Jack Johnson Chosen Senate Speaker as Republicans Shuffle Leadership

Tennessee senators chose new Republican leadership Tuesday in a tense caucus meeting, elevating Sens. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) as speaker, Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) as majority leader and Becky Massey (R-Knoxville) as caucus chair.

Despite the GOP suffering a nationwide drubbing, Tennessee's Republican Party held all its state Senate seats, maintaining a supermajority and setting up Johnson as the chamber’s next speaker and Tennessee’s lieutenant governor. Johnson will succeed retiring East Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who briefly addressed his party’s Senate caucus after contested officer elections. 

“ What hurt us this time, certainly the economy and the war were probably the most pressing issues," McNally told his colleagues Tuesday. "We saw a decrease in the amount of Republican turnout, increase in Democrat turnout, and a lot of that was where it did the national issues, not statewide issues. As long as we can stay together, we can remain as a supermajority, and that's my wish. Any way that I can help in doing that, I'll be there to do it.” 

Last week’s midterm results clearly shook Republicans’ confidence. Members reiterated unity in speech after speech, even as they ran against each other for key caucus positions. Johnson defeated Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) in the morning’s first election. It was the first time in a decade that the seat of the lieutenant governor was challenged following McNally’s five consecutive terms.

Johnson is a close ally of Gov.-Elect Marsha Blackburn. The two have campaigned and donated to each other throughout the decades, and Johnson appeared onstage with Blackburn last week at her victory party in Nashville. Johnson’s elevation to the speakership keeps party power concentrated in Williamson County — he has held a caucus leadership position in the chamber as Senate majority leader since 2019. The same year, the county ascended to its place as the most powerful in the state with Gov. Bill Lee taking office and former state Rep. Glen Casada (R-Franklin) becoming House speaker.

Most recently, Johnson has taken the lead on policy issues from Lee during his administration. He helped pass Tennessee’s controversial Educational Freedom Scholarships, which now amount to more than $7,000 a year in tuition vouchers per student for private schools. In the this year's session, Johnson helped pass legislation for the program to expand to 35,000 students. Johnson did this despite downplaying for years that vouchers would enter his home county, which uses the bulk of its county tax dollars to fund public schools. Increased voucher funding will likely resurface as a wedge issue inside the GOP this session. 

“Everyone in here has felt some tension today, and that's normal — let's be expecting that — but we are family,” Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) reminded the caucus. “We love one another. We respect one another. And we want to encourage one another. My word to you today is: love on your fellow senators, encourage your fellow senators, respect your fellow senators.”

White was uncontested as the party’s new Senate majority leader. White barely survived reelection this year in Rutherford County, where Democrats’ significant gains helped Victoria Broderick upset incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais in a major victory for the state’s opposition party in the 4th Congressional District.

Caucus Chair Ken Yager (R-Kingston) presided over the meeting and took partial credit for defending the chamber’s supermajority. But when it came time to vie for another term, Republicans preferred alternatives in Knoxville's Massey and Sen. Bill Powers (R-Clarksville). Yager didn’t make the tight vote’s second ballot. By noon, he had lost his position to Massey. In that position, Massey will be responsible for fundraising and spending to defend seats in 2028. Democrats’ midterm momentum clearly weighed on Republicans, who for the first time in years see cracks in their voter base. 

“ Republicans did not get out and vote,” Massey told reporters after the meeting. “Our Republicans for some reason, one or another, stayed home. And our independents stayed home. It's our goal to communicate to people across the state the good things we're doing, the kitchen-table issues. Things like transportation, things like public safety. We've got to give them a reason to show up to vote.”