The third poll of the 2026 governor’s race by the Beacon Center of Tennessee shows U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn continues to hold a strong lead over her Republican primary opponents.¶
56 percent of likely Republican primary voters who responded to the January poll said they’d vote for Blackburn in August, compared to 7 percent for State Representative Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, and 9 percent for Congressman John Rose.¶
28 percent of Republican voters were still undecided.¶
The latest survey largely mirrors last year’s Beacon poll, which found Blackburn with 58 percent support among Republican primary voters, compared to 9 percent for Rose and 5 percent for Fritz.¶
The Beacon Center has yet to poll any of the candidates in the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial primary, currently contested by Memphis City Council Member Jerri Green, Nashville musician Adam “Ditch” Kurtz, and a handful of other candidates with low name recognition. Its August poll found that whichever candidate wins the Democratic primary will be a heavy underdog to the Republican primary winner.¶
Republicans Satisfied with K-12 Education¶
The Beacon Center polled voters on several other issues, including K-12 education.¶
Half of the respondents said they were satisfied with the current state of K-12 education in Tennessee. That includes 56 percent of Republicans.¶
Just 44 percent of Democrats polled said they were satisfied with K-12 education in Tennessee.¶
Additionally, the poll found that a new federal school-choice tax credit, enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill, has broad support from respondents across all political parties. It provides taxpayers with up to $1,700 in tax credits each year for donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations, which low-income families can use for private school tuition and other education expenses. 72 percent of those polled support the tax credit, including 85 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of Democrats.¶
