Marsha Blackburn’s name will appear on the November ballot for governor, not U.S. Senate. But a Blackburn victory could create a second statewide consequence: an appointed senator serving until Tennessee voters choose a replacement in 2028.
Tennessee – Tennesseans will not see Marsha Blackburn’s U.S. Senate seat on the Nov. 3 ballot.
They may still help determine what happens to it.
Blackburn won reelection to the Senate in 2024 and began a six-year term scheduled to expire Jan. 3, 2031. She is now the Republican nominee for governor after winning Tennessee’s Aug. 6 primary.
If Jerri Green, Lauren Pinkston or another candidate wins the governor’s race, Blackburn can simply continue serving in Washington.
If Blackburn wins, Tennessee gets a second question.
Who takes her Senate seat?
Tennessee law gives the governor the first move
The 17th Amendment requires Senate vacancies ultimately to be filled by voters but allows state legislatures to authorize governors to make temporary appointments. Tennessee has done that.
Under Tennessee Code, when a U.S. Senate vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a temporary replacement if Congress may be in session without Tennessee’s full representation. Voters then elect a successor at the next regular November election.
For Blackburn, the timing matters.
Her current Senate term extends well beyond 2026. If she left the Senate after this November’s election, the next regular November election would be in 2028. The person elected then would serve the remainder of Blackburn’s existing term, which ends in January 2031.
That means an appointed senator could potentially serve for most of two years before Tennesseans vote directly on the replacement.
Then the same Class I Senate seat would return to its normal election cycle in 2030.
Who makes the appointment depends on when Blackburn leaves
Blackburn does not have to surrender her Senate seat merely because she is running for governor.
A vacancy begins only when the Senate seat actually becomes vacant.
That makes the period between Election Day and the next gubernatorial administration more consequential than it may appear.
If Blackburn won the governor’s race and resigned from the Senate while Bill Lee was still governor, Tennessee law would place the temporary appointment with Lee.
If Blackburn remained in the Senate until after she became governor and then resigned, the appointment authority would move to the new governor — Blackburn herself. Axios has previously identified that as the expected possibility if she wins.
The campaign has not publicly identified whom Blackburn would appoint under that scenario.
Until it does, naming likely successors would be political speculation rather than reporting.
The important fact is the power itself.
This would be a federal decision made from Nashville
A temporary senator would not be a ceremonial placeholder.
The appointee would become one of Tennessee’s two votes in the U.S. Senate during a period when senators could be deciding federal legislation, presidential nominations, judges, spending bills and other national policy.
The Senate currently has a 53-seat Republican majority, but 2026 voters will determine the chamber’s composition for the next Congress. That means the significance of a Tennessee vacancy cannot be measured fully until the November Senate elections are complete.
What can be established now is that Tennessee voters would not initially select Blackburn’s temporary successor themselves.
They would select the governor who may make that choice.
That is an unusual amount of indirect power packed into one line on a ballot.
It also creates an accountability question
There is nothing improper about a governor making a Senate appointment when state law authorizes it.
Governors around the country regularly fill vacancies under systems permitted by the 17th Amendment.
But legal authority does not eliminate the need for public scrutiny.
If Blackburn wins, voters should reasonably ask what qualifications she would require in an appointee.
Would she demand a commitment to run in 2028?
Would she consider only Republicans?
Would the selection process be public?
Would applicants be interviewed?
Would political endorsements, campaign support or relationships play a role?
Those are questions, not allegations.
And they matter because an appointment lasting until the 2028 election would give one person the power and visibility of incumbency without first winning that Senate seat from Tennessee voters.
One election, two consequences
This is another place where the governor comparison is not symmetrical.
A Green victory does not create a Senate vacancy.
A Pinkston victory does not create one.
A Blackburn victory probably does, assuming she leaves the Senate to serve as governor.
So Tennesseans considering Blackburn are evaluating more than whether they want her running state government.
They are also potentially giving her — or, depending on the timing of her resignation, Lee — the first choice of who represents Tennessee in Washington until voters can make that decision themselves.
The governor’s race remains a race for governor.
But for one applicant, the consequences reach beyond that office.
If Blackburn wins, Tennessee may not merely be filling one job.
It may be opening another. Advertisement · Learn with The Redemption Project
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I am a retired detective and criminal justice / government educator based in Tennessee. I founded The Redemption Project, as a place to focus on civics, rebuild non-partisan trust, and provide educational and emotional grace while learning about the news. I also have a column in Knox TN Today. My reporting and commentary have also appeared in other outlets including; Governing, The Arizona Capitol Times, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Police1, among other state and regional outlets.
