Blackburn goes after dark-money group calling her ‘queen pharma mama’

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and her gubernatorial campaign are demanding a dark-money group pull a TV ad that calls her “queen pharma mama” and infers she took money to pass federal pharmaceutical law.

Attorneys for Blackburn notified officers with Alexandria, Virginia-based American Exceptionalism Institute that its ad targets a sitting U.S. senator with “knowingly false and defamatory accusations of bribery and corruption” and might be using artificial intelligence without giving required notice.

“The advertisement is not merely misleading; it is a calculated attempt to deceive viewers by accusing Senator Blackburn of quid pro quo without a shred of factual support,” the letter from Brandon Smith of Holtzman Vogel law firm says.

The TV ad refers to reports about a 2016 law Blackburn co-sponsored that was supposed to ensure patients received pain medication but wound up making it more difficult for DEA agents to intercept large drug shipments, leading to a flood of opioids in small communities as the nation grappled with a drug epidemic. 

Following an October 2017 report by the Washington Post and “60 Minutes” in which a whistleblower said he warned Blackburn’s staff that the bill could cause problems, her staff said she would work to end “unintended consequences,” according to an Associated Press report. A pharmaceutical industry lobbyist wrote the legislation, the Washington Post reported. A member of the House at the time, Blackburn accepted some $120,000 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry as it poured $100 million into lobbying to push the measure to passage, according to a WPLN report.

The issue arose during Blackburn’s 2018 U.S. Senate race in which she defeated former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. 

The new TV spot criticizing Blackburn’s role in the pharmaceutical legislation marks the second ad the dark money group has run against her as she tries to ward off U.S. Rep. John Rose and state Rep. Monty Fritts in the Aug. 6 Republican primary.

The letter to American Exceptionalism Institute Chairman Wayne Ducote and Joel Riter, a general consultant for the group, points out that the ad says, “Our pain killing pills wouldn’t sell, so we paid Senator Marsha Blackburn to pass our bill.” It shows a pharmaceutical company executive with a briefcase full of cash and refers to “paying Marsha” to pass legislation, as well as “millions for Senator Blackburn” and says she is “ready to sell.”

The attorney’s letter says the “assertions are completely false” and that Blackburn never accepted a bribe to pass legislation, nor was she ever accused of such allegations.

By continuing to run the ad, the letter says, the organization would show evidence of “actual malice,” the letter says, in addition to raising concerns that it used artificial intelligence, synthetic, deepfake, digitally manipulated or algorithmically generated content, which would “compound the defamatory nature” of the ad.

Besides demanding that the ad be stopped, and confirming it within 48 hours, the letter tells the group’s officers to disclose whether AI-generated or any similar type of technology was used in the ad’s production.

The American Exceptionalism Institute, a nonprofit organization, brought in $2.8 million and spent $2.5 million in 2024. It reported $11.6 million in contributions the previous year, according to Propublica. The organization educates the public on national security, life protection and tax/spending matters, according to philanthropy.org.

The Lookout could not reach the organization’s officers for comment.