Blackburn, Green and Pinkston Offer Three Different Models of Tennessee Government

The Republican and Democratic nominees and an independent candidate with a detailed statewide platform are asking voters to choose among different ideas about when government should act, what it should leave alone and whom it should answer to.

Marsha Blackburn, Jerri Green and Lauren Pinkston are all applying for the same job.

They are not describing the same job.

Blackburn and Green emerged from Tennessee’s Aug. 6 primaries as the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor. Pinkston is among the independent candidates who qualified for the November ballot and has developed a detailed statewide platform of her own. Tennessee’s current election results list Blackburn and Green as the winners of their respective primaries, with all 95 counties reporting.

The differences among the three go beyond Republican, Democrat and independent.

Each is presenting voters with a different theory of Tennessee government.

Campaigns usually reduce governing philosophy to individual issues: abortion, taxes, schools, guns, immigration. Those positions matter. But underneath them sits a larger question.

When Tennesseans have a problem, when should state government act?

The candidates answer that very differently.

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Blackburn: Preserve the model and push it further

Blackburn begins with the premise that Tennessee’s general direction is working.

Her campaign emphasizes economic growth, lower taxes, fewer regulations, business development and workforce preparation. But hers is not simply a small-government agenda. Blackburn also advocates an assertive state role in immigration enforcement, public safety, education and social policy.

She is unusually explicit about the ideological purpose of her candidacy. Blackburn has said she wants Tennessee to become America’s “conservative leader,” and her campaign closely identifies her candidacy with President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.

That creates a governing model with an important distinction:

Government should generally interfere less in markets while acting forcefully in areas Blackburn defines as public order, parental authority, immigration enforcement and conservative social policy.

Voters who believe Tennessee’s conservative governing structure has broadly succeeded are being offered continuity — and, in several areas, an effort to push that structure further.

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Green: Give government greater responsibility for outcomes