This database was first published in July 24, 2023. It has since been updated multiple times. The last update came on Feb. 24, 2025.
Every year millions of dollars flow to Nashville, flooding the halls of Tennessee’s state capitol as a small number of deep-pocketed groups attempt to influence lawmakers.
The money comes in many streams through different legal channels, all aiming to influence regulations, push for tax breaks and secure government contracts, often to further private interests instead of the public. The Tennessee Lookout, relying on publicly filed lobbying and campaign finance reports, created a tool to search Tennessee’s top political spenders and recipients.
This page allows users to discover who’s spending the most cash to influence lawmakers and different ways groups spend money to gain influence.
Through the search bars below:
Explore every person and organization that has given a specific state politician at least $2,500Look at politicians and organizations spending money independently to elect their chosen candidatesSearch all the organizations that have spent money lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Nashville
Cash for Clout is an ongoing series examining the influence of money on Tennessee politics. Other articles in the series include:
All the information in this article comes from the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and relies on self-reporting by companies and individuals. If you want to contest any data in this story, email afriedman@tennesseelookout.com.
Have a tip on how money is influencing decisions at the Tennessee Capitol? Send an email to afriedman@tennesseelookout.com. For encrypting messaging, text 615-249-8509 on Signal, or call the same number.
Methodology:
The underlying data for this story comes from a lobbying report database and a campaign finance report database maintained by the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. To create the top donor list, the Lookout combined spending from three categories — lobbying, campaign donations and independent expenditures.
The Bureau provides lobbying expenditures in ranges. For example, when the report said $10,000 to $25,000, the Lookout used $17,500 for the amount spent. When the report said less than $10,000, $1,000 was used.
For campaign donations, the Lookout has tracked contributions to every candidate and political action committee connected to a candidate since 2009.
Contributions to candidates and their PACs were combined when reporting how much they raised. We eliminated all donations from elected officials to their party PACs (Tennessee Legislative Campaign Committee and Tennessee Tomorrow PAC) because often those donations were reimbursements for campaign expenses.
Independent expenditures were also reported as part of the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance campaign database under expenditures. We used a similar method for donations to compile a complete spending list.
Since 2010, several companies, associations, and families have used multiple political action committees, changed their company names, or purchased other companies with political activity in Tennessee. The Lookout combined all the names it could find for a single company, family, or association. All of a past company’s campaign finance and lobbying data were combined under the new company’s name for mergers.
The data behind this story is also available to download
Click here for the link to the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance campaign contribution and expenses website.
Click here for the link to the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance lobbying website.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
While roughly half of the country is bemoaning the end of American democracy, Tennessee’s Republican leaders are delighted to see the axe fall on anything President Donald Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk despise. Who cares about congressional approval?
Gov. Bill Lee recently touted the work of the Department of Government Efficiency by Musk, the world’s richest man, in eliminating millions in spending just by giving a thumbs down. Legislative Republicans are falling in line too, saying massive reductions, even by an unelected person, are perfectly fine, since Trump approves.
How easily they give up.
“People can take him to court if they want,” said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. (Photo: John Partpilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed to roll back the Musk-Trump slashing, which affects everything from United States Aid for International Development programs designed to display American compassion to Medicaid and nuclear facility oversight, as well as the president’s executive orders redefining birthright citizenship and foreign aid freezes affecting agriculture and solar power programs for low-income folks.
“I don’t think it’s illegal at all,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Thursday. “The president has the capability of making the determination on cutting personnel and doing other things. People can take him to court if they want to.”
With national debt at $36.2 trillion and the deficit at $1.8 trillion annually, Americans want the federal government to get a hold of itself, Sexton said. He added people elected Trump to do exactly what he’s doing.
“I applaud him for it,” the Crossville Republican said.
Interestingly, congressional Republicans gathered at Trump’s Doral golf complex in Florida this week to figure out how they were going to cut Medicaid. The poor babies.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress also called for the Internal Revenue Service, which is undergoing its own personnel cuts, to answer questions about Musk’s access to tax information as filing season arrives. Labor unions and former and current government employees have filed numerous lawsuits to stop Musk from eliminating agencies.
But Sexton said he hopes Democrats continue to oppose the Musk-Trump team because he believes the American people will side with Trump, based on polling.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland is just as enthusiastic, saying the state already has its own version of DOGE, the “TOGE,” since Tennessee is required to balance its budget. (Some have said the legislature should do nothing but pass a budget and go home.)
