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EDlection2018: This is one of several dozen races that could go on to influence state or federal education policy. Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox; sign up for 91涩漫 Newsletter.

Republican Bill Lee, a businessman and first-time candidate, will be elected governor of Tennessee, beating Karl Dean, the former mayor of Nashville, according to NBC News.

(Check out what鈥檚 going on in governor鈥檚 races across the country on 91涩漫鈥檚 liveblog.)

Lee was leading with 62 percent of the vote, with 41 percent of votes tallied as of 8:55 p.m. eastern. He鈥檒l take over stewardship of the Volunteer State鈥檚 16-year bipartisan education reform effort, which has coalesced around the broad themes of tests aligned to high standards and teacher evaluation tied in part to students鈥� results on those tests.

The state was a first-round winner of a Race to the Top grant under the Obama administration, and saw both successes (a new innovation school district in Memphis and increased teacher support for evaluation systems) and setbacks (failure of the state takeover district to show academic gains for students and troubles with statewide testing systems) in its efforts over the last two governors鈥� administrations.

鈥� Bill Lee (@BillLeeTN)

鈥淲e see the moment we鈥檙e in right now as pivotal to determining whether the progress that the state has made is not only going to continue but accelerate. Anytime you have transitions like this, it鈥檚 easy to go in a totally different direction or focus on other priorities,鈥� David Mansouri, president of Tennessee SCORE, an education reform advocacy group, told 91涩漫 earlier this fall.

In his campaign, Lee also emphasized career and technical education and worker training, drawing on his experience training employees at his family contracting business. Every student should have some vocational training, he said in a .

EDlection2018: This is one of several dozen races that could go on to influence state or federal education policy. Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox; sign up for 91涩漫 Newsletter.

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