Retired NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, a Middle Tennessee native, will not run in the 2026 Republican primary for Tennessee governor as he fails to meet a constitutional requirement for candidates seeking the office.
Wilmore suspended his bid just one day after telling reporters he planned to enter the race, ending what would have been his first campaign for public office, Fox 17 reports.
The issue stems from a provision in the Tennessee Constitution requiring that a candidate for governor “shall have been a citizen of this State 7 years before the election.” Questions about his long-term residence outside the Volunteer State ultimately made him ineligible to continue the campaign.
Wilmore was born in Murfreesboro and raised in Mt. Juliet, and he has often spoken about his ties to Tennessee. However, he and his family have lived for years in Texas while he worked as an astronaut with NASA, primarily based at Johnson Space Center.
While he had not formally announced his campaign for governor before officially ending his bid for the office, Wilmore had taken early steps toward entering the race.
He obtained gubernatorial candidate paperwork from the Tennessee Secretary of State on February 25 but had not yet submitted the petition containing at least 25 valid voter signatures required to officially qualify for the ballot before the March 10 filing deadline.
Had he entered the race, Wilmore would have joined a competitive Republican primary field that includes U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), U.S. Rep. John Rose (R-TN-06), and state Rep. Monty Fritts (R-Kingston).
Wilmore retired from NASA last year after a 25-year career that included missions aboard the International Space Station and a widely publicized extended stay in orbit.
He launched in June 2024 with astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft for what was expected to be a short mission. The stay stretched for months after technical issues with the capsule delayed their return, and the pair ultimately came back to Earth in March 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon vehicle.
In April 2025, the Tennessee House of Representatives honored Wilmore with a resolution recognizing his service in both the U.S. Navy and NASA, which was signed by Governor Bill Lee.
At the time, Wilmore emphasized his Tennessee roots, saying, “We live in Texas, but our home is Tennessee. I’m proud to be a Tennessean. I will go to my grave as a Tennessean.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore” by NASA.gov.
