Blackburn backer seeks investigation into dark-money ads against gubernatorial candidate

A campaign surrogate for Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn filed a complaint against the American Exceptionalism Institute, alleging the dark-money group failed to report expenditures on ads criticizing Blackburn as 'queen pharma mama.' The complaint claims the group exceeded a $5,000 expenditure threshold and did not comply with state campaign finance laws. The ads reference a 2016 law co-sponsored by Blackburn linked to pharmaceutical industry lobbying.