{"id":219740,"date":"2026-08-07T07:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-sen-marsha-blackburn-wins-gop-nomination-for-tennessee-governor-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:42:16","slug":"us-sen-marsha-blackburn-wins-gop-nomination-for-tennessee-governor-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-sen-marsha-blackburn-wins-gop-nomination-for-tennessee-governor-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"US Sen. Marsha Blackburn wins GOP nomination for Tennessee governor – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn<\/a> won Tennessee’s Republican nomination for governor\u00a0on Aug. 6, defeating two other conservative candidates and cementing her status as the heavy favorite to become the first woman to lead the\u00a0state, NBC News and the Associated Press have projected.
“One year ago, we set out on this journey with one goal: to make Tennessee America’s conservative leader and show the nation what strong, bold, conservative leadership looks like.” Blackburn posted on X shortly before 9:30 p.m. ET. “Tonight, I am humbled and honored that you’ve chosen me as your Republican nominee for Governor.”
Blackburn pledged in a victory speech at her election night party to “keep Tennessee the most conservative, well-led, well-governed state,” calling it “Donald Trump<\/a> country” and committing to his America First Agenda. She said she will work with the Trump administration to “be sure we deport every single illegal alien” and recommitted to a “Tennessee DOGE” to eliminate wasteful government spending.
In November’s midterm, Blackburn will face Jerri Green, who won the Democratic nomination, CNN and the Associated Press projected.
But it will be a massive uphill battle for Green, a Memphis council member. A Democrat has not sat in the state’s governor seat since former Gov. Phil Bredesen\u00a0was termed out in 2011\u00a0after his 2006 victory, and Republican candidates have dominated the state in recent years.
Still, Green celebrated her win in a post on X, noting a historical feat as the first woman Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor. She recommitted to campaign promises on affordability and strong public schools and against Washington “out-of-touch extremists answering only to the wealthy and well-connected.”
“Let\u2019s go make history again,” Green said in her 9:29 p.m. ET post, nodding to the primary. Both woman victors guarantees Tennesseans will have their first woman governor after November.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican who ran uncontested in his reelection for the 2nd Congressional District, celebrated Blackburn’s nomination but warned that the “election is not over.”
“The other party that has members in Congress, they use the great American flag as napkin,” Burchett said. “That’s the type of people we’re going to be up against. Let’s take this thing serious.”
Blackburn slammed Democrats in her victory speech, saying she would not “allow Tennessee to become New York or California,” and criticized the rising democratic socialist faction of that party
“We have to defeat the Democrats in November,” Blackburn said. “We’ve got to send a message loud and clear: we are a solid red conservative state, and all of these socialist, communist policies end at the Tennessee state line.”
Blackburn, 74, entered the Republican primary race the clear favorite over U.S. Rep. John Rose<\/a> and state Rep. Monty Fritts<\/a>, at one point holding double-digital leads in early polling. She is popular among Republicans and was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, currently serving her second Senate term after four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
President Donald Trump did not endorse a candidate for the Republican primary, although\u00a0Blackburn and Rose are both\u00a0strong supporters\u00a0of the president. Trump swept the state in 2024 with an almost 30-point-lead over Kamala Harris.
Blackburn’s goal is “to make Tennessee America\u2019s conservative leader,” according to her campaign social media accounts, and her campaign spotlights her commitment to Trump, his “America First Agenda” and the Make America Great Again movement.
“Tennessee over the last 16 years has really because a Christian, conservative standard bearer,” Blackburn said in her victory speech.
On the issues, her campaign advocated for core-Republican platforms such as economic growth through tax cuts, fighting crime and illegal immigration, cutting wasteful government spending, parental rights and removing “woke” curriculums from schools.
“She fights every day for President Donald Trump\u2019s America First agenda, to keep men out of girls\u2019 sports, hold big tech accountable, defend life, protect American farmland from Communist China, secure our borders, and deport all illegal aliens,” Blackburn’s website says.
Blackburn’s campaign also gained national attention when she released a July campaign video where the\u00a0senator sat in a Chinese food restaurant crumbling Fortune cookies to show “how hard am I going to crack down on China.” She also faced criticism for not debating her two primary opponents.
The race tightened as the primary neared but Blackburn stayed in the lead until her final victory.
Rose’s campaign contrasted Blackburn’s, pointing to his family roots as an eighth-generation farmer in the state and highlighting that he is “not a career politician.” Similar to Blackburn, though, he relied on a connection to Trump, calling himself an “unapologetic supporter” of the president who will align with Trump’s “blueprint.” He focused on five campaign priorities \u2013 education, infrastructure, healthcare, energy and economic and community development.
Rose addressed an election night crowd, congratulating Blackburn for the win and saying he called her.
“We have a general election next. And even though things didn\u2019t go our way tonight, I hope you\u2019ll join me in supporting our Republican nominee for governor of Tennessee,” Rose said.
Fritts ran a small-government “liberty & less government” campaign that called for 10 pillars including eliminating a grocery sales tax, defending the Second Amendment, supporting voter ID laws and removing incentives that attracted “illegal aliens” to the state.
On the Democratic side, two candidates besides Green \u2013 Carnita Atwater and Tim Cyr \u2013 were on the primary ballot. Green campaigned on supporting working families, strengthening public schools, expanding Medicaid in rural parts of the state, “common-sense” gun laws and clean climate preservation.
Contributing: Vivian Jones, The<\/em> Tennessean<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won Tennessee’s Republican nomination for governor\u00a0on Aug. 6, defeating two other conservative candidates and cementing her status as the heavy favorite to become the first woman to lead the\u00a0state, NBC News and the Associated Press have projected.“One year ago, we set out on this journey with one goal: to make Tennessee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}