Mayor Glenn Jacobs is endorsing Senator Marsha Blackburn for governor

This story has been updated with the correct title by Michael Lotfi.

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs endorsed U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, posting on social media that she “would do an excellent job as governor and would have my full support if she chose to do so.”

Jacobs spent months laying the groundwork for a run for governor in 2026, but endorsed Blackburn on the evening of January 14, just hours after Knox News said he was unlikely to run if the senator would do this. Blackburn and Jacobs, who are close friends, are both strong allies of President-elect Donald Trump and many of their political views align.

Instead, Jacobs will likely position herself for an appointment to Blackburn’s potentially vacant Senate seat if she wins. And his support does just that.

At the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce’s annual kickoff event Jan. 14 in Nashville, attendees addressed the senator as “Governor Blackburn.”

“It’s all that’s been talked about in the state capital,” Michael Lotfi, deputy director of Americans for Prosperity-TN, told USA TODAY Network-Tennessee in a text from the event.

Susan Richardson Williams, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party and a Trump delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention, told Knox News before the announcement that she had heard since Jan. 11 from several people who had been recruited by Blackburn to host campaign fundraisers , even though she didn’t get a call herself.

“If it’s a rumor that Blackburn is running for governor, then it’s a very hot rumor,” Richardson Williams told Knox News.

Blackburn became the first woman to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate when she won in 2018. If elected governor, she would also be the first woman to hold the role.

Jacobs formed a political action committee that could serve as a launching pad for a full-scale gubernatorial campaign. Jacobs once used his Big Red PAC, a nod to his World Wrestling Entertainment persona, to “finance much of the blocking and combating of a potential campaign,” including supporting like-minded candidates across the state and paying staff, it says an email sent to potential donors obtained by Knox News.

Now that money could go to Blackburn’s campaign, but no more than $14,400 in 2024. That number is adjusted annually.

But Big Red PAC could become a vehicle for raising significant funds for Blackburn in the future through independent spending or spending on behalf of a candidate or against opponents.

Big Red PAC donated $3,000 to Blackburn’s Senate fund, Marsha for Senate. And Jacobs has directly supported Blackburn, appearing in her Senate campaign ads and even traveling to Washington for her Jan. 3 swearing-in ceremony.

Mayor Glenn Jacobs is endorsing Senator Marsha Blackburn for governor

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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