Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has announced a bid for Governor of Tennessee, to replace the current Republican Governor Bill Lee, who is up against term limits. Senator Blackburn has tied her gubernatorial campaign, already, tightly to President Trump's coattails.
Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee announced she is running for governor after more than six years in the upper chamber.
Current Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican who has held the post since early 2019, is prevented from running for re-election in 2026 due to term limits.
Blackburn isn't the only federal lawmaker eyeing the job — U.S. Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., launched a gubernatorial bid earlier this year.
"In his first six months, President Trump has made historic strides in Making America Great Again, but as he sends power back to the states, he’s going to need strong conservative governors who can bring that revolution home. I’m running to serve as Tennessee’s next governor to ensure Tennessee is America’s conservative leader," Blackburn said in a statement.
Senator Blackburn has already garnered some key endorsements.
Blackburn, who has served in the U.S. Senate since early 2019, won re-election to a second six-year term back in November 2024.
Tennessee state Rep. Lee Reeves, a Republican, issued a full-throated endorsement of Blackburn for governor, declaring in a post on X that she "has always been Tennessee’s conservative warrior" and "is the tip of the spear in the fight against the Left in our state, fighting alongside President @realDonaldTrump."
GOP state Rep. Jason Zachary described Blackburn as "A proven, conservative leader!" and noted that he supports her for governor.
Blackburn signaled earlier this year that she planned to run. "I am strongly looking at it," she had told the Tennessee Journal, according to The Tennessean. "I intend to run. I will win, and we'll make certain that Tennessee is the most conservative state in the country."
Tennessee is a pretty solidly Republican state, meaning that whoever gains the GOP nomination in this state is liable to win the general election - but then, we can look at neighboring Kentucky to see that those rules are not infrequently broken. Still, President Trump carried the state in the 2024 election by a wide margin, gaining 64.2 percent of the vote compared to Kamala Harris's 34.5 percent. In that election, Senator Blackburn won her re-election by a similar margin, 63.8 percent to Democrat Gloria Johnson's 34.2 percent.
Senator Blackburn's current Senate term is up in 2030, meaning that should she win the nomination and then the election, her Senate seat would be open. That shouldn't present a risk to the current GOP majority in that house, as either Governor Lee or a newly-instated Governor Blackburn, depending on the timing, would be appointing a temporary replacement.
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In our federalist system, a stint as governor of a state is the highest elected executive position to which one can aspire, short of the presidency. Indeed, a governorship is often seen as a springboard to the presidency, although Senator Blackburn has, to date, mentioned no such ambitions.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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