Tennessee state Rep. Karen Camper has never been one of the loudest members of the House, even among the Democrats.

But Camper, the 60-year-old, two-decade Army veteran, developed a reputation for her dependability, earning her a historic position in the most recent House Democratic leadership election.

She is now the first African-American leader of the Tennessee House Democratic caucus.

“There are a good many more members who are a bit outspoken or are more loquacious than Karen, including me,” said former House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, who retired this year after unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

“But she always knew the issues. I think it’s clear whether she was a very vocal leader or an outspoken leader, she was a leader when it came to our caucus.”

Fitzhugh recalls Camper’s name being floated as a possible successor for the minority leader position when he announced he would be retiring from the General Assembly.

She was a natural fit — respected by both her own colleagues and Republicans in the majority, Fitzhugh said — so there was little surprise when Camper, a self-described moderate Democrat, was voted leader by her colleagues in a caucus election last month.

“I think things happen in their time,” Camper said about being the first African-American woman or man in her new role. “Obviously, it probably would have been good for it to happen before, but it didn’t. But I’m proud of the historical significance."

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Camper, ‘an eternal optimist,’ entered the House a decade ago

Her first time running for office was in 2007, when she was on the ballot for the Memphis City Council.

“I thought I was going to win,” she said.

Camper now knows that despite regularly appearing before the council for her homeowners association and working in the local Democratic Party, she didn’t have much name recognition at the time.

A voice in her head while standing in the voting booth in 2006 had told her she should run. She resolved to just do it.

“You’re Karen Camper and you’re an eternal optimist, so you feel like those people are going to vote for you,” she said.

When state Rep. Gary Rowe, D-Memphis, died months later after a brief battle with cancer, Camper again thought the next election might be the right time to run for the seat.

But local Democrats began suggesting she put her name in the running for the interim appointment to the seat by the Shelby County Commission. She got a call from Gale Jones Carson but wasn’t immediately convinced.

A week or so later, Sidney Chism called to urge her not to wait for the election, but to go ahead and seek the appointment.

“That’s when I called my mom, and she said go for it,” Camper recalled. “All they can do is say no.”

She made a PowerPoint presentation about why she would be best for the job. She set up appointments with and sent letters to all the county commissioners asking for their support.

“A couple of them said ‘I’ve already committed to someone else,’ but I wanted to keep an open mind,” Camper said. “I just kept being eternally optimistic.”

She received enough votes in the first round to secure her interim appointment to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where she has now served more than a decade.

Camper, who was born in Memphis, lived in Chicago for just over a decade as a child before returning to Shelby County. She spent 21 years in the Army, which she entered at age 21. She had tours of duty in Hawaii, Germany and Korea.

Camper worked as an intelligence officer before retiring from the military in 2000.

She started a nonprofit to teach children about the music industry, an organization with which her son helped, and eventually launched Key II Entertainment, an artist management and entertainment business she has since closed.

Tennessee Democrats must be 'long-term, strategic thinkers'

While Camper wasn’t quick to point out any glaring differences between her leadership style and how Fitzhugh ran the caucus, she said one of her priorities as leader is ensuring that members of the caucus fully understand the role of the leadership — including whip, floor leaders, the caucus chair, and so on — and that the Democrats in the House rely on that structure for organization and growth.

“We’ve got to be long-term, strategic thinkers,” Camper said. “There may be things we want to do we know will take three or four years to accomplish.”

Though Camper said she wasn’t prepared to announce the caucus’s specific priorities for the upcoming legislative session, one of their obvious goals is to grow their numbers in the chamber where Democrats once held power for decades.

Republicans now hold supermajorities in the House and Senate.

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It remains unclear whether House Democrats under Camper’s leadership will put forth a strong push for Medicaid expansion — a priority of Fitzhugh as leader — in the upcoming session.

As for what Camper is most proud of so far from her legislative career, she points to her work with former Sen. Reggie Tate, a fellow Memphis Democrat, to pass an expansion of the state's expungement law in 2012 to help nonviolent first-time offenders secure employment and housing.

Fitzhugh described the bill as a precursor of sorts for the legislature's current efforts to reform the state's criminal justice system, putting Camper somewhat "ahead of her time."

She plans to meet soon with Republican Rep. Glen Casada, the Franklin Republican whom GOP members elected as their nominee for speaker, with whom she believes she will be able to find common ground.

Camper said she also has a good relationship with Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, who is the new House majority leader.

“Casada and I have had some knock-down, drag-outs on the floor before, but at the end of the day we recognize we have our differences and we try to figure out where can we work together to get something done,” she said.

The 111th General Assembly convenes Jan. 8.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.