Marsha Blackburn Corruption & Ethics Billionaires & Big Business Tennessee

Marsha Blackburn Won't Say Whether She'll Hand Her Senate Seat to the Former Private Prison Boss Who Is One of Her Top Donors

The morning after she won the governor's race, Marsha Blackburn refused to say whether she'd appoint former CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger to her Senate seat. He stood in the room, said he's 'absolutely' interested, and has given the maximum to her campaign plus $50,000 to a PAC linked to it.

MAGA Report Cards · Nov 05, 2026

Marsha Blackburn Won't Say Whether She'll Hand Her Senate Seat to the Former Private Prison Boss Who Is One of Her Top Donors — Photo: John Partipilo / Tennessee Lookout

The morning after she won the Tennessee governor's race, Marsha Blackburn was asked a simple question. Would she give her U.S. Senate seat to Damon Hininger, the former CEO of private prison giant CoreCivic?

"We'll have conversations about the Senate at a later date," she told the Tennessee Lookout. "Not a conversation for today."

Hininger was in the building that morning. He came to her joint press conference with outgoing Gov. Bill Lee at the State Capitol on November 4, just hours after she won by about 2.5 points. He said he came to show support for friends of more than 20 years. He also said he is "absolutely" interested in the seat.

"It's been on my heart for probably a decade to serve the state in some capacity," he said.

A senator named this way takes the seat without a single Tennessean casting a vote for the job.

One of her biggest donors

Blackburn said during the August primary that she, not Lee, would choose her replacement. That makes her donor list worth reading.

The Lookout reported in June that Hininger decided not to run for governor himself and backed Blackburn instead. Here is what that backing looked like:

Hininger and his wife each gave the maximum, $21,200, to her campaign for governor.
He put another $50,000 into a PAC linked to that campaign.
That made him one of her top 10 donors, by the Lookout's count.

That is just the Tennessee race. Federal records show the Hiningers have given $1.75 million to Republicans and their PACs since the start of 2024, including almost $900,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to the Lookout.

He has also built a launchpad. This year he started a group called Believe in Tennessee to promote himself and Republicans. It is set up as a kind of nonprofit that can raise unlimited money without naming its donors. A Lookout search of the IRS website found no listing for the group.

What CoreCivic is

Hininger ran CoreCivic as CEO from 2009 until he stepped down in 2025. The company makes its money locking people up, and business has been very good.

We've laid out those numbers before. CoreCivic and rival GEO Group took in a combined $1.4 billion in three months this spring as ICE detention neared record levels, and CoreCivic separately sold four facilities to the Department of Homeland Security for $1.6 billion. The Lookout reports that Hininger told investors on earnings calls that Trump's immigration crackdown was good for the company's bottom line.

So the seat could go to a man who spent decades at a company paid by the same government he'd be voting on. A senator votes on how much money goes to ICE. That is the money that fills those beds.

He has written these checks before. Hininger gave $13,500 to Rep. Matt Van Epps, a freshman on the committee that oversees ICE.

The prison under federal investigation

CoreCivic runs four prisons under contract with Tennessee. A fifth, in West Tennessee, is now contracted to ICE.

One of the state prisons, in Trousdale County, has been under federal civil rights investigation since 2024. The Justice Department said state audits had "flagged dangerous understaffing and safety concerns," and that it would look at how people locked up there were being protected from violence and sexual abuse. The Lookout reported in June that the investigation was still going. CoreCivic said at the time that safety and dignity are a top priority.

Tim Leeper's son died of an overdose in a CoreCivic-run prison in Tennessee. He has tried to get state lawmakers to hold the company to account, and says he has watched its lobbyists stop those bills.

"If he becomes our next senator by appointment, it will just be a continuation of the favor network," Leeper told the Lookout. "He and CoreCivic donate a lot to politicians."

Blackburn could end this with one sentence

She hasn't. The Lookout says she didn't say on Wednesday whether she still plans to name her own replacement, or whether she'd pick someone other than Hininger.

There is a real legal problem hiding in here too. In Tennessee the governor makes the appointment, and the Lookout notes that no public official has held a Senate seat and the governor's office at the same time. If Blackburn quits the Senate before she is sworn in as governor in mid-January, the choice falls to Lee, who won't say what he'll do. If she waits, whoever she picks could miss the Senate's early January committee assignments.

The Lookout named others in the mix: former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who was treasurer of her campaign for governor, U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett and Chuck Fleischmann, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The last two are considered outside contenders.

None of that stops her from saying no to Hininger. She chose not to.

What the record shows

Marsha Blackburn refused to say whether she will appoint Damon Hininger, the former CEO of private prison company CoreCivic, to her U.S. Senate seat. Hininger is one of her top 10 donors for governor, gave the maximum plus $50,000 to a linked PAC, and says he is "absolutely" interested. His old company earns its money from government prison and detention contracts, and as of June a Tennessee prison it runs was under federal civil rights investigation.