Congressman Carter was born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. He attended Western Kentucky State College (now Western Kentucky University) in Bowling Green, having pursued a pre-med curricula. Carter went on to earn his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in 1937. He served in the United States Army Medical Corps in World War II, traveling with the Thirty-Eighth Infantry for over three and a half years.^[1] He became a captain. Later Carter returned to practice medicine in Tompkinsville.

In 1964, Carter sought the Republican nomination for Congress, following the retirement of Representative Eugene Siler. Carter won the election over Democrat Frances Jones Mills and served in the U.S. House of Representatives until his retirement in 1981. He was one of the few bright spots in a disastrous year for the GOP. However, he represented one of the few ancestrally Republican districts south of the Ohio River. Voters in this region identified with the Republicans after the Civil War, and continued to support the GOP through both favorable and challenging times. Carter often joked that his congressional district stretched from "Fountain Run to Kingdom Come," a state park in Harlan County, at the eastern end of his district.^{[citation needed]}

In 1966, Congressman Carter was sent by President Johnson to Vietnam along with ten other war-veteran congressmen on a "Speaker's Committee." Upon his return, he was asked by Johnson about his opinion of the state of the war. Carter went against the nine other delegates, stating: "No, Mr. President, you are not winning the war,". Carter later came to be known as the first Republican Congressman to call for the end of the Vietnam War. Rising before the U.S. House of Representatives on August 28, 1967, Carter stated "Let us now, while we are yet strong, bring our men home, every man jack of them. The Vietcong fight fiercely and tenaciously because it is their land and we are foreigners intervening in their civil war. If we must fight, let us fight in defense of our homeland and our own hemisphere."

Carter was considered as a moderate-progressive Republican in Washington.^{[dubious – discuss]} Carter voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.^[2][3] As reported in a 1977 issue of Time magazine, Carter put forth the first Republican plan for national health insurance. Carter was appointed by President Nixon to the Shafer Commission, charged with making policy recommendations concerning drug abuse. The Shafer Commission recommended decriminalizing simple marijuana possession, a policy that President Nixon flatly refused.

Tim Lee Carter's sister, Pearl Carter Pace was the first elected woman sheriff in Kentucky. Pearl's and Tim Lee's father, James C. Carter Sr., served for 48 years as Circuit Judge in four counties of South Central Kentucky. His son, James C. Carter Jr., served for 46 years as judge following his father. Numerous other Carters have served in a wide range of public offices, both elective and appointive.

Pearl's son, Stanley Carter Pace, was taken as a prisoner of war of the German Army during World War II. He later rose to the Chairmanship of TRW, and, came out of retirement to return the giant defense contractor General Dynamics to viability. The extended Carter family is still active in state and local politics in Monroe County, Kentucky.

In 1980, Carter did not seek re-election. On his retirement, he returned to live in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, and remained active in local, state, and national politics until his death in 1987.

• United States Congress. "Tim Lee Carter (id: C000201)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Tim Lee Carter