Lord knows if there’s any truth to the NBC News report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has privately discussed the idea of running for political office next year in Tennessee.” That would be an oddly specific thing to invent out of whole cloth, but Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, told NBC News, “Hegseth’s focus remains solely on serving under President Trump.”

There are a lot of good reasons to doubt that Hegseth’s name will appear on any ballot in Tennessee next year.

The NBC article states, “The people who have spoken with Hegseth said he has specifically mentioned a possible campaign for governor in Tennessee.” Yes, the current GOP governor, Bill Lee, is term limited. However, under Tennessee law, “to hold the office of Tennessee governor, a person must be at least 30 years of age, a citizen of the United States, and have been a citizen of Tennessee for seven years before the election.” Hegseth and his family moved to Goodlettsville, Tenn., in 2022, indicating he would not be eligible to hold that office.

Tennessee does not directly elect its lieutenant governor; the speaker of the Tennessee Senate serves as lieutenant governor. Tennessee’s state attorney general is appointed by the state supreme court, and current officeholder Jonathan Skrmetti is midway through an eight-year term. The Tennessee secretary of state, state treasurer, and comptroller of the treasury are elected by the general assembly for a four-year term. Almost all the state commissioner positions are appointed by the governor.

At the federal level, Tennessee GOP senator Bill Hagerty is running for reelection. While Hegseth could theoretically mount a primary challenge to Hagerty, last year Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller said the incumbent senator “is as MAGA as MAGA can get.” It is fair to wonder why any Republican would want to see Hegseth launch a messy and likely expensive primary challenge to an incumbent GOP senator who is a reliable ally of the administration.

As for the U.S. House of Representatives, Tennessee has nine congressional districts, and eight are currently held by Republicans.

The only incumbent Republican who has said he is not running for reelection is John Rose in the sixth district, who is running for governor next year. The sixth district includes the top middle of the state and a stretch of the Nashville suburbs and scores an R+17 in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Hegseth’s hometown of Goodlettsville is in this district, so he would appear to meet the residency requirement: “To hold the office of United States Representative, a person must be at least 25 years of age and a citizen of the United States for seven years, and to qualify in a primary election, shall have been a citizen of this State for three (3) years, and resident in the county represented one (1) year, immediately preceding the election.”

So Hegseth could run for office in Tennessee next year, if he wanted to be a member of the U.S. House. That would seem to be a considerable step down from being Secretary of Defense.

Also keep in mind, Hegseth did want to run for office in the Volunteer State, he would likely have to depart the Pentagon fairly soon; the Tennessee GOP primary is May 5, 2026; the first day to pick up petitions for a campaign is December 22.

An early departure by Hegseth would probably frustrate some Republicans. Hegseth’s confirmation vote January 24 was something of a heavy lift for GOP senators, a 50-50 tie broken by Vice President JD Vance.

At one point, Hegseth’s nomination looked like it was in trouble, and reports emerged that Trump was looking at Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa as replacement options. Another potential replacement was Elbridge Colby, currently the undersecretary of defense for policy.