When Marsha Blackburn visited The Daily Wire earlier this month, she laid out her vision for Tennessee.
“Tennessee is a conservative state — we don’t have a state income tax, we don’t allow illegals to run our state, we fight to protect faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity,” Blackburn said. “And I want to keep it that way.”
“That’s why I’m running for governor. We have the potential to be America’s conservative leader.”
It’s a message you hear a lot from the senator. But I’ve lived in Tennessee for three years now, and have heard it in person from Blackburn many times. It doesn’t get old, because it validates my decision to be one of the thousands of Americans to leave a blue city and move here.
My family was tired of worrying about how our kids were being indoctrinated at school. We dreaded paying into a tax system that would spend our money on things we hate. We wanted to live in a state that America’s best companies are flocking to, not running away from. I work for a company that ran here from California. I want what Marsha Blackburn is promising: to make sure Tennessee remains America’s conservative leader.
Why trust that Marsha Blackburn will deliver? Simply put, I’ve seen her do it. The first time I ever stepped foot in Tennessee was in 2018, to cover the Senate race between Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen, a popular former governor. It was one of the Democrats’ big targets for the cycle, with a longtime Republican incumbent retiring and a great recruit in Bredesen. Most prognosticators rated it a toss-up. Weeks out, polls in the state had Bredesen winning.
It was a tough cycle for Republicans. Democrats won 41 seats in the House, handing the gavel back to Nancy Pelosi. It was a different story in Tennessee: Blackburn smoked Bredesen by 10 points. Six years later, she smoked her Democrat opponent by 30 points.
It’s because Tennessee sees what Blackburn is doing. Before she was in Congress, she was in the state legislature leading the charge to get rid of the state income tax. In Washington, she’s established herself as an influential member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle, bringing the president’s attention to our state. She’s also been at the forefront of the fight to protect women’s sports from liberal insanity.
It was Blackburn, in fact, who first asked a Supreme Court nominee the question the Left still can’t answer: What is a woman?
I had the chance to be a fly on the wall for a site visit that Blackburn took to the massive xAI complex Elon Musk is building in Memphis. She was not in campaign mode — she was digging in on the issues that make Tennessee a magnet for big business looking to succeed, and knew the issues on a granular level. The company is building the largest supercomputer in the world, and informed leaders like Blackburn helped convince Musk to build it in Tennessee.
Others have thrown their hat in the ring to challenge Blackburn. Republican Congressman John Rose has been largely self-funding his campaign, which is buoyed by $7 million in spending — compared to just $1 million from Blackburn.
He’s running as a successful Tennessee businessman, but his business record has been a problem. Oddest was the snafu regarding his campaign ad promising that he wouldn’t let “woke” companies like Starbucks come to Tennessee to “push DEI.”
It was a good ad, until it was revealed that the software company where he’s CEO posted about Black Lives Matter on Instagram in 2020. His company deleted the post; he said he had no idea.
There are also questions over whether he’s overstating his business record. In his campaign posts, he talks about being the founder of an IT training company. But he has also said to the press, prior to his political career, that he actually wasn’t the founder at all. He joined the company two years after it was founded, he told The Tennessean.
“Well, actually I was not the founder of the business,” the paper quoted Rose as saying. “A friend of mine who was in law school with me at Vanderbilt started Transcender Corp. in ’92. In fact, he pretty much ran the business in the apartment until 1994, and I joined him full-time at that point.”
It’s an odd thing to misrepresent.
Then there’s Monty Fritts, a one-term state lawmaker who says he’ll “be surprised” if he doesn’t win. He says Tennessee is sick of politicians like Blackburn, a claim undermined by her electoral success.
It’s unclear what exactly we should be sick of in Tennessee. We’ve been at the forefront of every national victory, because of leaders like Blackburn. Tennessee is growing because people and some of the most successful corporations in the world want to be part of it.
Marsha Blackburn is the leader who will keep that momentum going, and make it undeniable that Tennessee is America’s conservative leader. Early voting starts on Friday.
.png)
.png)
