindsey men going back to Pap had strong influence on me, my life and my career.

It’s hard to escape your upbringing --and your genes. When I finally gave in to the pull of the law and politics I returned to college and graduated from Belmont with am award winning degree in political science. Interestingly, my American Government professor was a young lady named Beth Harwell who later ran for the state house and would go on to become the first female Speaker of the House in Tennessee some years after I began my lobbying career.

My family’s and primarily my father’s influence also led me to law school. Just before graduation at the University of Memphis School of Law, my son was born, Fred “Dalton” Thompson III. My father asked me to come practice with him and not too long after we got started, he asked me what I would think about him running for the U.S. Senate. I said, “I’m with you all the way dad,” and a new adventure began for both of us. For over a year I traveled the state as a surrogate speaker for my father, most times on stage and side-by-side campaigning with all those elected in “the sweep” of 1994. The next Governor-Sundquist, U.S Senator-Frist, Congressmen Quillen, Duncan, Wamp, Hilleary and Bryant. During this time, I met many elected officials across the state including members of the state legislature. It was one of the best experiences of my life and it was during this time I made a decision to get into the business where law, politics and government intersected, lobbying in Tennessee. PICTURE

That decision was timely as on election night when dad came from behind to resoundingly beat Jim Cooper, I realized I had worked myself out of 2 jobs. The next day both the law office and the campaign office closed their doors! On January 1, 1995, I began my state government relations career journey. When I started the Democrats held the majority in the legislature; but sometime later the Republicans took over and my former college professor was elected as Speaker of the House.

My family, my father and my influence have yet impacted another generation in my family. My son, Dalton, while in college at UT Chattanooga worked the ground game in his first political campaign helping a lady, Patsy Hazlewood, win a tough election to the state house. The following year he interned at my peers well-respected lobbying firm for a state legislative session. They still tell me, “He was the best intern we ever had.”  He was then recruited to work the ground game in a hotly contested open congressional race in west Tennessee where the primary winner would take all. Although he was to start law school, of course, the day after the primary election, he took the job and helped a law school classmate of mine, David Kustoff, become the Congressman for the 8th district. Since that time, he has graduated Vanderbilt Law School, clerked for 2 federal judges and is currently with a highly regarded law firm here in Nashville. It’s hard to escape your upbringing—and your genes! PICTURE

Flash forward and I now have going on three decades of successful legislative sessions under my belt. Working on dad’s campaign helped me make some initial contacts in the state legislature. Today, I am most welcome in the State House Finance Chairman’s office, because that Chairman is Patsy Hazlewood—from my son’s first campaign job! My joke is that I went from being “Fred’s son” to being “Dalton’s dad” …...I am proud to be both. I often dream of being able to talk about the stories from my life working in law and politics, discuss current events and my son’s successes with my dad, my Uncle A.D and the other Lindsey men including the patriarch, Pap. I am grateful for them all and their influence. But today, I am most grateful that I can do that with my son. Thank goodness for our upbringing—and our genes.

Long live family tradition.