Tennessee Jobs Now, the Super-PAC who made news by airing an anti-Diane Black radio ad featuring a repeatedly flushing toilet, received a $200,000 check in December from Randy Boyd donor Joe Hollingsworth, Jr., the Associated Press reports.
After Diane Black complained that the radio ad was inaccurate, some radio stations pulled the spot. However, the A.P. reports “Tennessee Jobs Now then tweaked it and returned it to air,” adding that the Boyd campaign – through spokesperson Laine Arnold – asserts “the campaign had nothing to do with the ad.”
Hollingsworth, the successful, second-generation businessman behind the Clinton, Tennessee-based Hollingsworth Companies Industrial Building Program – a commercial and industrial construction company and real estate firm –  previously contributed $8,000 to Boyd in May.
This is not the first time Hollingsworth has sought to influence the outcome of an election. In 2016, the A.P. notes he “spent heavily” to help his son Trey Hollingsworth run for and win the race to represent the people of Indiana’s 9th congressional district in the U. S. Congress in 2016.
The 34-year-old Republican replaced Todd Young, who in turn ran for and won the open U.S. Senate seat after incumbent Senator Dan Coats announced he would not run for re-election in 2016. Coats currently serves in the Trump Administration as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
