Bill Lee

Education

Lee strongly supports school vouchers and charter schools. In a March 2019 "State of West Tennessee" address, he proposed creating more charter schools and that the state use $25 million to help traditional public schools when they lose students. In his February 2020 "state of West Tennessee" address, he proposed investing $70 million to equip teachers with professional development, materials, and other tools to help increase the state's literacy rate. Lee has also promoted the GIVE program, which prioritizes learning opportunities in rural counties and enhances career and technical education statewide.

In April 2019, Lee announced that Tennessee would temporarily reinstate paper-based assessments for students taking the TNReady test, an annual statewide assessment, during the 2019–20 school year.

In May 2019, he signed into law a school voucher bill that created a program to provide public funds to families for private school tuition and costs, starting in the 2020–21 fiscal year, but a judge ruled the program unconstitutional in May 2020, before it could go into effect. Of $64 million in discretionary COVID-19 relief funding for education that went to his office, Lee sent $10 million to charter schools, including $4.4 million to launch new charters. In July 2019, Lee signed a bill into law that requires school districts to establish threat assessment teams to address potential threats to school safety. In February 2020, Lee proposed a $117 million investment to increase teacher salaries and a $250 million endowment to address mental health in K-12 education.

In 2025, Lee proposed the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which provides roughly 20,000 scholarships worth $7,500 to be used for private school tuition, at a total cost of $447 million. The program was narrowly passed by the general assembly, despite opposition from Democrats and Republicans from predominantly rural districts, and went into effect in the 2025-26 school year. An expansion of the program to include 35,000 students was pushed by Lee in 2026 and narrowly passed by the legislature.

Budget and economy

In 2019, Lee proposed repealing Tennessee's 10% amusement tax on gym, fitness center, and health club fees, arguing that the tax discourages Tennesseans from being physically active. If enacted, the repeal would reduce state revenues by about $10 million.

In September 2020, Lee supported a Tennessee delegation that traveled to Beijing to enhance trade and economic linkages between the state and the People's Republic of China.

Cannabis

As a candidate for governor, Lee opposed medical marijuana legislation and marijuana decriminalization. As governor, he continued to oppose marijuana decriminalization, saying in 2019 it was "not good for our state."

Capital punishment

Lee supports capital punishment, and Tennessee has executed seven people since he took office, making Tennessee among the 27 U.S. states where capital punishment is legal. One notable person executed under Lee was Nicholas Todd Sutton. He was sentenced to life after taking three lives, including that of his grandmother, from 1979 to 1980. While in prison, he saved one corrections officer's life, protected two others, and converted to Christianity. In 1986, Sutton dealt drugs in the prison, prompting an addicted inmate who was a convicted pedophile to threaten to stab him in order to obtain more drugs; Sutton and three other inmates later went into his cell and stabbed him 38 times. His victim's victims referred to the murder as the best day in their lives and petitioned for clemency. In February 2020, he was executed for murdering his fellow inmate rather than his first three victims, after Lee denied clemency.

In 2022, Lee set a temporary moratorium on Tennessee's death penalty, citing concerns about botched executions. In 2024, he signed into law a bill that would impose the death penalty on people convicted of child rape, but the law is unenforceable due to Kennedy v. Louisiana.

On May 21, 2026, convicted murderer Tony Carruthers was set to be executed for the 1994 kidnapping and murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker. A group of healthcare workers spent about an hour trying to establish an IV through which to administer a lethal sedative. After they tried Carruthers's arms, feet, collarbone, and shoulder, Lee called the warden and halted the execution, giving Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

Leading up to August 2026, calls for another moratorium on Tennessee's capital punishment were renewed when inmate Darrell Hines was set to be executed. Lee opposed the measure, saying, "we live in a broken world where people commit horrible and heinous crimes, and victims and their families are devastated, and it's a very difficult—those are very difficult situations...The people have chosen the death penalty for those most heinous crimes. It's my responsibility to make sure that law is carried out".

On September 30, 2026, convicted murderer Christa Pike was set to be executed. After she was administered two lethal doses of sedative and survived, Lee postponed all executions scheduled for the rest of the year, citing a need for third-party review of what occurred: "the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional but is effective". Pike was alive and breathing for nearly an hour before being taken to a hospital. Of the four planned executions carried out in 2026, only one was performed without incident.

