Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) triumphed over Democratic City Councilor Jerri Green and conservative independent David Hatley in Tennessee’s gubernatorial election.
Blackburn 45.4% of the vote, compared to Green’s 43.1% and Hatley’s 9.3%. Polling consistently showed Blackburn leading by double digits, though some final polls had her leading by just 9%.
The results were hardly surprising — the last Democrat to win a statewide election in Tennessee was Phil Bredesen in 2006. However, the race was feared to be closer than usual due to Hatley entering the race, who siphoned a significant number of votes from Blackburn.
Hatley, a conservative businessman, added intrigue to the race with his unusually good performance as a third-party candidate. He ran on a fully conservative platform, ticking off all the conservative boxes on topics such as guns and abortion. He claimed he was only running as an independent to avoid party pressure, but he had been barred from running as a Republican because of a 1998 felony conviction for bank fraud.
Despite his campaign being a long shot, he raised over $12 million of his own money and polled in the double digits. He was the most prominent of over a dozen independents on the ballot, none of whom performed well enough to note.
Democrats had held out hope in public statements that Hatley would siphon off enough voters to clear the way for Green until the end, to no avail.
Blackburn’s victory by a solid margin, despite Hatley siphoning away a notable number of conservative voters, serves to further showcase the deep-red nature of Tennessee.
Blackburn’s victory makes her Tennessee’s first woman governor, after taking the title of the state’s first woman senator.
The results open up another bit of intrigue, as Blackburn said she would stay in the Senate until taking the governorship so she could appoint her successor. This is of unclear legality and has sparked debate in the state.