Black picks up candidate petition for governor’s race

Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black prepares to pick up her petition to file as a candidate for Tennessee governor in Gallatin on Feb. 5, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)

Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black picked up her petition to run for Tennessee governor in Gallatin on Monday. Here are some of her comments made to reporters afterward:

Q: Where does the campaign stand, and what’s on the horizon?

Black: We still have what, five-and-a-half months until early voting starts? So we’ve got a lot of Tennessee still to cover.

But we’ve been from Mountain City to Memphis and we’ve gotten really good feedback from listening to what people think that they need in their particular communities, which has been very informative in helping me to make sure I’m going in the right direction on my platform, and I’m going to keep doing that.

Q: What are the main issues you plan to run on?

Black: There are a top three that we’ve all talked about, but I look at them a little differently than my opponents do. One is jobs and the economy, the second is health care, and the third is education.

And one that you won’t typically hear everybody talk about is Tennessee values, and how firm I am that we’re going to maintain our Tennessee values here. Values that others when they come to this state might not necessarily believe in. But if they come here they’re welcome. And we’re going to stick to our Tennessee values.