NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Senate Republicans do not plan to push Sen. Janice Bowling out of their caucus before they choose the chamber’s next leader, even after the Tullahoma Republican broke with her party in the governor’s race.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin said in a Monday statement that the caucus stands firmly behind the Republican nominee for governor and that there are no plans to change the makeup of the caucus’s membership prior to the November 10 caucus elections.
Bowling endorsed independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley in a social media post earlier this month instead of Republican nominee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Hatley, a Washington County businessman, has described himself as very conservative, but a past felony conviction kept him from meeting the requirements to run as a Republican. He has put at least $7 million of his own money into the race.
State party rules bar a Republican from endorsing anyone other than the party’s nominees after the primary. Tennessee Republican Party chair Scott Golden said in a statement that failing to back the nominees endangers any Republican’s good standing with the party, which leaves open whether Bowling could be denied the GOP nomination if she seeks reelection in 2028. Bowling, 79, has served in the Senate since 2013.
The timing matters because the endorsement landed in the middle of a tight leadership fight. Johnson is running against Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge as Senate speaker, and Bowling is said to support Bailey.
The Nov. 10 officer vote belongs to the 27-member Republican caucus, which holds a supermajority in the 33-member Senate and therefore picks the speaker regardless of how Democrats vote. Removing a vote for Bailey would improve Johnson’s chances, with at least two Republican senators believed to be uncommitted.
Other caucus leaders said Monday they knew of no organized effort to remove Bowling and that no meeting to expel any member is set before the caucus vote.
The stakes reach beyond the Senate chamber. Whoever wins the speaker’s post also serves as lieutenant governor and is first in the line of succession if a governor is incapacitated or leaves office. Tennessee elects a successor to term-limited Gov. Bill Lee in November.
