Gov. Bill Haslam said on Thursday he will not be running to fill Sen. Bob Corker’s seat in the U.S. Senate after the two-term senator announced his retirement.
“I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for Senate in 2018,” Haslam said in a statement posted to his Twitter account.
“The primary reason is that I want to remain completely focused on my job as governor, I know that being a candidate for the Senate during my last 15 months as governor would be distraction from the task at hand.”
My statement on the 2018 U.S. Senate race. pic.twitter.com/1pLR0MhSEd
— Gov. Bill Haslam (@BillHaslam) October 5, 2017
Haslam was rumored to be a frontrunner for Senate seat after Corker announced he would not run for re-election.
“At the end of my term, I will have been in public office for 15 years. I feel like I can be most helpful in my next service as a private citizen,” Haslam added.
