U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) confirmed she is “strongly considering” launching a bid for Tennessee governor in 2026.
Blackburn made the remarks on Saturday during an appearance on Fox News, telling host Jacqui Heinrich, “We are strongly considering it and we’re looking at it.”
🚨NEWS: @MarshaBlackburn tells me she is “strongly considering” a run for Tennessee governor.
Senator Blackburn just won her bid for a second Senate term with 63.8% of the vote. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee cannot run again in 2026, leaving the GOP field open. pic.twitter.com/k0lShoHIUy— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) January 18, 2025
“We know that I’ve got this job to help President Trump. This first two years of his term is all about sending that power and control back to the states. We know that to implement that, like returning healthcare, returning education, it is going to take strong governors and strong state legislatures. So we’re strongly considering it,” Blackburn added.
Incumbent Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022. His current and final term ends on January 16, 2027.
Blackburn, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 after previously serving in the U.S. House and Tennessee Senate, won her reelection bid against Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) in the November 5 general election by a nearly 30-point margin.
Reports of Blackburn’s potential bid for governor were highlighted this week when another potential gubernatorial candidate, Knox County Mayor Glen Jacobs, made news when he said Blackburn is the only potential candidate whose candidacy would take him “out of the mix” for the governor.
“Senator Blackburn. That would be the person, if she decides to run, that would take me out of the mix,” Jacobs said on WATE’s “Tennessee This Week.”
In the Senate, Blackburn plays a key part in executing the Republican agenda, as the Tennessee senator was recently tapped by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to advise him and be part of his unofficial cabinet.
Blackburn was also a key part of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in November as she worked as co-chair of the Republican party platform committee to create and adopt a new platform for Republicans.
The Tennessee gubernatorial election will be held on November 3, 2026.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
I thought that Marsha wanted to be a U. S. Senator for the next six years when she was re-elected last November? Marsha is now 72 years of age, she will be 73 in June. So now, Marsha maybe wants to be elected Governor of Tennessee in November of 2026? And of course, if she is elected governor next year, she will want to be re-elected to another term as governor in 2030—they always do if they can. (Marsha was supposed to be for term limits a couple of decades ago when she was first elected to Congress {i.e., you remember, when she was a State Senator in the Tennessee General Assembly}). When will the people of our State say, ENOUGH?!
I agree. Marsha is too old by many years. There – I said exactly what I would say to her face. She has always played safely as follow-the-leader and without a strong leader to follow she will falter. After sixteen (16) years of cowardly ‘myn’ such a Bill Haslam and Bill Lee, we need someone of strength.