Tennessee has an incarceration rate of 817 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country on earth. —Prison Policy Initiative
Republicans have maintained a supermajority in both TN legislative chambers since 2010, and they have controlled the Governor’s Office since 2011. Governor Bill Lee’s term will end this year, and a new governor will be elected in November.
For the past eight of those sixteen years, Marsha Blackburn has occupied one of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats, and she has been a reliable rubber stamp for convicted felon and failed insurrectionist, Donald Trump. Now Blackburn, age 74, wants to retire to the soon-to-be-vacated Governor’s Mansion in the Fall, where she can continue Bill Lee’s efforts to make Tennessee the model state for MAGA extremism.
And so she is amassing millions of out-of-state dollars in hopes of winning what could be a close primary. If she wins the primary, she is likely to face attorney and Memphis Councilwoman, Jerri Green, age 48. Never has there been a starker contrast between two U.S. Senate candidates.
Yesterday Sen. Blackburn was on the Fox Propaganda Channel trying to push back on a question about Tennessee’s #1 ranking on CNBC’s recent analysis of Worst States to Live. Sorry, Marsha, but the facts are in:
Tennessee Republicans, led by Gov. Bill Lee, make no apologies for a rash of state laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a so-called “bathroom law” requiring transgender people to use the facilities designated for their sex at birth. The state also explicitly bars localities from adopting their own antidiscrimination ordinances. To underscore the point, Lee signed a resolution earlier this year designating June “Nuclear Family Month.”
“The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world,” the resolution states.
Its sponsors deliberately timed the observance to coincide with the month when Tennessee’s more than 300,000 LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride.
Inclusiveness isn’t the only area where the Volunteer State falls short. Tennessee also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, according to FBI statistics. And it has the third-highest rate of drug deaths, according to the United Health Foundation.
2026 Quality of Life score: 64 out of 290 points (Top States grade: F)
Strength: Air Quality
Weaknesses: Crime, Inclusiveness, Worker Protections
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