Tennessee Incumbent Gov. Bill Lee Facing Democrat Challenger Martin With Contrasting Views

Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook & Dr. Jason Martin / Facebook

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

Incumbent Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was uncontested in the primary and will be facing Democrat Jason Martin in the Nov. 8 general election.

Lee won by a wide margin over Democrat Karl Dean in 2018 and will battle for a second term with Martin, who beat Memphis’ JB Smiley by roughly 1,500 votes for the nomination.

Lee has been a proponent of criminal justice reform, to the point of disagreeing with Republican Legislative leadership on some aspects of sentencing rules.

The Legislature passed a truth in sentencing law that Lee allowed to become law without his signature, saying “Data does not support the basic premise of the legislation. Similar legislation has been enacted before and resulted in significant operational and financial strain, with no reduction in crime.”

Lee pushed for the state to create a new public school funding formula, which passed and will replace the current system with a student-based funding formula model. Lee also has pushed for large financial incentives for companies moving to Tennessee or expanding in the state, including $884 million for Ford’s $5.6 billion electric truck plan outside Memphis and $500 million along with state sales tax and a new hotel-motel tax to pay a large portion of the $1.5 billion in public funds being promised for a new estimated $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium in Nashville.

Martin said that he believes Tennessee must be more inclusive in business.

“One of the main obstacles to more growth has been the ability for Tennessee to be more inclusive and therefore attractive to a variety of businesses – this is something I can bring to the state to make sure we finally reach our potential,” Martin says on his campaign page.

Martin has put much of his focus on opposing Tennessee’s abortion ban, which Lee supported and signed.

“Eighty percent of Tennesseans think @GovBillLee’s trigger law is too extreme,” Martin wrote. “It’s an attack on constitutional rights to privacy and there is no exception for rape or incest.”

Martin supports legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, opposes the Lee-supported right-to-work constitutional amendment and supports repealing the state’s “Constitutional” carry law related to firearms, which Lee signed in 2021.

Lee supports cutting taxes for small businesses and has pushed for additional career and technical training programs and funding for the state’s students. Lee made the decision to send Tennessee National Guard to the U.S./Mexico border for border security.

Lee has supported a pilot school voucher program now underway in Nashville and Memphis while Martin has opposed it.

About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.