Tennessee hosts first governors’ forum in eight years. No-Show for GOP Frontrunner • Tennessee Lookout

Three of Tennessee’s four major gubernatorial candidates participated in a forum a week before the 2026 election and answered questions on a range of topics, including private school vouchers, data centers and toll lanes.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate and favorite to win the race, declined to participate in the forum, continuing a trend among Tennessee Republican candidates of avoiding appearing on stage against their campaign opponents.

Democratic candidate Jerri Green and independent candidate David Hatley both attacked Blackburn during the forum hosted by the Tennessee Press Association and Middle Tennessee State University on the school’s campus in Murfreesboro.

Green, a Memphis City Council member, said it’s a shame the only other candidate with a “path to victory” isn’t debating.

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“I’m the only candidate on this stage who won a primary,” Green said.

The press association invited Blackburn, Green, Hatley and Lauren Pinkston, another independent candidate. Blackburn was the only one of the four to decline the invitation.

Hatley is a Washington County spa mogul who describes himself as a “conservative.” He has invested nearly $12 million of his own money in the campaign and refuses to accept donations. Hatley is trying to find a way to get enough votes to win without splitting the conservative vote, which could allow Green to win the governor’s race with a plurality.

In his closing remarks, Hatley attacked Green for not supporting the Memphis Safe Task Force and criticized Blackburn for allowing campaign donors to “buy the governor’s office.”

Pinkston presents himself as a moderate, emphasizing that most voters are unaffiliated with any political party and are fed up with the two-party system.

Blackburn also refused to debate his Republican opponents in the gubernatorial primary earlier this year and did not debate during his 2024 U.S. Senate re-election campaign. U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty did not debate in any of his U.S. Senate campaigns. Gov. Bill Lee has refused to debate his 2022 Democratic Party opponent.

The last time Tennessee held debates for statewide offices was in 2018, when Lee debated former Democratic Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Blackburn took the stage with former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen in their U.S. Senate race.

Whoever becomes Tennessee’s next governor will face a series of political decisions

The leading American artificial intelligence companies began hiring lobbyists earlier this year, ahead of the 2027 legislative session and amid growing backlash against data centers.

The debate over data center expansion has led some local communities to impose moratoriums on construction, fearing it could drive up electricity prices and have negative environmental impacts.

Lawmakers and the next governor will likely debate whether to pass a state law that would preempt local moratoriums on data center construction, paving the way for more. Officials could also consider repealing the state’s generous tax incentives for data centers.

Green said she would go the other way and implement a statewide moratorium on data center construction, adding that she fought against the construction of XAI’s data center in Memphis.

“Elon Musk and his ilk need to go,” Green said, referring to the CEO of the company that owns XAI.

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Pinkston agreed with Green on the moratorium.

Hatley said he only wanted data centers in Tennessee in the right deal.

“We have to have guardrails,” Hatley said. “They have to pay property taxes.”

Blackburn has not publicly taken a position on whether the state should preempt localities on data centers or whether it should implement a moratorium.

The candidates on stage differed most from Blackburn’s public stance on private school vouchers, where she called for expanding the program. Blackburn received millions of dollars in support during the gubernatorial primary and general election from a political action committee, the PAC, that was pushing for the expansion of private education vouchers in the state.

Private school vouchers cost Tennessee taxpayers $310 million a year. Lawmakers expanded the private school voucher program to 35,000 students, funding about $7,300 per student to enroll in private schools. The state’s first voucher program provides about $9,000 to about 5,000 low-income students in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga alone.

Hatley and Pinkston pointed out that most rural counties do not have private schools and cannot take advantage of the program.

Green said the whole thing was a “scam” funded by out-of-state interests.

“Public money should go to public schools for the public good,” Green said.

The next governor will also have to make executive decisions on whether to pursue more toll lane projects to address a structural deficit in how the state funds roads. A report from an intergovernmental agency recommended state lawmakers consider raising taxes or passing a law that would allow the state to borrow money to cover a $400 million shortfall in the state Department of Transportation’s budget.

All three candidates at Tuesday’s forum also agreed that the state should not pursue more toll lane projects.

Green said toll lanes were just “fast lanes for rich people.”

Hatley said he had no idea why the state would pursue toll lane projects after they “failed” in other states.

Even though Blackburn wasn’t on stage, his campaign continues to make headlines in conservative-friendly media.

Blackburn continued to emphasize that she wants to implement a program similar to that of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Effectiveness, DOGE.

Details of specific cuts are scarce, but when Lee became governor in 2019, he hired the consulting firm McKinsey produce a report on ways to reduce the size of government. During Lee’s eight years in office, the number of state employees increased slightly.