U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has been elected as Tennessee’s next governor, with 45.5% of the vote.
Memphis City Council member Jerri Green earned 42.9% of votes as the Democratic nominee.
(READ MORE: How Tennessee would replace Blackburn in the U.S. Senate if she becomes governor)
Blackburn is set to be the first female governor in Tennessee. She’s set to be sworn into office in January, when Gov. Bill Lee’s second term will run out.
By 11 p.m., independent candidates David Hatley and Lauren Pinkston had received 9.3% and 1.3% of votes, respectively.
Blackburn was endorsed by President Donald Trump in August, after winning the Republican nomination over primary candidates U.S. Rep. John Rose of Cookeville and state Rep. Monty Fritts of Kingston.
The senator has been a vocal supporter of Trump and his policies, in recent days echoing on social media his calls to crack down on noncitizen voting and unauthorized immigration.
In an appearance in Hamilton County last year, Blackburn said she would cement Trump’s “America First” agenda and make her priority as governor “Tennessee First.”
“I fully believe that at this point in time, Tennessee does not need a manager, what it needs is a leader,” she said at County Mayor Weston Wamp’s Labor Day picnic.
Local officials including Wamp and state Sen. Bo Watson, R-North Chattanooga, have put their support behind Blackburn.
Blackburn has said she would choose her own successor in the Senate if elected governor. U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, has said he would be interested in the appointment, and he also recently told the Tennessee Lookout that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a Tennessee resident, could be interested as well.
Blackburn’s campaign raised more than $3 million during this election cycle, with large donations coming from committees to elect Republicans and groups representing BlueCross BlueShield, health corporations and executives, bankers and car retailers, state filings show.
Green’s campaign had around $560,000 on hand before Tuesday’s election. Large donations came from labor unions representing electrical workers, plumbers, machinists and other trades, as well as local Democratic parties and groups, filings show.
Green held an election night watch party Tuesday in Chattanooga at The Signal with local Democrats. By 10:15 p.m., she had not made an appearance at the party, while attendees waited for results in her race.
She’s lived in all three of Tennessee’s grand divisions, making her “uniquely ready and equipped to tackle the kitchen-table challenges families face across our entire state,” a spokesperson for her campaign said in an email.
“Jerri is hosting her election night watch party in Chattanooga because Hamilton County is right on the front lines of those challenges. After local Democrats turned out in record numbers for the primary in May, they kept showing up in August by flipping key seats on the County Commission and school board, while the GOP county mayor barely squeaked by in a narrow 5-point race,” the spokesperson said.
In August, Democrats won two seats formerly held by Republicans on the Hamilton County Commission with the election of Commissioners Montrell Besley, D-Alton Park, and Joshua Wichman, D-East Ridge. Democrat Katie Perkins also won election to the county’s school board in an East Ridge seat formerly held by Republican member Larry Grohn.
Contact breaking news editor Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.