Marsha Blackburn faces mounting pressure allegations in her Tennessee governor’s race as a lawsuit accuses state Agriculture Commissioner Andy Holt of using his position to pressure the powerful Tennessee Farm Bureau to endorse her campaign, while a confidential Senate ethics investigation into her office has resurfaced during the primary.
Agriculture Commissioner Holt faces accusations in a lawsuit filed this week in Weakley County Circuit Court by former Farm Bureau Insurance agent Bryant Rhodes of trying to use his state position to pressure the Farm Bureau to back Blackburn’s gubernatorial bid. According to the complaint, Holt, who also serves as a designated spokesperson for Blackburn’s campaign, used a false story about Rhodes to leverage pressure on the organization after it refused to publicly endorse her.
“Holt, understanding his influence over Farm Bureau as Commissioner of Agriculture, and as a designated spokesperson for the Blackburn Campaign, began to use this false story he created to pressure Farm Bureau into terminating Rhodes,” the lawsuit alleged, as reported by News Channel 5 Investigates. The complaint claims Farm Bureau yielded to Holt’s pressure “in an effort to placate the state official, who was already upset with the Farm Bureau for refusing to endorse Blackburn.”
The allegations emerged from a dispute over an April 25, 2026, property auction where Holt served as auctioneer. Rhodes accused Holt of engaging in “deceitful, unethical and fraudulent” conduct during the sale. The lawsuit states that after being called out, Holt undertook “a campaign of misrepresenting the facts and seeking to punish Rhodes” by making false statements to Farm Bureau officials and “throwing his weight around as Commissioner of Agriculture.”
Blackburn’s campaign challenges are compounded by revelations of a confidential Senate ethics investigation into her office that occurred in 2025. The investigation focused on allegations that taxpayer dollars were used for her political campaigns, according to News Channel 5’s investigation, which was first disclosed in mid-July.
The ethics inquiry examined whether Senate staffers were pressured to engage in political activities while on taxpayer time or using government resources. Investigators interviewed members of Blackburn’s staff about their relationship with Ward Baker, the political strategist who has headed her campaigns for years. Under Senate rules, staff members may volunteer for campaign work but cannot be coerced into doing so, nor can it be done using government resources.
News Channel 5 documented multiple instances where Blackburn’s Senate staff attended Republican county meetings in 2023—when she was facing her 2024 reelection—and taxpayers were billed for their travel. In Putnam County, Senate staff member Blake Neely appeared in a Facebook photo from a GOP meeting on a date when Blackburn’s office charged taxpayers for his “staff transportation” and “staff per diem” from Chattanooga to Cookeville and back. Similar patterns emerged in DeKalb County and Weakley County, where other staffers attended GOP meetings on dates matching taxpayer-funded travel expenses.
Kedric Payne, general counsel and vice president at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan government accountability group, said such conduct raises ethical and legal concerns. “The ethical concern with having official staff working on the campaign is that you’re using taxpayer money for campaign activity—and that’s a basic ethics rule that all staffers are aware of, as well as all members,” Payne told News Channel 5. “It’s really cut and dry if you are using official staff for campaign activity.”
Blackburn’s office stated that “the Senate Ethics Committee completed its review and resolved this matter with our office’s full cooperation,” though the office declined to release correspondence or findings from the investigation. Payne noted that there is no restriction on Senate offices disclosing what the ethics committee found. “There’s no restriction on the Senate office letting the public know that the Senate Ethics Committee has looked into a situation and what they have found,” he said.
The revelations have become a flashpoint in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Blackburn’s rival, U.S. Rep. John Rose, called for her to release all documents relating to the ethics investigation. Rose’s campaign manager, Chris Devaney, responded to Blackburn’s campaign’s counterattack by stating that “official staff can legally volunteer their own time to help on any campaign” and that “no taxpayer funds have ever been used to promote a candidate.”
Sources
- News Channel 5 Nashville — Lawsuit details and allegations against Agriculture Commissioner Holt; Senate ethics investigation into Blackburn’s office; documented examples of staff travel and taxpayer billing; expert commentary from Kedric Payne; Blackburn’s statement.
- WBIR — Confirmation of ethics investigation into Blackburn’s office and John Rose’s call for document release.
