Perennial Republican Also-Ran Joe Carr Might Run For Tennessee Governor

NASHVILLE, TN — It seems like it wouldn't be a Republican Party primary in Tennessee these days without former Rutherford County State Rep. Joe Carr.

Carr, who was squashed by Diane Black in a Congressional primary last year and lost by nine points to Lamar Alexander in a closer-than-expected U.S. Senate primary in 2014, tells The Tennessean he isn't ruling out a gubernatorial run, but that he doesn't have plans to enter what may be a very crowded Republican primary next year. For more state and local political updates and other local news, subscribe to your Middle Tennessee Patch.

“To say I wouldn’t, would not be accurate," he told the newspaper. "But to say that I’m planning or currently making arrangements to run a campaign for governor – I’m not."

There is, however, a Draft Joe Carr movement on Facebook, which had 550 followers as of Wednesday afternoon.

Carr is a self-described "constitutional conservative" and, given a list of potential Republican hopefuls for the state's top spot — a list that includes Black, State House Speaker Beth Harwell, State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, former Commissioner of Economic and Community Development Randy Boyd, and State Sen. Mark Green (the only "official" candidate) — he was reluctant to categorize any of them as truly conservative.

“The term conservative now, quite honestly, has little or no meaning,” he told the newspaper.

Image via State of Tennessee