Gregory Raucoules
August 15, 2025

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Congressman John Rose joined Tennessee This Week for an interview about his platform to be Tennessee’s next governor and some of the challenges facing the state such as health care and education.

Rose has represented Tennessee’s Sixth District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019 and previously served as Tennessee’s commissioner of agriculture in 2002. However, he pointed to his experience running an IT training business as what has best prepared him for a gubernatorial run.PREVIOUS: Tennessee Rep. John Rose launches bid for governor

“I’ve learned a lot from the time I’ve been in Congress but those skills and experiences don’t really equip me, in my view, to be governor of Tennessee, he said. “It is the experience I had of taking an idea and turning it into a successful business, managing people, creating scores of jobs, signing the front side of the paycheck, not just the back. Those are the experiences that I think will equip me to be ready to be governor on day one.”

He has pledged to appoint an education commissioner who has teaching experience in a Tennessee public school and expressed support for the state’s new school voucher program.

“We want our parents to have choices, options when the public school system is not performing adequately or failing parents then we want them options about how they education their children,” Rose said. “But at the end of the day we got to make sure we get public education right as well.”

With five of the 19 counties in Rose’s congressional district without a local hospital, he said he would work with the health care community to make care available for every Tennessean near where they live.