Marsha Blackburn led the Tennessee governor race on Aug. 6, taking about 42% of early Republican primary votes as returns came in. John Rose followed at about 33%, with Monty Fritts at about 23%.
The early count put Blackburn ahead in the contest that will settle the Republican nominee for Tennessee governor, while Jerri Green led the Democratic primary. Green had nearly 70% of the vote as of 7:37 p.m., and the general election remains the next major step.
Blackburn and Rose
Blackburn entered election night with an early lead after a campaign that drew more attention than her Republican rivals. She said she is running to lead Tennessee through a reset and make it “America’s conservative leader for this generation and the next.”
Rose spent 18 months campaigning across Tennessee and held more than four dozen town halls. Polling showed him steadily gaining, and one poll put him within as little as 3.5 percentage points of Blackburn by election week. Blackburn’s internal polling showed Rose behind by 17 points.
Jerri Green in Memphis
Green, a Memphis city councilwoman, also led the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office starting in January. She attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and worked as a juvenile public defender in Nashville before moving back to Memphis to raise her three kids.
No Democrat has won a statewide election in Tennessee since 2006, and a Republican win in November would give that party the governor’s office for a third straight term. Until Gov. Bill Lee succeeded Gov. Bill Haslam, Tennessee’s governors had flip-flopped between parties for much of the last seven decades.
Aug. 6 returns
Blackburn had held a 58-point lead over Rose before launching her bid for governor, then faced a race in which Rose narrowed the gap during the campaign. The early returns still left her in front as the vote count continued, with Rose and Fritts trailing behind her and Green leading the Democratic side.
That leaves the Republican primary to be settled by the final count, while Green’s lead positions her for the Democratic nomination. The general election will follow the nomination fight, and the next question is whether Blackburn can keep the early edge she built on election night.
