If Blackburn Wins, Her Senate Seat Becomes an Appointment That Could Last Until November 2028

Tennessee law hands a vacant U.S. Senate seat to the governor to fill, and the timing of a resignation decides which governor. No appointee would face voters before November 2028.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee's November 3 ballot for governor carries a question that is not printed on it: who would hold Senator Marsha Blackburn's U.S. Senate seat, for how long, and by whose choice.

Tennessee Code section 2-16-101 answers part of it. "If a vacancy occurs in the office of United States senator, a successor shall be elected at the next regular November election and shall hold office until the term for which the predecessor was elected expires," the statute reads. If the vacancy would leave the state short a senator while Congress is in session, "the governor shall fill the vacancy by appointment until a successor is elected at the next regular November election and is qualified."

For a seat vacated in early 2027, the next regular November election is November 2028. An appointee could sit in the Senate for roughly two years without facing Tennessee voters, and the winner of the 2028 election would serve out the remainder of the term Blackburn won in 2024.

The open question is who would make that appointment, and the Tennessee Lookout laid out the mechanics in an August 24 analysis. If Blackburn wins and resigns her Senate seat before the gubernatorial inauguration, which the Lookout places at January 17, 2027, the appointment belongs to Governor Bill Lee in his final days in office. If she waits and resigns after taking the oath as governor, she could in theory make the appointment herself. No Tennessee official has held both offices at once, and constitutional scholar John Vile told the Lookout the scenario raises unresolved state and federal questions. "It's a fascinating question," Vile said.

Timing pressure runs the other way too. The U.S. Senate organizes in the first week of January, and seniority for committee assignments flows from when a senator is sworn in. An adviser quoted by the Lookout put it plainly: "From a seniority point, everything in Washington, D.C. depends on it."

The names the Lookout reports circulating for an appointment include former CoreCivic chief executive Damon Hininger, a major Blackburn donor; U.S. Representative Tim Burchett; Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who serves as Blackburn's campaign treasurer; and state commissioner Stuart McWhorter. The 901 Report has previously covered CoreCivic's growing Tennessee detention revenue, including a 600-bed West Tennessee facility that came online this year.

There is precedent for the appointment itself, though not for the self-appointment scenario. In 1993, Governor Ned McWherter appointed Harlan Mathews to the Senate seat Al Gore vacated to become Vice President.

Blackburn faces Councilwoman Jerri Green of Memphis, the Democratic nominee, on November 3. Green won her nomination while holding her Memphis City Council seat, a status The 901 Report covered when the primary results were certified.

Why It Matters for Memphis

A Senate appointment made in January 2027 would shape federal votes on spending, grants, and oversight that reach Memphis institutions for up to two years before any Tennessean votes on the seat. And one name on the reported shortlist, Hininger, spent his career running the private detention company whose Tennessee facilities and revenue growth this newsroom has documented. Whether the appointment is made by an outgoing governor or by the senator-turned-governor herself is a live legal question with no Tennessee precedent.

The Transparency Gap

Who holds the authority here. Tennessee Code 2-16-101 gives the appointment to one person, the governor, and nothing checks it. There is no legislative confirmation of a Senate appointee in Tennessee, no advice-and-consent step, no public process, and no election until November 2028. Which governor exercises that power turns entirely on a resignation date that only Blackburn controls, and the statute does not address the case where the resigning senator and the appointing governor are the same person. That is not a loophole anyone drafted; it is a situation the law was never written to contemplate, and no Tennessee official has ever been in a position to test it.

What has not been disclosed. Blackburn has not stated publicly whether she would resign before or after the January 2027 inauguration, which is the single fact that decides who makes the appointment. The Lee administration has not said whether it would fill the seat if the vacancy occurred on its watch. No Tennessee Attorney General opinion on gubernatorial self-appointment to a federal vacancy has been published or, as far as the record shows, requested. Whether any of the four names the Lookout reports circulating has been approached is unknown. And no candidate in the governor's race has been asked on the record what she or he would do with the power if it landed.

Why the gap matters, and what we are requesting. Tennessee voters choosing a governor on November 3 may also be choosing, indirectly and without being told so on the ballot, a United States senator who serves until 2029 and never stands for election in between. That is a real consequence of a real vote, and the mechanics that produce it are public law, not speculation. The question is answerable before the election by the people who would be doing the appointing, which is precisely why it should be asked now rather than reconstructed in January. The 901 Report is requesting any Tennessee Attorney General opinion, formal or informal, on gubernatorial appointment and self-appointment to a United States Senate vacancy, correspondence from the Governor's office regarding Senate vacancy procedure, and on-the-record answers from both nominees on whether they would commit to a resignation timeline and to any process before naming an appointee. We will report what those records show.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.

If Blackburn Wins, Her Senate Seat Becomes an Appointment That Could Last Until November 2028

Why It Matters for Memphis

Sources

Keep digging

Related reports

More from this topic