State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) announced his candidacy for Tennessee’s newly-drawn 9th Congressional District on Monday shortly after filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) declaring himself a candidate in the race.
Warner’s filing with the FEC and official campaign announcement comes one day after he appeared on an episode of the podcast Patriot Punkcast, where he informally announced his intent to run for the congressional seat.
During his appearance on the podcast Sunday, Warner took aim at State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), who announced his candidacy for the newly-drawn 9th Congressional District last week.
Taylor has since self-funded his campaign with $1 million, and picked up a wave of high-profile endorsements from Republican heavyweights including U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), U.S. Reps. Diana Harshbarger (T-TN-01), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03), and Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs.
“My name’s going in the hat in the morning. Brent Taylor’s aint gonna win this race. Todd Warner is gonna win this race. Mark my words. I don’t care if the whole establishment – he gets every endorsement it is. The only endorsement I need is the endorsement of the people in the 9th District, and I will have it,” Warner said.
The state representative went on to say Taylor “may very well” get an endorsement from President Donald Trump, but added, “Those endorsements don’t always go the way they want them,” pointing to Herschel Walker’s 2022 loss for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
Warner also pointed to his own 2020 victory in the Republican primary for State House District 92, where he defeated then-incumbent Thomas Tillis, who was facing scrutiny at the time over his alleged involvement in a social media scandal that ultimately led to his resignation as Majority Whip.
In his official campaign announcement, Warner said he is “not a politician picked by insiders, consultants, and lobbyists,” adding, “The swamp can keep their endorsements.”
I’m running for Congress.
After years of fighting the establishment in Nashville, taking on the lobbyists, the RINOs, and the good ol’ boy system, I’m taking that same fight straight to Washington.
I’m a farmer, small business owner, and eighth-generation Tennessean who’s never… pic.twitter.com/Jhev9F6wq3
— Todd Warner (@RepToddWarner) May 11, 2026
With regard to Tennessee’s new congressional map giving Republicans a 9-0 advantage, Warner questioned the timing behind Tennessee’s effort during Sunday’s broadcast, calling the state’s redistricting part of a “tit for tat” to compete with other Democrat-controlled states that have redistricted to give Democrats an advantage.
“I thought we could have waited. Why didn’t we wait? But I think the Trump administration was afraid of losing the midterms and they need every seat we can get, and that’s the reason this was done,” he said.
Warner went on to say he believes people “get sick and tired” of outsider meddling, as one of the broadcast’s guests termed it, in state affairs, specifically pointing to Tennessee’s redistricting effort.
Those remarks came in response to comments in which the broadcast’s host claimed that when state leaders were reviewing potential new congressional district maps, they “called the White House to ask which one they liked better.”
The host went on to add, “The one thing I do have a problem with? Donald Trump’s not a Tennessean, and I don’t think he really needs to be deciding our congressional representation. By all means, encourage us to redraw it…But don’t tell me what map needs to be done.”
After another guest on the broadcast added, “They’ve certainly meddled enough as it is,” Warner said, “I think people get sick and tired of that, especially when you’ve got 1,400 career politicians already endorsing Brent Taylor…Everybody endorse him. I don’t need an endorsement.”
Tennessee’s new 9th Congressional District includes Hardeman, McNairy, Hardin, Wayne, Lawrence, Giles, Lincoln, Moore, Bedford, Marshall, and parts of Shelby, Fayette, Maury, Williamson, and Rutherford Counties.
Candidates have until noon on Friday, May 15 to qualify for the August 6 primary election.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X.
Photo “Todd Warner” by Todd Warner.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include expanded remarks by State Rep. Todd Warner.
