Pro-Growth Progressive Idea: Expanding opportunity by giving a preference in city contracts to those that provide workforce training 

On September 1, 2018, Lee Harris was sworn in as the 6th Mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee, one of the largest counties in the South, with nearly one million residents. He was elected Mayor of Shelby County with 55% of the vote and re-elected in 2022 with 58% of the vote.

Mayor Harris is the chief elected official in Shelby County Government, one of the largest government organizations in the South. Shelby County Government has over 5,000 employees, and $1.6 billion operating budget. In addition to leading Shelby
County Government, Mayor Harris also chairs Shelby County’s retirement system, which has over $1.3 billion currently under management. Prior to his election in 2018, Mayor Harris was a long-time Professor of Law at the University of Memphis.

As Mayor, he has led the effort to create dedicated investment in Pre-K education; paid family leave for Shelby County’s 5,000+ employees; a new law requiring that all County employees, both part-time and full-time, make at least $15 per hour; 901StudentPassport, a Shelby County initiative that makes museums and other cultural assets free to students; and a host of justice reforms, like Ban the Box and limits on the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.

Additionally, he has won approval for the financing for two new high schools to be constructed in Memphis totaling nearly $200 million, the first time any new high school has been built in Memphis in over decade; and he led the campaign to rebuild Regional One, the only public hospital in Memphis and Shelby County. Once finished, the effort to rebuild Regional One will cost between $750m to $1 billion and it will represent one of the largest investments ever for Shelby County government.

Mayor Harris is a proud product of Memphis’ public schools. Mayor Harris majored in International Relations at Morehouse College on a full tuition scholarship. While an undergraduate, he was the top student in the department of Political Science and International Relations and he was awarded a fellowship by the United Negro College Fund to study for one year as a visiting student at the London School of Economics. After graduating from Morehouse, Mayor Harris earned his law degree from Yale Law School. He began his legal career as an associate at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, one of the largest law firms in the country.