Tennessee Governor 2026
Election day is November 3, 2026. A statewide contest in Tennessee.
Who is favoured in Tennessee Governor?
Run the forecaster to pull current reporting on this race, score it issue by issue, and see who it favours.
What the Tennessee Governor election decides
State government decides most of what touches daily life directly: schools, roads, policing, public health, utilities regulation, and the state's share of healthcare programs. A governor's veto and budget proposal set the boundaries of what a legislature can do.
A governor signs or vetoes state law, proposes the state budget, commands the state's emergency response, and in most states shapes how elections themselves are administered. Tennessee decides this alongside its 9 House seats and a U.S. Senate seat. Governors are judged on results inside the state rather than on national mood alone, which is why governor's races often break differently from federal contests held the same day.
How Tennessee votes
Tennessee combines Nashville's explosive growth with Memphis's logistics economy and a strongly conservative countryside. Republicans dominate statewide, and growth management has joined taxes among its recurring issues. That backdrop is the ground any Tennessee campaign fights on, and it is what the Electorate HQ simulation reads first when it weighs a ticket's platform against this contest.
About this race
The 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial election is scheduled to take place on November 3, 2026, to elect the governor of Tennessee. Primary elections took place on August 6, 2026. Republican incumbent Bill Lee is term-limited and cannot seek a third consecutive term.
Democrats have not won a statewide election in Tennessee since Phil Bredesen was re-elected governor in 2006. Either major party nominee would be the first female governor of Tennessee.
Latest coverage of the Tennessee Governor race
Tennessee primary election results live blog2026 Voter Guide | Here’s everything voters need to know for Tennessee’s Primary ElectionPolls closed! Tennessee Primary Election Day information on candidates, districts and moreSen. Marsha Blackburn wins the Republican primary for governor of TennesseeMarsha Blackburn, Jerri Green to face off in historic Tennessee governor’s raceJerri Green wins Tennessee Democratic gubernatorial primaryJerri Green wins Democratic primary for Tennessee governor raceTennessee Sen. Blackburn wins Republican primary for governor, defeating fellow Trump allyThe rest of the Tennessee ballot
Every Tennessee House district, the counties inside each one, and an address lookup that resolves your exact districts are on the Tennessee state page.
Other 2026 races in Tennessee
Analysis covering Tennessee
Alabama has the most evenly sized congressional map in the country
Every redistricting argument is about the extremes. Here is the opposite: the state whose seven districts land within a factor of three of each other.
Twenty-six states elect a senator and a governor on the same day in 2026
The overlap between the Senate class and the gubernatorial cohort is a coincidence of two unrelated calendars, and it decides where money goes.