Ned McWherter - Statewide Office

Statewide Office

In 1986 McWherter won a spirited primary over Public Service Commissioner Jane Eskind and Nashville mayor Richard Fulton for the Democratic nomination for governor. He faced former Republican governor Winfield Dunn in what was initially considered one of the hotter races of the 1986 cycle. However, Dunn's campaign stalled when 1st District Congressman Jimmy Quillen, the de facto leader of the Republican Party in East Tennessee, refused to support Dunn and encouraged several prominent East Tennessee Republicans to withhold their support as well. Quillen had never forgiven Dunn for his opposition to a medical school at East Tennessee State University. Without significant support in East Tennessee for Dunn, McWherter was virtually assured of election in November. Dunn was able only to hold McWherter's victory margin to just under nine points due to strong support from his former base in Memphis. While several former state House speakers have risen to the governorship, McWherter is the only person to hold that post right up to the time he was elected governor.

During his first term, McWherter insisted that all formal governmental proceedings be open to the public and press, thus implementing the spirit, as well as the letter, of the "sunshine law" he had helped to author and sponsor while a member of the House. He had opened doors to minority groups in Tennessee as Speaker by appointing the first black committee chairmen in Southern history and assisted women into influential leadership roles in the legislature. His "21st century Schools" education reform program launched similar programs in other states and his replacement of the Medicaid program with the TennCare system gained national attention. As governor, he also served nationally and local on councils and committees including the board of governors, Council of State Governments, the Executive Committees of the Southern Conference, the Weakley County Head Start Program and the Executive Committee of the Northwest Tennessee Economic Development District.

In 1990, McWherter was invited to speak at a chapel service at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee at the request of his lifelong friend, E. Claude Gardner, then President of the University.

He was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term in 1990, carrying approximately two-thirds of the vote over the essentially token candidacy of the Republican nominee, first-term state representative Dwight Henry. (Many prominent Tennessee Republicans actually supported McWherter for re-election, some tacitly, others fairly openly.) A tax study commission appointed during his first term reported at the beginning of his second, recommending a state income tax be implemented. An income tax has long been considered the third rail of Tennessee politics. McWherter gave the idea lukewarm support at first, but the idea was eventually dropped entirely, not to resurface again during his time as governor.

During McWherter's second term, Senator Al Gore was elected Vice President, thus creating a vacancy in the Senate. McWherter appointed his deputy governor, Harlan Matthews, to serve as U.S. Senator until the 1994 election.