Every election year, companies and nonprofits funded primarily from outside Tennessee spend millions of dollars on political ads and door knocking efforts to influence Tennessee voters.
Now, one state senator is saying only individuals — not corporations and special interests — should be able to fund those activities.
Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville, announced plans to file legislation, dubbed the Restore Power to the People Act, to curb corporate election spending in Tennessee.
“We cannot, as everyday Tennesseans, compete with corporations and billionaires being able to write a huge check to buy an election,” Oliver said. “It’s just unfair. It puts the people at a disadvantage. And it has to end.”
Similar policies have become law in majority-Democrat
Hawaii and are on the ballot this November in deep red Montana.
If it moves forward, Oliver’s bill would effectively reverse the impact of the Supreme Court’s controversial 2010 Citizens United decision, which enabled corporations to spend unlimited money on elections.
Since that decision, election spending by companies and nonprofit groups has ballooned. Nationwide, about $4 billion in federal election spending came from organizations and groups not associated with any candidate or campaign, according to research by Open Secrets. About half of that outside spending in 2024 came from “dark money” groups that are not required to disclose their donors.
In recent years, Tennessee’s elections have been notably influenced by spending from pro-school voucher groups including Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth and American Federation for Children. Oliver's bill would end that spending.
But if successful, the bill would also bar political ad spending by groups like the Tennessee Education Association and unions, which could help Oliver gain support from across the aisle. She is currently looking for a House sponsor for the bill and hopes to work with a Republican on the effort.
“This is not a campaign finance reform bill,” Oliver said. “What this bill will do is reset the powers that Tennessee corporations have, and remove that power of corporate spending [on elections].”
Oliver has launched an organization called Stand Together Tennessee to help raise awareness and statewide support for the effort. Overall, her goal is “restoring trust” in government.
“People have diminished faith in government to get anything done,” Oliver told The Tennessean. “Look at Congress right now — they can’t even pass a budget without shutting the government down. That does not help anybody to want to go vote. So this bill is about getting government responsive, where it always should have been.”
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: State senator proposes barring companies, unions from election spending