Any elected official who supports these purposeful blows to our local economies and harm to working families should reconsider their priorities.
– Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville
Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville said Thursday that Democrats favor “trimming fat” but that hacking away at “vital” government programs affects a host of items such as Social Security and veterans benefits, delays in federal tax returns, nuclear jobs at Oak Ridge, medical research, tourism around the Great Smoky Mountains and more.
“Any elected official who supports these purposeful blows to our local economies and harm to working families should reconsider their priorities,” Clemmons said. “Our loyalty should be to Tennessee families, not our political party or radicals promoting the inherently flawed theory of the ‘Unitary Executive.’”
With that in mind, the question is not whether the federal government should cut spending but whether those reductions should go through Congress, which is allegedly made up of elected representatives.
Of course, if Congress capitulates to Musk-Trump, it won’t matter anymore.
All those people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 could move in and set up tents since the president pardoned or commuted their sentences. They wouldn’t have to fight the Capitol police again, because they would be invited, and no one would die as they did in 2021 — a tell-tale sign of late-stage democracy if ever there was one.
Saving farms?
Talk about needing a “TOGE,” Lee wants to spend $25 million to pay farmers for conservation easements designed to stop development from encroaching on farm land.
The bill, which is sponsored by Lamberth and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, passed the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee this week after dying there last year. They had to install Sen. Shane Reeves of Murfreesboro as chairman after the bill stalled last year because of concerns raised by Sen. Steve Southerland.
Former state Rep. Andy Holt, a Dresden Republican now an assistant commissioner with the Department of Agriculture, tried to smooth everything over, but according to hallway talk, which is sometimes accurate at Cordell Hull, the more Holt opened his mouth, the shakier the support grew.
At least one person called the measure “vouchers for Williamson County farm owners.” That would include the governor, who owns a cattle farm there, though he needs no subsidy unless traveling to Florida to speak to ultra-conservative groups.
The measure passed 5-4, squeaking its way to the Senate finance committee. Voting yes were Chairman Reeves and Sens. Bobby Harshbarger, Adam Lowe, Jessie Seal and Page Walley, all Republicans. Voting no were Republican Sens. Janice Bowling and Mark Pody and Democrats Heidi Campbell and Charlane Oliver.
“So long, farewell”
U.S. District Court Waverly Crenshaw turned down former Sen. Brian Kelsey’s last-gasp request to avoid prison on a federal campaign finance fraud conviction and Kelsey is set to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Kelsey pleaded guilty to masterminding a scheme to run more than $100,000 from his state campaign account through two political action committees to the American Conservative Union, which bought advertising to support his failed 2016 congressional campaign.
Kelsey, a former Germantown Republican, reneged on the plea in 2023 and asked the judge to let him go to trial because what he did wasn’t a crime. He claimed he didn’t understand the law although he is an attorney who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kelsey also said his decision was clouded by the birth of twin sons who made it hard to sleep and the illness of his father, who later died. But to tell a judge you don’t understand the law when some of the best attorneys in Middle Tennessee represented you, is a stretch — at best.
Heading to the hoosegow: Former Sen. Brian Kelsey is due to report to federal prison on Monday. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Kelsey’s case, and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to start serving a 20-month sentence.
Crenshaw chastised Kelsey to some extent in his latest ruling, which pointed out the former lawmaker committed perjury by saying he didn’t do the things he earlier admitted he did. Kelsey also claimed insufficient counsel and prosecutorial misconduct by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The Court will give Kelsey the benefit of the doubt and assume he merely misread the Court’s statements at sentencing, but it sees no reason to address this argument any further. What matters is that, at bottom, Kelsey has not demonstrated any exceptional circumstances here that deserve special treatment in the interests of justice,” Crenshaw’s ruling said.
It appears Kelsey is out of straws. And for what? To make a miscalculated effort to win a seat in “the swamp”? He finished far out of first, and if he’d accepted the sentence in 2023, he might have served his time by now
“I believe it’s time for me to fly”
Kelsey’s co-conspirator, Josh Smith, pleaded guilty in the campaign finance scheme and cooperated with federal prosecutors, accepting probation and a $250,000 fine.
