Scott Eugene DesJarlais[1] (/ˌdeɪʒɑːrˈleɪ/ DAY-zhar-LAY;[2] born February 21, 1964) is an American politician and physician serving as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 4th congressional district since 2011.

[8] In 2009 he entered politics, filing papers to challenge Democratic incumbent Lincoln Davis,[9][10] as well as Independents Paul H. Curtis, James Gray, Richard S. Johnson, and Gerald York.

[11] Late in the 2010 race, the Washington newspaper Roll Call reported details of DesJarlais's 2001 divorce proceedings, which showed that his ex-wife accused him of harassment, intimidation and physical abuse.

[12][13][14] The Davis campaign used the material in print and TV attack ads and told Roll Call that Fourth District voters "expect[ed] more than lip service about family values.

[16] During his first term, DesJarlais represented a district that stretched almost diagonally across the state from coal-mining regions near Knoxville, the Tri-Cities and Chattanooga to the outer suburbs of Nashville.

It lost all of its northeastern portion and was pushed west to take in suburban areas closer to Nashville, including Murfreesboro, previously the heart of the 6th district.

In December 2020, DesJarlais was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated[32] incumbent Donald Trump.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.

[37] In 2022, DesJarlais was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.

[50][51] Two weeks after DesJarlais won the 2012 election, the Chattanooga Times Free Press obtained a full transcript of his 2001 divorce proceedings.

[52] The transcript revealed that he had admitted under oath to at least six sexual relationships with people he came in contact with while chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tennessee.

[49] "One of the biggest mistakes I made was I commented to the press before I had the opportunity to go back and read a transcript that was 13, 14 years old," he said in an interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel.

"[49] Three weeks after he won the election, DesJarlais said on a conservative talk radio show on WWTN that "God has forgiven me" and asked "fellow Christians" and constituents "to consider doing the same.

[66] During a trial for his divorce from his first wife in 2000, DesJarlais testified that he had sexual affairs with at least two patients, three coworkers and a drug representative while he was working as a hospital chief of staff.

"[69] In July 2014, DesJarlais announced he was undergoing aggressive chemotherapy to treat cancer in his neck that had spread to a lymph node.