Results: Republican Gov. Bill Lee beats Democrat Jason Martin in Tennessee's gubernatorial election

• Gov. Bill Lee ran against Democrat Jason Martin in Tennessee's gubernatorial race.
• Tennessee went for for Trump by 23 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election.

Republican incumbent Gov. Bill Lee beat Democrat Jason Martin in Tennessee's gubernatorial election.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone and 7 p.m. in the Central Time Zone.

Tennessee's gubernatorial candidates

Lee ran for reelection after finishing his first term in office, which began in 2019. Prior to becoming governor, he was the president of Lee Company, a group that was founded by his grandfather. A seventh-generation Tennesseean, Lee ran on a platform focused on public safety, adding more jobs to the state, and reforming the state's education system.

Martin, Lee's challenger, is a physician who ran on a platform of expanding Medicaid access in the state, investing in the state's education system, and improving the state's "highways, bridges, sewer and stormwater systems."

Tennessee's voting history

Tennessee backed then-President Donald Trump by 23 percentage points in 2020. The blood-red state has sided with Republicans in the last six presidential elections, and Trump's win in 2020 marked the fifth consecutive double-digit Republican victory.

What experts say

The race between Lee and Martin was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.