Poll Finds Blackburn with Overwhelming Lead Over Rose in 2026 Gubernatorial Race
The Tennessee Star
The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee’s summer poll shows U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to be the overwhelming favorite Republican candidate in the 2026 gubernatorial election.
The poll, which was conducted before Blackburn officially announced Wednesday her candidacy for governor, asked 623 registered Tennessee Republican primary voters if they would either support Blackburn or U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) in the 2025 GOP primary for governor.
Results of the poll show Blackburn with a whopping 52-point lead over Rose, earning 66 percent support over the congressman’s mere 14 percent.
Nineteen percent of voters said they were undecided.
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In the field before Senator Blackburn’s official announcement, the August Beacon Poll asked Tennesseans who they would support in the 2025 GOP primary for governor, Senator Marsha Blackburn or Representative John Rose.
Blackburn holds a commanding 52-point lead over… pic.twitter.com/muVCIOcS42
— Beacon Center of TN (@BeaconTN) August 7, 2025
When up against a “generic Democratic candidate” in the gubernatorial race, the poll found both Blackburn and Rose to have a 19-point lead, which, the Beacon Center remarked is “notable because generic members of a party often poll better than the actual nominees.”
Blackburn’s lead over Rose as shown by Thursday’s poll results come as a previous straw poll conducted during the Davidson County Republican Party’s annual summer picnic found the U.S. senator with a nearly 28-point lead over Rose in the gubernatorial race.
The Beacon Center’s sneak peak into its summer poll – which will be fully released next week – with the release of the gubernatorial numbers showing Blackburn with a substantial lead over Rose comes one day after Blackburn officially declaredherself as a candidate in the race.
Immediately after declaring her candidacy, Blackburn garnered support from a great deal of Tennessee Republican leaders at the local, state, and federal level.
In commenting on Blackburn’s announcement Wednesday, a spokesman for Rose’s campaign said the two leaders have “a mutual respect” for each other and the road ahead to the August 6, 2026 GOP primary will see the candidates engaging in “a great debate about the future of Tennessee.”