Tennessee Lt. Gov. McNally won’t run for reelection; wraps nearly 50-year career

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally announced Thursday he will not run for reelection this year, after serving in the Tennessee legislature for nearly a half-century. 

“It is with a full heart and a deep sense of gratitude that I announce I will not be a candidate for the state Senate in 2026,” McNally, 82, wrote on Facebook. “My aim each day was to leave my state and my community a little better than I found them.”

McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican and a pharmacist by profession, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1979. 

After a lobbyist for the bingo industry offered him $10,000 in exchange for his votes to legalize horse racing, McNally worked with the FBI during the bureau’s probe of political corruption in state government, wearing a wire throughout the investigation.

The sting, called “Operation Rocky Top,” became public knowledge in 1989. Subsequently, Secretary of State Gentry Crowell and Rep. Ted Ray Miller, both Democrats, committed suicide and several officials went to prison for their roles. 

McNally was elected to the state Senate in 1986 and became lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate in 2017 after serving as finance committee chairman. 

In recent years, he has faced several health and political challenges. 

McNally survived a vote of ‘no confidence’ from his Senate colleagues in 2023 after reports he commented from his public Instagram account on photos of scantily clad young gay men. 

He had a pacemaker implanted in 2023 and missed the start of the 2024 legislative session after having a second surgery on one ankle. 

“From his early service in the House of Representatives, to his consequential leadership on the Finance, Ways and Means Committee in the Senate, to his tenure as lieutenant governor, Randy McNally has led the state with humility, wisdom and an unwavering commitment to the people of this state,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in a statement posted on Facebook. 

Johnson, a Franklin Republican, is thought to be a likely candidate to replace McNally as lieutenant governor, as are Sen. Bo Watson of Hamilton County and Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta, both Republicans.