Author Talk: Senator Lamar Alexander — The Education of a Senator - with Jonathan Martin

Author Senator Lamar Alexander discusses their book "The Education of a Senator" at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

A behind-the-scenes story of the last sixty years of American politics, told with purpose and humor by a political legend who worked with ten presidents, made deals with both Obama and Trump, and believes that serving in public office is the best way to help the largest number of people and to keep our Republic from falling apart.

Lamar Alexander has long been known as one of America’s most principled and effective statesmen. As US Senator, Alexander shepherded major laws that today govern K–12 education, medical innovation, and maintenance of our national parks. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “For eighteen years, there was Lamar Alexander, and there was the rest of us. He was hands-down one of the most brilliant, most thoughtful, and most effective legislators any of us have ever seen.” As governor, Alexander brought the auto industry to Tennessee and made it the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well. He was chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the nation’s governors, and of President Reagan’s “Commission on Americans Outdoors.” He served as US Education Secretary and as a university president. Alexander was also known for campaigning in a plaid shirt and performing on the piano with twenty-seven symphonies and on the Grand Ol’ Opry. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and New York University Law School. He and his late wife Honey were married for fifty-four years, had four children and nine grandchildren. His parents were teachers. A seventh generation Tennessean, Alexander lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains near Maryville where he grew up. This is his tenth book, all written by the author himself.

Alexander is in conversation with Jonathan Martin, the politics bureau chief and senior political columnist at POLITICO, where he writes a reported column. Prior to starting his column in 2022, Martin was the national political correspondent for The New York Times. Covering elections in all 50 states, he served as the publication’s top political reporter for nearly a decade. He is the co-author This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, which spent three weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and gave readers in-the-room access to the extraordinary events of the 2020 election and its aftermath. Martin is a contributor to NBC's "Meet the Press." He and his wife, Betsy, live in Washington and New Orleans.

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