Smith, proprietor of The Standard, an upscale restaurant club where they cut the deal and exchanged a check, has paid his fine and completed more than 151 hours of community service, according to a recent court filing.
Next stop? Mexico, Italy, Africa and the Caribbean.
Since he’s complied with his sentence but remains on probation, Smith asked the court for permission to get a passport to travel to Mexico, his wife’s home country, from Feb. 28 to March 8 for his birthday and to see extended family.
Owner of the Standard Club Joshua Smith, left, leaves federal court with attorney Philip Georges on Oct. 19, 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo)
After that trip south of the border, Smith wants permission to travel to Irsina, Italy in April and September where he’s building a home. He needs time to inspect work and finish the job, which is understandable. (Making steaks at The Standard must pay pretty well.)
In addition to those excursions, he wants permission to go on an African safari. And, of course, his family is planning an annual holiday cruise to the Caribbean in late November and early December 2025, according to the document.
His attorney told the judge the probation office has been notified and doesn’t object.
With all due respect to Judge Crenshaw, I say: Let him go. He never lied to the court — as far as we know.
In perpetuity
One of the most critical pieces of legislation Tennessee lawmakers will take up this session is headed Monday for the House Naming and Designating Committee, a panel created by former House Speaker Glen Casada to pay back lawmakers who put him in that vaunted seat — albeit for only seven months.
You might be asking: What is this important bill? You might also be telling yourself, “This is not my beautiful house” and “This is not my beautiful wife.” How did I get here?
Anyway, Rep. Gino “Bathroom Bill” Bulso and Sen. Paul Rose are backing HB346, which will name the desk of House chamber seat 60 as the “Legislative Desk of Representative John J. Deberry Jr.” and directs the clerk to design and install a plaque on the desk recognizing it as Deberry’s desk forever.
Readers might remember Deberry as a Memphis Democrat who was bounced by the Tennessee Democratic Party from its ranks after he voted for Gov. Lee’s first voucher bill in 2019, then followed up with a vote to ban abortions. He ran as an independent but was soundly defeated, then took a job as Lee’s senior advisor, which pays $227,364, plus a $5,000 bonus, possibly for his efforts in passing the governor’s private-school voucher bill this year.
Whether Deberry should have been kicked out of the party is debatable. But one thing that can’t be argued is that he took the golden parachute.
Incidentally, Bulso chairs the Naming and Designating Committee, so look for this little tid-bit to pass.
“There is water at the bottom of the ocean.” *
* Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”
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Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
SUMMARY: The team reflects on their performance, highlighting moments of growth and support. Coach Kim emphasizes the importance of focus and consistency, noting that despite strong leads, the team has struggled with finishing games. Players like Talaysia, Kaniya, and Tess demonstrate growth, with Kaya showing maturity beyond her freshman year. Coach Kim is proud of the team’s ability to reset after adversity, especially during critical moments. The crowd’s energy has been a big motivator at home. Looking ahead, the team is focused on maintaining their momentum as they prepare for road games and continue developing individually and as a unit.
Tennessee capped off it’s three-game home stand with the win over the Crimson Tide.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-02-20 15:17:00
(The Center Square) – The Tennessee Senate will consider legislation that establishes a pilot program for an artificial intelligence weapons detection system.
One of the grant requirements is a loss of life on campus due to gun violence during the 2024-25 school year, which makes Metro Nashville Public Schools the only system eligible, said Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R- Chattanooga, the bill’s sponsor.
A 17-year-old student at Antioch High School killed one student before committing suicide with a gun in January. Another student was injured.
Metro Nashville Public Schools is implementing the Evolv weapons detection system in its schools.
“The system uses low-frequency radio waves and AI technology to scan individuals as they walk through,” the school system said on its website. “If an item is flagged, school staff will conduct a quick secondary check, making the process faster and less invasive than traditional metal detectors.”
The artificial intelligence system can differentiate between other metals such as cellphones and keys and weapons, the school system said.
Antioch High School began testing the technology just days after the shooting.
The Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education approved $1.25 million to place the system in all high schools.
The pilot program begins with the 2025-26 school year. The cost to the state for the start of the grant program is $17,000, but the amount of grant funding is unknown, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
The Senate Education Committee approved the bill unanimously on Wednesday. The full Senate will consider it on Monday.
A companion bill in the House of Representatives sponsored by Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D- Memphis, is assigned to the House Education Administration Subcommittee.
