Over $100 million is aiding Marsha Blackburn’s rise from the Tennessee state legislature to U.S. Congress and now her bid for governor.
About half of that money she’s raised through campaign accounts and a federal political action committee, PAC, and outside groups have spent the other half on her behalf, particularly in a costly 2018 Senate race and this year to boost her chances for Tennessee’s top office, federal and state campaign finance data compiled by the Lookout show.
Blackburn has raised money from thousands of people through the Republican WinRed platform, allowing her to tap into small-dollar donors from around the country. But she’s also tapped into hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, from a select set of donors whose two decades of backing could pay dividends if she becomes governor.
Her largest consistent backers today and over the years have been the conservative, now pro-private-school-voucher, groups Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.
In her first U.S. House race in 2002, billionaire Jeff Yass, the primary funder of Club for Growth, gave her $1,000. This year, Yass and his organization have put $4 million into its PACs to support her, the most of any single person or group.
In 2018, Americans for Prosperity spent almost $5 million to boost Blackburn in her victory over Democratic former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. PACs spent $29.7 million to aid her victory in 2018, about a third of the total spending related to her political campaigns calculated by the Lookout.
Brandon Glavin, the Director of Insights at Open Secrets, said that high-dollar donations, over time, can work almost like an investment in politicians. As a senator or congresswoman, Blackburn has influence, but as governor, she is poised to have even more.
“Governors have direct power or control over things like the budget,” Glavin said. “Even though the legislature makes decisions, the governor can wield a lot of influence in ways senators can’t.”
In her 2026 gubernatorial campaign, Blackburn has raised about $9.5 million through her campaign, and two PACs supporting her with staff and advertisements have raised $8.2 million, for a total of $17.7 million.
By comparison, Gov. Bill Lee raised $17.5 million between his two campaigns for governor, but he initially loaned his campaign $5.2 million and received a large share of his donations after he had already won the Republican primary in 2018. Lee never formed a PAC.
The only other politician serving a similar amount of time in public office to Blackburn is retiring Memphis Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen. But Cohen raised around $8 million over his 20-year career, according to OpenSecrets.
“That number is not shocking for Blackburn in today’s elevated spending environment and her national profile as a Trump supporter,” Glavin said. He added that Blackburn is also the only Tennessee politician since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which removed many campaign finance restrictions, to run in a competitive race against a Democrat at the federal level, referring to her 2018 Senate race.
Founders of companies and organizations like payday lender Advance Financial, CoreCivic, CoPart Auto and Franklin Home Mortgage have been donating thousands of dollars to Blackburn’s federal accounts and political action committees each election cycle.
When Blackburn announced her campaign for governor and opened a state version of her federal PAC — Making a Responsible Stand For Households in America, an acronym for Marsha PAC, which was created to support her U.S. House campaigns in 2006 — those same backers gained the ability to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign, and have done so.
Advance Financial is her second largest backer for governor, donating $550,000 to PACs supporting her as of the June 30 filing deadline. Logistics entrepreneur Spencer Patton and his wife are a close third, donating $521,200.
The Lookout reached out to Blackburn’s gubernatorial campaign with detailed questions about her political fundraising apparatus and the influence of specific donors. Blackburn did not respond, despite multiple attempts.
FEC filings reveal how Blackburn laid the groundwork for governor campaign without personal fortune
History of Blackburn’s fundraising
Blackburn first ran for public office in 1994, winning a state Senate seat representing Williamson County. Information about donations to Blackburn’s state Senate campaigns in the 1990s is unavailable, as Tennessee didn’t keep campaign finance records before the mid-2000s. The Federal Election Commission, or FEC, keeps donation records dating back to her first race for U.S. House in 2002.
During her time in the U.S. House, Blackburn raised around $11.7 million over eight election cycles. Her fundraising apparatus kicked into a higher gear in 2018, when she won her first election to the U.S. Senate, and she has continued that strategy in her bid for governor.
She has been effective at leveraging her prominence as a staunch Trump supporter to raise small-dollar donations. Blackburn became an early Trump supporter, endorsing him during his first campaign in the spring of 2016. Trump subsequently endorsed her in her 2018 and 2024 Senate races.
Trump has not endorsed her, or any gubernatorial candidate, this year.
Many of her top donors have given money to all her political organizations.
Her large financial backers created two PACs, Team Tennessee and Tennessee Freedom Fund, which have been used to boost her with TV advertisements, attack her opponent U.S. Rep. John Rose and support her get-out-to-vote strategy.