In October 2025, Marsha Blackburn sat before a Senate committee and introduced Mitch Graves, President Trump's pick for the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority. "He represents the best of Tennessee's business and civic leadership," she said.

She didn't mention that over eight days earlier that month, Graves and five of his colleagues had given $58,300 to her campaign for governor.

That's from a review of federal and state campaign finance records by the Institute for Public Service Reporting in Memphis, published October 30. It found that four of Trump's TVA board nominees gave money to Republican politicians, including three senators, while their confirmations were still pending. And two of those senators — Blackburn and Bill Hagerty — had pushed Trump to fire TVA board members in the first place, opening up the seats.

The TVA is the federally owned power company that supplies electricity to about 10 million people in Tennessee and six other states. Its board sets the rates.

Eight days, $58,300

Graves is the CEO of the West Cancer Center & Research Institute in Memphis. According to the Institute's review, here's what he and his colleagues gave Blackburn's governor campaign in October 2025:

• October 7: chairman emeritus Kurt Tauer and chief medical officer Sylvia Richey, $10,600 each.
• October 12: chief financial officer James Cagle, $10,600, and oncologist Jason Chandler, $5,300.
• October 14: Graves and chief operating officer Candace Wilder, $10,600 each.

$10,600 is the most one person can give a statewide candidate in Tennessee for a primary and general election combined, according to the state's contribution limits.

That was far more than this group usually gives. The same six people gave $31,300 to all federal and statewide Tennessee candidates combined in 2023, and $17,500 in 2024. In eight days, they gave Blackburn $58,300.

The hearing was October 22. Blackburn praised Graves and a second nominee, Knoxville lawyer Jeff Hagood, who had given her campaign $10,600 less than three weeks earlier.

Both were confirmed December 18. Graves is now chairman of the TVA board, through April 2027. Hagood is set to take over after him and serve as chair through May 2029.

A third nominee: $21,200 in one day

Lee Beaman, a former Nashville auto executive and a major Republican donor, gave Blackburn's campaign $10,600 on August 21, 2025. His wife Julie gave another $10,600 the same day. The Institute reports he has given Blackburn's campaigns more than $170,000 over the years.

When Blackburn introduced Beaman to the committee in December, she said he had "demonstrated a longstanding commitment to giving back financially to causes that support Tennesseans, and make their lives and our communities better." Beaman was not confirmed.

She asked for the empty seats

On March 20, 2025, Blackburn and Hagerty wrote an op-ed in Power Magazine calling on Trump to remake the TVA board. "The group looks more like a collection of political operatives than visionary industrial leaders," they wrote.

Two days before that op-ed, Graves gave Hagerty $800 and his wife gave Hagerty $5,000.

Trump fired three board members. On July 1, 2025, he nominated Graves, Hagood, Beaman and Randall Jones. Blackburn and Hagerty put out a joint statement urging colleagues "to swiftly confirm" them.

While Graves's confirmation was still pending, on November 10, he gave Hagerty another $4,000.

The other names on the list

• Tommy Tuberville. Randall Jones, an Alabama insurance agent, gave $20,000 to Tuberville's campaign for Alabama governor. Tuberville introduced him with high praise. Five days after the hearing, on October 27, 2025, Jones's company gave Tuberville another $5,000. Jones was confirmed December 18.
• David Kustoff. The Memphis-area congressman sent the committee a letter backing Graves. On March 19, 2025, Graves gave Kustoff $5,000, and the cancer center's CFO gave $3,500. On December 9, less than two weeks before the confirmation vote, the cancer center's chairman emeritus gave Kustoff $2,000. After the vote, Kustoff thanked Blackburn and Hagerty "for their support of this important nomination."

The Institute says it tried several times to reach Blackburn, Hagerty, Tuberville, the nominees and others named. None responded.

All of these donations are legal. "It taints government officials as to who they're paying attention to," said Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen. "The timing of it reveals exactly what the purpose of private campaign contributions are all about."

What the new board has done

The reshaped board has made decisions that land on Tennesseans' power bills. It has voted to keep coal plants open that were set to close and backed away from renewable energy. In February, with Graves and Hagood on it, the board voted unanimously to double the power that Elon Musk's xAI data centers in Memphis can draw from the grid.

This isn't the first time Blackburn's money has moved in a circle. We reported earlier how $4.8 million left her Senate account and almost exactly that much came back to help her run for governor.

What the filings show

In eight days in October 2025, TVA nominee Mitch Graves and five of his cancer-center colleagues gave Marsha Blackburn's governor campaign $58,300. That's more than the same six people gave every federal and statewide Tennessee candidate combined in 2023 and 2024. Days later, Blackburn introduced Graves to the Senate with praise. He was confirmed and now chairs the board that sets electricity rates for 10 million people. Nominee Jeff Hagood gave her $10,600, and nominee Lee Beaman and his wife gave her $21,200. Bill Hagerty, Tommy Tuberville and David Kustoff also took money from nominees they backed, and none of them answered questions about it.

Source

• Blackburn Took Campaign Gifts From TVA Board Nominees While Backing Their Candidacies — The Institute for Public Service Reporting