Tennessee gubernatorial candidate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) laid out an ambitious conservative agenda for the Volunteer State during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, saying she is prepared to lead Tennessee as authority continues shifting from Washington back to the states.
Blackburn said the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government are returning responsibilities to state governments, creating what she described as a pivotal moment for Tennessee.
“Power and authority comes back to the states every day, whether it’s regulation, permitting, education, the U.S. Department of Education is going away. It’s healthcare, it’s energy. You look at the court decision on the states having the right to keep boys out of girls sports,” Blackburn said.
She argued Tennessee will need strong conservative leadership to ensure those responsibilities are handled without expanding state government.
“Those things are coming back to the states, and we’re going to need good, solid governors that, for me, are thinking Tennessee first, thinking America first, implementing President Trump’s agenda so that when this power comes back to us, we don’t grow government—we shrink it. That is what we need to be doing,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn emphasized how her goal is to make Tennessee “America’s conservative leader.”
“There’s a wonderful to-do list that I have, but, building out what we can do and have Tennessee be America’s conservative leader,” she said when asked about her vision for Tennessee. “Have us be the leading Christian conservative state in the country, making certain that we are doing the things that are necessary, that we’re number one in protecting life, that we’re number one in protecting our children in the virtual and the physical space, that we are going to make certain that if we have people that are molesting our kids and raping our babies, that they get the death penalty.”
The senator also highlighted education, economic development, immigration enforcement, and innovation as priorities for a Blackburn administration.
“We want to be number one when it comes to giving our kids a world-class education. Every child learns differently. So let’s find the right educational environment, and we are doing great work through school choice. We need to also do work on our public schools and our public charter schools, and I think it’s important for us, too, to realize that we need to continue to recruit great jobs, and to build local businesses so we have those jobs, that we’re number one in deporting illegal aliens,” Blackburn said.
“We should be number one in research and innovation so that we’re growing our economy, and the list goes on. If we do those things, we can be the freest state in the country, and we will be America’s conservative leader,” she added.
During the interview, Blackburn also weighed in on two recent controversies involving Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, criticizing the mayor’s support for taxpayer-funded services benefiting illegal immigrants and his proposal to use eminent domain to block a private data center development near the Nashville Zoo.
Asked about Metro Nashville’s appropriation of approximately $1.5 million to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), Blackburn said taxpayer dollars should not be used to provide services for illegal immigrants.
“No mayor should be using taxpayer money for services for illegal immigrants. That just should not happen,” Blackburn said. “We don’t have sanctuary cities in this state. It is illegal to have a sanctuary city. So for a mayor to use their funds for illegal aliens and not for taxpayers, in my opinion, that is wrong.”
Blackburn’s comments came as The Star reported that Metro Nashville’s own records show the Metro Clerk acknowledged his office did not possess records related to the proposed grants when responding to public records requests seeking documentation supporting the appropriations.
The senator also criticized O’Connell’s plan to use eminent domain to acquire property intended for a private data center development after the mayor announced he would seek to condemn the land for Metro government use.
“And this is what they’re doing in New York City,” Blackburn said. “The mayor in New York, Zohran Mamdani, is going in and taking people’s property, and we should not do that, and that is an overreach.”
While acknowledging concerns about the proposed location of the data center near the Nashville Zoo, Blackburn said such decisions should be addressed through local planning rather than government seizure of private property.
“And communities, if you want a data center, that’s a local decision,” she said. “We’ve got lots of communities in this state with industrial parks … and they would love to have a data center in their community because it’s a lot of good skill labor jobs.”
“But let’s make certain they’re in industrial parks and business parks, that they’re not backing up to something like the Nashville Zoo,” Blackburn added.
Senator Marsha Blackburn @VoteMarsha told me that, as governor, her vision for Tennessee is for it to be the freest state in the country and "America's conservative leader." pic.twitter.com/4rSwH3N3bH
— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) July 8, 2026
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
