Lauren Pinkston, an independent from Columbia, is running for Tennessee governor in the Nov. 3, 2026 general election. She is certified for the ballot, according to BallotReady election data.

Pinkston is a first-time candidate. She said on her campaign website that she first considered running for the state legislature before deciding to seek the governor's office. The crowded race also includes Republican Marsha Blackburn, Democrat Jerri Green and independent candidates Charles Van Morgan, Dave Seeman, David Hatley, Dean Brewer, Eddie Lee Murphy, Karl Knox Smithson, L. Webb Taylor, Misam Abidi, Ray Brown, Robert C. Vick, Victor L. Scoggin and Wendell Jackson.

Candidate information

  • Residence: Columbia, Tennessee
  • Party: Independent
  • Education: Bachelor's in elementary education, Freed-Hardeman University (2009); master's certificate in institute on family and neighborhood life, Clemson University (2015); Ph.D. in international family and community studies, Clemson University (2019)
  • Personal: Pinkston describes herself as a wife, mother of four children born on three continents and a seventh-generation Tennessean. She grew up in Selmer in McNairy County.

Experience and public service

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

According to BallotReady profile data, her professional experience includes:

  • Assistant professor of business as mission, Lipscomb University College of Business (2020–2023)
  • President, Kindred Exchange (2020–2024)
  • Co-owner, Wearthy LLC (2016–2020)
  • Social enterprise development consultant (2014–2020)

She also said she served as a doctoral research intern at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's anti-trafficking project in Vientiane, Laos, in 2015. Pinkston said she and her family moved back to Tennessee in 2019 after years living abroad in Southeast Asia and Africa.

On the issues

The following positions are drawn from Pinkston's campaign issues page and BallotReady questionnaire responses. All statements reflect the candidate's own claims.

Energy and environment: Pinkston said she would protect the Tennessee Valley Authority from privatization. She said she supports expanding nuclear energy capacity, including small modular reactors, and would work to upgrade transmission infrastructure. She said Tennessee ratepayers should not pay for grid upgrades that primarily serve large data center operators. She also said she supports a statewide moratorium on AI data centers until regulations are in place, as reported by the Tennessee Lookout.

Education: Pinkston said she would work to increase teacher salaries while reducing administrative burdens. She said she supports reducing benchmark testing, diversifying public school models in rural counties and licensing adjunct instructors for high school career courses. She also said she backs legislation restricting smartphones before high school and social media before age 16.

Criminal justice: Pinkston said she would conduct a full assessment of Tennessee's prison system and aims to reduce the incarcerated population by 15% in her first term. She said she would expand rehabilitative programs in state prisons. She also said she would expand mental health services for law enforcement.

Infrastructure: Pinkston said she would address what she described as more than $82 billion in backlogged road repairs by pursuing federal infrastructure funding. She said she supports exploring a statewide passenger rail system connecting Memphis to Bristol and Nashville to Chattanooga.

Healthcare: Pinkston said she supports legalizing medical marijuana in Tennessee and would work to tie federal rural health grants to the elimination of certificates of need.

Endorsements

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

  • The Tennessee Report

Candidate positions were drawn from campaign materials and BallotReady questionnaire responses. The Franklin Beacon did not interview the candidate for this profile.