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Rep. Stephen Fincher farms cotton and soybeans in the Frog Jump community of Crockett County, Tenn.

Of the 87 new Republicans in the House of Representatives, Tennessee’s Stephen Fincher epitomizes the first-time politicians who make up more than a third of this freshmen class. To preserve what he calls his “Frog Jump common sense,” Fincher is spending as little time as possible in Washington.

When he is in D.C., Stephen Fincher sleeps on a pull-out sofa in his office. It’s a practical move, but he’s quick to call it part of his “conservative” approach.

Fincher has found enough time to join the Washington fundraiser circuit, but he’s home on weekends to see his family, check on the farm, and keep up the tour schedule with his gospel music group – The Fincher Family Singers.

“There’s Frog Jump on my GPS,” Fincher says, driving through town in his farm truck. “You can tell Jim Cooper when you go back to Nashville that it’s a real place.”

A road sign confirms Frog Jump’s existence.

Frog Jump has no post office or zip code. It’s not even on Google Maps, leading other House members, even from Tennessee, to rib Fincher about its existence.

It’s a place that came to define the candidate and now congressman.

“I’m known up there as the guy from Frog Jump. And it’s a good thing,” he says. “I really feel like we have drifted too far away from real America.”

To keep in touch with “real America,” Fincher says he’ll keep his Farm Bureau health insurance instead of taking what’s offered to congressmen, so he’ll know when premiums go up.

Going Republican a first for many

Election of this 38-year-old farmer wasn’t a foregone conclusion, even in an anti-incumbent year. Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Dickson, west to the Mississippi River, has historically sent Democrats to Washington. So for some, Fincher is the first Republican they’ve ever voted for.

“When I found out Stephen was running, I voted for the person, not the party,” says Ricky Beaird, a cotton farmer who just opened up The Beairded Frog.

Ricky Beaird, a cotton farmer, is one of many Frog Jump residents who tend to vote for Democrats, not Republicans.

Beaird’s soda shop is the only place in Frog Jump to get a bite to eat or something sweet. As he swirls vanilla soft serve into a bowl, Beaird explains he started this restaurant to supplement his farming income after a couple of tough years.

With Fincher’s appointment to the House Agriculture Committee, Beaird says he expects to gain a voice.

“We’re just down home folks here,” he says. “But still we like to be aware of what’s going on and hopefully have a little say-so in it.”

Beaird says he’s offered his new restaurant for town hall meetings, and Fincher says he’ll take him up on it.

Discussions will no doubt start with budget cuts, which hit close to home when someone brings up farm subsidies.

“Most of the farmers agree, ‘Stephen, we know we have to tighten the belts, and we’re ok with that.’ So that’s a good sign,” Fincher says.

As a cotton and soybean farmer himself, Fincher was criticized for talking about cutting federal spending while also receiving millions in farm subsidies. He says the farm program is the only way American agriculture can compete with other countries. But he reiterates, farmers understand there will be less money to go around.

“We need to make sure, though, we’ve got a safety net there,” he says.

Debt ceiling takes a front seat

Fincher expects the new Farm Bill to keep his phone ringing in the coming months. He says the budget matter that needs immediate discussion, though, is the debt ceiling.

“First of all, we need to make sure we’re not in panic mode here,” he says. “If we do not raise the debt ceiling, we would still be able to pay the interest on our debt and keep up.”

If he had to vote today, Fincher says he’d force Congress to make the difficult decisions about what to cut and keep the debt ceiling right where it is, especially if that’s what his constituents say they want.

Fincher says he’s even willing to break with Republicans.

“Always what leadership wants is not going to be best for my district, he says. And Fincher has warned the party whip: “I just want you to understand that I will have to throw you under the bus sooner or later.”

It could be Fincher who is first to be thrown under the bus when he introduces legislation instituting term limits. He recognizes there’s little chance such a bill would pass.

But he’s set a limit for his own service – no more than 12 years. Until then, he’s trying to keep his feet on the farm, even while his head is in the halls of Congress.

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