Lauren Pinkston, an independent from Columbia, is running for Tennessee governor in the Nov. 3, 2026 general election.

Pinkston, who said she is a first-time candidate, said she first considered running for the state legislature before deciding to seek the governor's office, according to her campaign website. She is one of 15 candidates. The field includes Marsha Blackburn (Republican), Jerri Green (Democratic) and multiple other independents, according to BallotReady.

Candidate information

  • Party: Independent
  • Residence: Columbia, Tennessee
  • Education: Bachelor's in elementary education, Freed-Hardeman University (2009), according to BallotReady; master's certificate in institute on family and neighborhood life, Clemson University (2015); doctorate in international family and community studies, Clemson University (2019), according to her campaign
  • Early life: Pinkston said she grew up in Selmer in McNairy County, graduating from McNairy County High School in 2005. She describes herself as a seventh-generation Tennessean.

Experience and public service

Pinkston said she spent 15 years working on human trafficking issues and creating economic opportunities abroad. She said she helped launch three businesses in Southeast Asia to employ survivors of human trafficking and religious persecution.

Her professional history, as listed by her campaign and BallotReady, includes work as a doctoral research intern at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime anti-trafficking project in Vientiane, Laos, in 2015.

She served as an assistant professor of business as mission at Lipscomb University's College of Business from 2020 to 2023, according to BallotReady. She also served as president of Kindred Exchange from 2020 to 2024 and as a social enterprise development consultant from 2014 to 2020, according to BallotReady.

Pinkston and her family moved back to Columbia in 2019 after years living abroad in Southeast Asia and Africa, she said.

On the issues

The following positions are drawn from Pinkston's campaign website and her responses on BallotReady.

Education: Pinkston said she would work to increase teacher salaries while reducing administrative burdens. Her platform calls for reducing benchmark testing so teachers can focus on instruction.

She said she would propose licensing adjunct instructors in high school career courses to address teacher shortages. Her BallotReady responses also back legislation restricting smartphones before high school and social media before age 16, and requiring phone-free schools.

Energy and environment: Pinkston said she supports expanding Tennessee's nuclear energy capacity, including small modular reactors. Her campaign calls for protecting the Tennessee Valley Authority from privatization.

She said Tennessee ratepayers should not foot the bill for grid upgrades that primarily serve large data center operators. She supports a statewide moratorium on AI data centers until regulations are in place, as reported by Tennessee Lookout.

Criminal justice: Pinkston said she would conduct a full assessment of Tennessee's prison system. Her goal: cut the incarcerated population by 15% in her first term.

According to her BallotReady responses, she would expand rehabilitative programs in prisons and invest in behavioral health services for those incarcerated due to substance abuse.

Infrastructure: Pinkston said she would address what she called an over $82 billion backlog in road repairs by pursuing federal infrastructure funding.

Her platform includes exploring a statewide passenger rail system connecting Memphis to Bristol and Nashville to Chattanooga. She also said she would work with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to explore flexible lane systems in metro areas.

Healthcare and firearms: Pinkston said she supports legalizing medical marijuana in Tennessee.

On firearms, her campaign backs safe storage requirements for guns in vehicles and closing the private-sale background check loophole. She also supports creating a legal pathway to transfer gun possession from someone who presents an imminent risk to themselves or others.

Endorsements

Pinkston has been endorsed by The Tennessee Report, according to BallotReady.

Candidate positions were drawn from Pinkston's campaign website and her BallotReady questionnaire responses. The Mt. Juliet Journal did not interview the candidate for this profile.