WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress, on Wednesday launched a run for governor of Tennessee in 2026, becoming the third sitting senator to launch a gubernatorial bid this year.
Blackburn, who has served in the Senate and House of Representatives for more than two decades, will seek the Republican nomination for governor against U.S. Representative John Rose, 60, who is also the state’s former agriculture commissioner.
Blackburn and Rose are vying for the chance to succeed Republican Governor Bill Lee, who will leave office after reaching the state’s two-term limit. A slate of Democratic candidates includes Memphis city council member Jerri Green.
The 73-year-old Blackburn’s announcement follows similar decisions by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado to seek the governorship of their respective states.
She was elected as the state’s first woman U.S. senator in 2018 and won reelection to the Senate last year over Democrat Gloria Johnson by nearly 29 points.
A politician who has aligned herself with the MAGA and Tea Party movements, Blackburn pledged in a one-minute, 39-second video to pursue a conservative economic agenda that would also oppose abortion and “define our boys and girls the way God made them.”
“We’ll make Tennessee America’s No. 1 job-creating, energy-producing powerhouse, deliver a world-class education for our children by empowering parents, not the deep state, and whether it takes planes, trains or starships, we’ll deport illegal aliens,” Blackburn said in the video, which showed Trump half a dozen times.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Sharon Singleton)
