President Donald Trump has sent Nashville businessman and longtime GOP donor Lee Beaman’s name back to the U.S. Senate as a nominee to the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors after he was not confirmed with four other nominees late last year.
The White House included Beaman on a list of 65 nominees sent to the Senate on Tuesday. President Trump originally nominated Beaman on July 1, and a Senate committee questioned him during a hearing Dec. 3.
The Committee on Environment and Public Works abruptly postponed a vote on Beaman’s nomination Dec. 10 and did not revisit his nomination before the session of Congress ended.
The renomination came one day after the nation’s largest government-owned power provider announced four other Trump nominees had officially joined the board after being sworn in. The board has the sole authority to approve electric rate increases and other major policies for TVA.
The four men who joined the Board brought a quorum back after it operated with too few members to vote on new business for more than nine months because Trump dismissed several appointees by former President Joe Biden.
TVA board members are not required to have specific experience in the energy sector. The federally owned utility generates and transmits electricity for more than 10 million people and business in seven Southern states.
While Beaman has more than the required management experience as the former CEO of Nashville-based Beaman Automotive Group, he brings less energy sector experience than several other nominees. However, the other nominees bring extensive energy sector backgrounds.
If Beaman is confirmed by the full Senate, there would be one seat remaining open on the nine-member board.
The part-time board members received stipends between $63,400 and $69,300 last year.
Beaman would have the longest term of the five Trump picks, with a term that would expire May 18, 2030. He would fill the seat left vacant by former board Chair Joe Ritch of Alabama. Trump fired Ritch in April 2025 without publicly explaining why. Ritch and two other terminated board members were nominated by Biden and joined the board in 2023.
Before selling his Nashville area chain of car dealerships in 2020, Beaman oversaw nine dealerships with distribution across eight states, he told senators in his December hearing. He is CEO and chair of Beaman Ventures, an investment group.
He also told senators during questioning that he would oppose efforts to privatize TVA.
“I think TVA is more uniquely, appropriately operated as a government entity,” Beaman said at the hearing last year.
With Trump’s continued support, it is likely that Beaman will be confirmed by the Republican majority US Senate. Tennessee Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn are also staunch supporters of Beaman’s nomination.
Steve Gill is editor and publisher of TriStar Daily.
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