Race relations and George Floyd protests

In July 2019, Lee signed an order proclaiming Nathan Bedford Forrest Day, as required by Tennessee law, celebrating Forrest, a famous Confederate general and the first Grand Wizard of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. The legislature repealed this requirement in June 2020. In December 2019, Lee proclaimed December 1 Rosa Parks Day, to commemorate the start of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. In May 2020, after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd, Lee condemned the officers involved, saying, "police brutality is not law enforcement". On May 30, 2020, an "I will breathe" protest was held in Nashville in protest of Floyd's murder, during which a man set fire to the Davidson County Courthouse; the building was not severely damaged. In response, Lee mobilized the National Guard in Nashville, saying the protests had taken "a violent, unlawful turn".

In August 2020, Lee signed into law a bill increasing the severity of penalties for a number of protest-related offenses. Notably, it reclassifies camping on state property, after being warned of trespass, from a misdemeanor to a felony offense punishable by up to 6 years in prison. This means that anyone convicted of the act will also lose their right to vote, as convicted felons in Tennessee are disfranchised. In 2024, Lee signed a law allowing public officials to refuse to perform marriages that they oppose for "reasons of conscience or other religious beliefs", including refusing to perform interracial or interfaith marriages. The law allows for "the possibility for couples to be refused marriage for a whole host of reasons, including their race, religion or national origin".

Refugee resettlement

In December 2019, after President Trump allowed states to halt refugee resettlement in their states, Lee declined the offer and announced that Tennessee would continue to accept refugees. Lee's decision was opposed by Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally and Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Cameron Sexton. During a 2020 trip to the Tri-Cities, Lee was met with protests from opponents of refugee resettlement.

Gambling

Lee opposes legalized gambling, but in 2019, he allowed a sports betting legalization bill to become law without his signature.

Guns

In 2019, with the support of Republican state legislators, Lee loosened Tennessee's handgun law, allowing "concealed-carry-only" handgun permits to be obtained without requiring applicants to show an ability to fire a weapon. In April 2021, Lee signed into law a permitless carry bill; the legislation allows most adults 21 and older (as well as military personnel ages 18–20) to carry handguns (open and concealed) without a background check or required training. It also increased the penalty for unlawful use of a firearm and obtaining an illegal firearm. The bill, which Lee also supported the previous year, was supported by the National Rifle Association of America and opposed by law enforcement organizations, such as police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors. After the Covenant School shooting in Nashville on March 27, 2023, Lee did not initially call for any gun control, saying: "There will come a time to discuss and debate policy. But this is not a time for hate or rage. That will not resolve or heal." Lee said that his wife Maria was close friends with two of the shooting victims and one of them, Cindy Peak, had been expected for dinner at the governor's mansion on the day of the shooting.

Four days after the shooting, with large protests in the state calling for reforms, Lee declined to say whether he would support gun control measures but did say that "individuals who are a threat to themselves or to others shouldn't have access to weapons." In the wake of the scandals around the 2023 Tennessee House of Representatives expulsions, which occurred after protests in favor of gun control, Lee signed an executive order on April 11 strengthening background checks for gun purchases and also called for the state legislature to pass an "order of protection law". On August 8, 2023, Lee officially called for a special session of the General Assembly to be held on August 21 to focus on public safety in response to the shooting.

Labor unions

In 2024, Lee joined five other Republican governors (Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, and Greg Abbott of Texas) in a statement opposing the United Auto Workers unionization campaign.

LGBT issues

Lee supports allowing religious foster care and adoption agencies to prohibit same-sex married couples from adopting children. In January 2020, he signed into law a bill that assures continued taxpayer funding of faith-based foster care and adoption agencies that exclude LGBT families and others based on religious beliefs. Nike and Amazon released statements opposing the bill. Lee signed legislation banning transgender athletes from participating in sports opposite to their biological sex, making Tennessee the third state to do so. In May 2021, he signed a bathroom bill that prohibits transgender people from accessing public school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

In May 2021, Lee signed legislation requiring businesses that serve transgender customers equally with restrooms to display warning signs that they do so. LGBT activists, Democrats, and some Republicans criticized the bill as an attempt to shame and harm businesses. Many businesses and business leaders threatened to leave Tennessee in protest of these bills. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to stop the law, and in July 2021, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement, finding that it violated the First Amendment.

On February 27, 2023, Lee declared that he would sign the Adult Entertainment Act, which bans public drag performances; the first violation of the law would be a misdemeanor, while the second would be a felony. Lee's announcement came two days after photos of him dressed in drag at a powderpuff game went viral on social media platform Reddit. The 1977 high school yearbook photo shows Lee dressed as a female cheerleader, wearing a wig and pearl necklace. Lee signed the anti-drag bill into law on March 2, 2023. In June 2023, a federal court blocked the law as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Tennessee attorney general has appealed the decision. In 2024, Lee signed a law allowing public officials to refuse to marry couples "for reasons of conscience or other religious beliefs", including same-sex couples.