Will Heath Shuler run for Governor?
Updating the 2026 race
While Sen. Marsha Blackburn may be getting all the ink for announcing yesterday she will run for Governor, two other notable political developments deserve some attention, too.
Will the former UT Vols quarterback Heath Shuler run for Governor?
Heath Shuler After his stellar career on the gridiron in the 1990s, Shuler served in Congress from western North Carolina. He has a home in Knoxville now, and word on the street is that friends are urging him to run as a political independent - sensing that voters have little patience anymore for nominees of the major political parties.
Tennessee’s junior senator, Bill Hagerty, declares he won’t run for Governor, but will he also forego a Senate reelection campaign to take the top executive job at the Tennessee Valley Authority? The White House has been maneuvering to put its stamp on TVA - to the point of remaking its governing board. Is privatizing all or part of the agency (long a dream of some national Republicans) also on the horizon?
Read my new column here (for the USA Today Tennessee network) about these and other developments in the emerging 2026 campaigns for Governor. The race continues to churn.
Well, a dead dog would be better than what we’ve had for two governor’s terms, and Marsha Blackburn has sold out TN for WAY too long, so perhaps Schuler running as an independent would be a good chance to get our poor state out of its oligarchic death grip.
I could certainly support an independent for Governor.