Blackburn enters Tennessee Senate race, as Haslam passes The GOP jockeying to replace Sen. Bob Corker has begun.

Tennessee GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn announced she would run for Senate on Thursday, the same day her biggest potential primary challenger, Gov. Bill Haslam, opted out of the contest.

In her announcement video , Blackburn takes aim at the upper chamber she hopes to join and boasts about her conservative credentials. She says the Senate Republican majority’s failure to repeal Obamacare is a “disgrace” and calls the Senate “dysfunctional” and “enough to drive you nuts.”


“Too many Senate Republicans act like Democrats or worse, and that’s what we have to change,” she says directly to the camera. “I will fight every single day to make our Republican majority act like one.”

She goes on to list her support for President Donald Trump’s “immigration ban” and promises to “fight every step of the way to build that wall.”

“I’m a hard core, card-carrying Tennessee conservative. I’m politically incorrect, and proud of it,” she says, adding later: “I know the left calls me a wing-nut, or a knuckle-dragging conservative. And you know what? I say that’s all right, bring it on. I’m 100% pro-life. I fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts. Thank God. I shoot skeet, have a concealed carry permit for the gun I do pack in my purse.”

Blackburn is expected to earn the endorsement of the Club for Growth — she has a 90 percent lifetime score with the group — and other conservative advocates. The Club had already attacked Haslam, who supported expanding Medicaid and hiking the gas tax in the state.

Haslam announced earlier Thursday he wouldn't run to replace retiring GOP Sen. Bob Corker.

“While Crissy and I will always be grateful for all of the encouragement and support to run for the United States Senate, I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for Senate in 2018," Haslam said in a statement. "The primary reason is that I want to remain completely focused on my job as governor. I know that being a candidate for the Senate during my last 15 months as governor would be a distraction from the task at hand."

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Haslam's immense personal fortune and statewide popularity would have made him a fearsome candidate in a GOP primary, and he had discussed a bid with Corker and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Some Tennessee Republicans have said Haslam's decision may make it more likely for former GOP Rep. Steven Fincher to run. Andy Ogles, the former director of Americans for Prosperity in Tennessee, had entered the race even before Corker's retirement.

Lawyer and veteran James Mackler is running as a Democrat, and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke could also run.