Who lobbies in Nashville.
Lobbyists and their employers registered with the Tennessee Ethics Commission for 2026, and what employers reported in their most recent six-month disclosures.
registered lobbyists
Different lobbyist ID numbers in the state's search results for 2026. The list has 3,606 rows, because a lobbyist appears repeatedly (the Commission counted 3,493 registrations for 699 lobbyists in 2025); four names recur under more than one ID and are counted as the state numbers them. We did not check whether anyone has since ended a registration.
clients (lobbyist employers)
Different employer ID numbers in the state's employer search for 2026 (a person or organization that hires a lobbyist). Separately, a government-lobbyist search lists 52 government employers, 51 of them not in this count. Those are not added here. The Commission's 2025 annual report gives 699 lobbyists and 1,129 employers for 2025; those are earlier and are not comparable row for row.
| Tennessee Oncology, PLLC | $750,000.00 | $750,000.00 |
| AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS | $350,000.00 | $400,000.00 |
| HCA Healthcare | $350,000.00 | $400,000.00 |
| TN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY | $350,000.00 | $400,000.00 |
| TN HOSPITAL ASSN. | $300,000.00 | $350,000.00 |
| TN MEDICAL ASSN. | $300,000.00 | $350,000.00 |
| Ballad Health | $250,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| Kairos Power LLC | $250,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| Oklo Inc | $250,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| TN AUTOMOTIVE ASSN. | $250,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| WINE AND SPIRIT WHOLESALERS OF TN | $250,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| Action Now Initiative, LLC | $200,000.00 | $250,000.00 |
| PMI US Corporate Services Inc. and Affiliates | $200,000.00 | $250,000.00 |
| TN Municipal League | $200,000.00 | $250,000.00 |
The state collects pay in ranges; both ends are shown as filed and never averaged.
Sources: Tennessee Ethics Commission, iLobby search and employer expenditure reports (ss-8011); Tennessee Ethics Commission, 2025 annual report; Tennessee Ethics Commission, Manual for Lobbyists and Employers of Lobbyists (January 2023).
How to read this
Tennessee requires lobbyists and the employers who hire them to register each calendar year. Employers file a disclosure twice a year: January through June (due Aug. 14) and July through December (due Feb. 14). Each report has three parts: compensation to lobbyists, other lobbying-related expenses, and the cost of events to which the whole General Assembly was invited. The first two are ranges up to $400,000, so these records cannot give a dollar total for an employer or for the state, and none is computed here. "Less than $10,000" includes zero, so employers who paid nothing cannot be told apart. The state's report pages do not print the period they cover; we read the reports marked current, all filed from July 2026 on, as the January-June 2026 filing. The report gives one compensation entry for the employer, not one per lobbyist or per bill. Registering and paying a lobbyist is lawful and public; these records do not show that any official acted because of it.
What is not here yet
- Most amounts exist only as ranges, so no employer's exact pay under $400,000 and no statewide dollar total can be given.
- The report pages do not state their period; January-June 2026 is our reading from the filing dates.
- The filing rules come from the Commission's January 2023 manual; we did not confirm they are unchanged.
- 92 employers on the 2026 search showed no current report; the reason was not established for each.
- Whether a registration has ended during 2026 was not checked, so the counts are registrations for the year rather than lobbyists active today.
- The Commission's main site page (www.tn.gov/tec.html) returned 403 to the shell and was not read; the search application and the Commission's PDFs were.
- Filings far above the same employer's earlier reports (Tennessee Oncology, CVS Health) are shown as filed and were not verified with the employers or the Commission.
Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.