Stockard on the Stump: Rose jabs Gov. Lee, not his likely opponent, in gubernatorial kickoff

U.S. Rep. John Rose announces his 2026 gubernatorial bid Thursday backed by his wife, Chelsea, and sons Guy, 7, and Sam, 4. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Photographs by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout ©2025

Following through on the worst-kept secret in Tennessee politics for a year, U.S. Rep. John Rose kicked off his 2026 gubernatorial campaign Thursday, not with a dig at likely opponent, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, but at lame-duck Gov. Bill Lee.

Rose, a Temperance Hall farmer and owner of Boson Software, told a large crowd of chilled supporters at the Wilson County Fairgrounds in Lebanon he loves the state’s teachers.

“And it’s why as governor, I promise to appoint a commissioner of education who has Tennessee teaching experience,” the 6th Congressional District rep said, eliciting a roar of approval.

Lee has fallen under criticism for giving the education commissioner’s post to Lizzette Reynolds of Texas, who was not certified to teach in Tennessee schools, as required by law, when she took the job two years ago. She then entered a teacher program at UT-Martin, a move hampered by a sworn affidavit she and another education official signed saying she paid for the course when it had been discounted by the state. 

Reynolds came here from a pro-voucher organization to push Lee’s private-school voucher initiative, which narrowly passed this year after failing in 2024.

Asked Thursday if he backs Lee’s program, Rose, who is in his fourth congressional term, took the middle of the road, saying, “I support Tennesseans having choice, and I support having great public schools.” (He could have just said no, since he didn’t say he likes the program.)

Interestingly, Rose rolled out his platform, making pushes for better roads and health care. He said he would lead an effort to make all interstates at least eight lanes and to build four-lane highways to every county seat.

In addition, Rose promised to work toward making sure every person in the state is no more than 30 minutes away from emergency medical care. Tennessee has been losing rural hospitals for more than a decade, in part because the state declined to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of uninsured and under-insured people. It’s doubtful, though, he would push Medicaid expansion.

Similarly to Lee, Rose said he would push to expand nuclear energy to avoid nasty California “brown-outs.” (Bashing California is always a good strategy in Tennessee, since every rightwing nut in the Golden Bear State is moving here.) 

He also said he would protect the “innocent unborn,” even though abortion is illegal, and improve the adoption system in the Department of Children’s Services, which has struggled mightily for years to find homes for wards of the state.

Rose has an estimated net worth of $56 million, according to Open Secrets, a D.C. watchdog group. He declined Thursday to venture how much it could take to run the campaign or whether he would self-fund, saying. “We’ll have the resources we need, so whatever we need to do to make sure the people of Tennessee hear our message.”

Blackburn, who started turning heads about a gubernatorial run last fall, also was busy Thursday holding a strategy session in Nashville’s Green Hills Hilton where Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, previously considered a frontrunner, and Lee’s commissioner of Economic and Community Development, Stuart McWhorter spoke, along with consultant Ward Baker.

More meetings are planned statewide as she prepares to make the campaign official within two months.

The group’s own polling shows Blackburn is beating Rose in his own district, and a brutal, expensive primary campaign is looming. 

Both are solid Trump backers, and Rose supported litigation challenging former President Joe Biden’s win in 2020. He also voted against a resolution to give congressional medals of honors to police officers on duty during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that led to the deaths of several officers.

To her credit, Blackburn is said to have encouraged Rose to run for governor during Ag Day on the Hill in Nashville this week but also told him she would beat him.

He wasn’t dissuaded.

No worries

Gov. Lee headed to Washington, D.C., Thursday where he and other ultra-conservative governors cozied up to President Donald Trump for the signing of an order to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

Republicans have been screaming for years that the feds should get out of the education game, in part because they put difficult requirements on state governments such as making sure special needs students receive a shot at a good education.

Lee maintained the mantra that the department is a massive “bureaucratic problem for states” costing billions of dollars that could be spent better by Tennessee and other states.

The Republican governor said he believes Tennessee has a handle on providing a good education for all students, including those with “unique needs.”

“States can do it better than the federal government can. I don’t have one bit of concern about a lack of services or a lack of educational opportunities for children when the federal Department of Education’s removed,” Lee told reporters after touring the construction site for a $2.3 billion Titans stadium. (The state put $500 million toward the project yet is worried about wasteful education spending?)

Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a retired special education teacher, called it a “sad state of affairs” that Tennessee has to be held accountable for providing equal education opportunities to disabled children.

“We know this because they have now passed multiple voucher laws that force parents to give up their federal rights to resources for a child with a disability,” Johnson said in a statement to the Lookout. 

Education folks are leery, at best, and angry, at worst, about dissolving the federal department.

The Tennessee Education Association said shutting it down will stop services for students and set the stage for “dismantling, defunding and privatizing” public schools.

JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, is concerned about the future of Title I programs for low-income children, free and reduced-price lunches and special education programs. 

The feds got involved in those areas decades ago because states were doing a poor job.

Tennessee adopted rules connected with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but those need to be put into state law, Bowman said Thursday.

“There is no mechanism to ensure it is protected,” Bowman said.

He added that many school district directors believe the state is ill-prepared to handle special needs programs. Thus, if the federal government is too bulky and bureaucratic, superintendents are suggesting the state be eliminated from the equation and the money sent straight to school districts.

No offense, but that sounds like an idea way ahead of its time. And nobody accused Tennessee recently of making the government smaller.

On the contrary, it is growing rapidly.

Gone but not quite forgotten

The Senate Judiciary Committee, where Men Without Hats are required and cussing is forbidden, per the chair’s rules, took some interesting votes this week, holding up two bills by Chairman Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga and one by Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis. 

The committee voted 4-4 on Senate Bill 219 by Taylor that would have allowed parents of juvenile offenders to pay restitution after a third crime. A majority vote is needed to move it out. 

“Welcome to the NFL,” Gardenhire told Taylor after the tally.

Gardenhire suffered his own setbacks this week, losing 5-4 on Senate Bill 17, which would keep school resource officers from reporting immigrant students without permanent legal documentation.

He also lost 4-4 on Senate Bill 256, a measure that would create a process for convicts and district attorneys to seek post-conviction relief when new evidence is found showing a person is innocent.

The Tennessee Innocence Project supported the bill, arguing the only way to reverse a guilty plea or conviction is for the district attorney to file a request with a judge, who doesn’t have to approve. 

The District Attorneys General Conference countered that such a move would create a wave of requests for overturning convictions, though the number of contested cases isn’t expected to be high.

Following the tie votes, the chairman announced that the bills would stay in the committee, leading some to wonder whether they can return, because in the legislature, few things ever really die. For all practical purposes, they are dead for the year, and the General Assembly’s website says they “failed.”

If lawmakers spent all of their time trying to revive dead bills, we’d be forced to spend the entire year at the Capitol and Cordell Hull. 

Can you say “torture,” boys and girls?

A Windle sighting?

Rep. Johnson said this morning on X (formerly Twitter) that former Rep. John Mark Windle was in the U.S. Marshal facility at Nashville’s federal courthouse in advance of a scheduled April 22 political corruption trial for ex-Speaker Glen Casada and his chief of staff, Cade Cothren. 

Windle is believed to have been subpoenaed to testify in the case as prosecutors try the pair on federal bribery and kickback charges involving state-funded constituent mailers put together by a secretive vendor called Phoenix Solutions. Former state Rep. Robin Smith pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Federal marshals believed to have visited former Tennessee representative

Windle and the governor’s office could be central characters at some point.

The day of an April 2019 deadlocked voucher vote, Casada gathered Cothren and lawmakers on the balcony outside the House chamber to twist arms for one more vote to pass the bill. While outside, the former speaker allegedly said he would call the governor’s office and see if Windle could get a promotion to general in the Tennessee National Guard. Windle, who already held the rank of colonel, declined the alleged offer.

The trial has been delayed multiple times, and lawmakers are hoping they can adjourn this session before the proceedings start. Roughly 20 legislators have been subpoenaed to testify, and they don’t want to be caught hanging around Cordell Hull after testimony.

Predictions for the session’s adjournment range from April 15 to May 8, meaning it most likely will end somewhere between the two. The trial’s first week, though, could be taken up with jury selection, which raises the question: Why would it take that long to pick a jury for a $52,000 case, which probably pales in comparison to the legal fees accumulated so far.

“Pot for Potholes”

With what could be the most creative bill to catch fire in the legislature – maybe ever – Nashville Democrats, Rep. Aftyn Behn and Sen. Heidi Campbell, are rolling out the “Pot for Potholes Act,” an effort to legalize and tax recreational marijuana and use the tax revenue for highway, bridge and mass transit projects. The bill goes before the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee next Wednesday.

Considering the state has a $38.5 billion backlog for road work, this could be a way to save the state budget, build a few roads and give farmers a new cash crop to replace hemp once the legislature burns those products. The governor wants to put $1 billion toward roads in the state’s proposed $59.4 billion budget for fiscal 2025-26, a departure from the practice of paying for road work with the gas tax.

The Behn-Campbell idea comes with a green sticker containing a large marijuana leaf in the middle of a state highway sign.

The only problem is this slogan dredges up visions of filling those dratted tire-busting potholes with bundles of weed, which would be a terrible waste – at least without a bag of Cheetos on top.

“Hank, why do you drink? Why do you roll smoke? Why must you live out those songs that you wrote?”*

*”Family Tradition,” Hank Williams, Jr. 

Writer’s note: This song played at Rep. Rose’s election kickoff, so it must be all good.