Heh - and as we speak, there's speculation on an Elvis Presidency in Chat...
Elvis as governor of Tennessee would be epic. If he runs as a Democrat, he's what the party needs to make up for Governor Ray Blanton's "pay my crew some money and I'll pardon you from prison" scandal, and would easily beat Jake Butcher (also corrupt) in the primary, and win against Lamar Alexander in 1978. I think the state judicial system would still assist Elvis in throwing Blanton out of office a few days early to prevent him from pardoning prisoners, which since this is
Elvis doing it (instead of Alexander as in OTL) might make the event more nationally known (Elvis fighting corruption!). If Elvis Presley is governor of Tennessee, there's going to be quite a bit of attention drawn to the state. Since he's associated with West Tennessee, he could have a lot of the West Tennessee Democrats like long-time Lieutenant Governor John Wilder and OTL Governor Ned McWherter associated with him.
He could easily establish himself as a good Southern Democrat to name to any higher position in the government, and a possible presidential or vice presidential candidate in the future. He'd obviously be associated with Al Gore, since hopefully he'd clean up the state government from being the "toxic waste dump" Gore's staff described it as (you'd need to after Blanton), and with his celebrity, maybe a potential Democrat would pick him as running mate, in '88 or '92, assuming Republican success?
Let's say, as we were discussing in Politiyanks, he breaks free of the prescription drugs (say, in 1973-74) and starts to get interested in politics during the mid-1970's. My suggestion was that he might try out the Governorship of Tennessee first, emulating Reagan in that way. He'd have gone forward, let's say, as a Clinton/Gore-style New Democrat (cue ATL's Politiyanks in 2017 complaining about him as a DLC type; you just can't win
) Let's say he wins his first term in 1980 and goes for two terms - what policies might he have pursued in Tennessee? How would he have related to the Reagan Administration? Would there have been a battle royale between Clinton and Presley in 1992 for the Democratic nomination?
1978 is more interesting for Tennessee, since there was no gubernatorial election in 1980 there thanks to a recent amendment of the state constitution. Not to mention the deal with Ray Blanton. I think we can assume Elvis in 1978 might be a thing?
But yes, Elvis could've done great, as long as he stayed out of Blanton's corruption and incorporated the better parts of Lamar Alexander's term. Ray Blanton had some great policies (everything I've heard makes it seem like if not for his scandals he'd be remember as one of Tennessee's better governors), like those with auto manufacturing and development, he just associated himself with some of Tennessee's worst people and was ridiculously irrepetenent for it (as seen with interviews on TV in Tennessee, where it was known he was drunk for--he was an alcoholic and he died of alcoholism).
I'm assuming Elvis is a Democrat.