Tennessee Congressman John Rose has been openly campaigning to be Tennessee’s next governor in the 2026 elections. As of August 6, 2025, he now has a primary challenger, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, according to numerous news outlets. Curiously, there has been some speculation concerning Sen. Blackburn’s plans because many of her volunteers, employees or handlers have been appearing at numerous events with stickers and yard signs suggesting that she was running for her Senate re-election in 2030 rather than to run for governor in 2026.

With at least two Republicans now announced for the race, this at a minimum means that Tennesseans can look forward to an interesting Republican primary contest. Hopefully, such a race will contain a lot of substantive detail on what differentiates the candidates in terms of prior accomplishments and concrete promises. In particular, Tennessee’s Second Amendment believers must determine, after Bill Lee and Bill Haslam, where these contenders stand on hard core conservative issues like the Second Amendment.

Tennessee’s Second Amendment believers must be attending the candidate forums and debates. They need to make sure that these are being recorded – or record them themselves. But it is not enough to just attend a forum or debate, it is critical to ask (or submit) questions for the candidates to answer and to hold the candidates accountable for full, clear and complete answers.

What kind of questions? Consider these possible questions:

• Does Tennessee have Real Constitutional Carry?
• How does the candidate define Real Constitutional Carry?
• What is it about Tennessee law as it now exists that keeps it from being Real Constitutional Carry?hat the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms.
  
• Does Tennessee make it a crime for an individual to carry a firearm “with the intent to go armed” even on their own property or in their own home?
• Will the candidate promise here and now to introduce as an administration bill (and include in the governor’s budget) legislation to eliminate the “intent to go armed” criminal offense from Tennessee law?
  
• Does Tennessee’s existing statutory list of prohibited locations, such as parks and greenways, constitute an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of citizens to carry a firearm for any lawful purpose including self-defense?
• Do existing state and local restrictions on citizens carrying a firearm into or onto most public places constitute an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of citizens to carry a firearm for any lawful purpose including self-defense?
  – If there are places that the candidate thinks can constitutionally be established as a gun free zone by the government, what are they and why are bans permissible for those locations?
• Will the candidate promise here and now to introduce as an administration bill (and include in the governor’s budget) legislation to eliminate gun free zones in Tennessee (and list any exceptions)?
  
• Does Tennessee currently allow individuals to brandish a weapon or use deadly force to protect their home, their property, the businesses, or their personal or business tangible property?
• Will the candidate promise here and now to introduce as an administration bill (and include in the governor’s budget) legislation to allow individuals to brandish a weapon or use deadly force to protect property (and list any exceptions)?
  
• Over the last 30 years, the governors’ administrations have allowed representatives from the Department of Safety and/or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to lobby legislators and/or express opinions in committee hearings which opinions were in conflict with the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment and/or violated the “shall not be infringed” mandate. If you are governor, will you prohibit in writing members of your administration from lobbying or testifying in the Legislature with opinions on what the law should be relative to the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment?
• Will you, similar to what Trump has done federally, terminate state employees who have previously lobbied against or testified against the rights of citizens as protected by the Second Amendment?
  
• Tennessee’s citizens have experienced since 1998 problems with the way that TBI administers the firearms background checks required to purchase firearms from licensed dealers. Will you support legislation and include in your budget proposals the elimination of the Tennessee Instant Check system and placing Tennessee under the FBI administered National Instant Check System?
  
• Currently, Tennessee law prohibits individuals from carrying a rifle or shotgun for self-defense even if they have a handgun permit. However, more than 40 other states currently allow that including every state that touches Tennessee. Will you support legislation and include in your budget proposals changes to Tennessee law to eliminate the ban on civilian carry of longarms?
  
• Certain Tennessee Legislators have filed resolutions to enable the citizens to amend the state constitution in Article I, Section 26, to eliminate a provision that is not moot based on the 2nd and 14th Amendments. The proposed amendment (HJR53 by Rep. Reedy) would change the Tennessee constitution to read “That the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms.” If elected governor, will you insist that this amendment be presented for a referendum vote as soon as possible and will you actively lobby for its passage?
  
• Do you regularly carry a handgun in Tennessee for self-defense or other lawful purposes?
  
• Do you support “Red Flag” laws – why or why not?
  
• Do you think that state or local law enforcement should be entitled to carry or possess firearms that are prohibited to individual citizens? Why or why not?
  
• Do you think that the Second Amendment protects the rights of citizens to purchase, own and carry any firearm or other “arm” that individual military soldiers are allowed to carry? Why or why not?
  
• Do you think that the Second Amendment protects the rights of citizens to purchase, own and carry machineguns? Why or why not?
  
• State parks presently have many recreational features for citizens such as ball diamonds, golf courses, etc. Do you believe that state parks should be configured to make available state wide gun ranges for civilian use?
  
• If you are elected to the office of Governor, will you serve your entire term even if some other perhaps more desirable office becomes available?

These questions can be a handy aid in gaining insight on where these candidates, actually any candidate, are on the scope of your rights under the Second Amendment. It is the obligation of the citizens to press the candidates for answers to these questions, to document the responses (audio or video tapes) and to be prepared to hold them accountable to these promises if elected.

Are you ready to protect your rights now after almost sixteen years of broken promises from those currently in control of Tennessee?