Maury County, Tenn., Mayor Andy Ogles on Thursday secured the Republican nomination for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District despite a barrage of attack ads and federal campaign finance fumbles.
Ogles is now poised to flip the 5th, a longtime Democratic stronghold, after the Tennessee General Assembly’s Republican supermajority this year redrew the district into GOP-friendly territory.
“This was the establishment versus the conservative wing of the party,” Ogles told supporters Thursday night. “By darn, the conservatives won.”
On the Democratic side, state Sen. Heidi Campbell of Nashville faced no primary opposition and will take on the Republican nominee in the November general election.
Campbell has posted solid fundraising numbers but faces an uphill battle inthe redrawn district.
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Ogles comfortably carried five of the district’s six counties, nabbing nearly 37% of the district’s votes with 95% of the vote counted. Former state House speaker Beth Harwell won Davidson County by a decisive margin but did not have the votes elsewhere, trailing Ogles by 10 points.
“I want to thank all the volunteers and supporters who backed me in my campaign for Congress,” Harwell said in a statement conceding the race. “We fought hard, but came up just short.”
Legislative Republicans wrenched the 5th from a comfortably Democratic stronghold and pushed the district southwest into Republican territory. The new map favors Republicans for eight of nine congressional seats in Tennessee.
The redistricting effort sparked a Republican feeding frenzy for the seat as incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.
Bona fides challenges
Bitter in-fighting erupted this spring over Republican bona fides as two Tennessee newcomers mounted high-profile bids for the seat.
In February, former President Donald Trump surprised many by endorsing Morgan Ortagus, a political newcomer who had not yet announced her own candidacy. Ortagus, who worked in the State Department during the Trump administration, had relocated to Tennessee just a year before.
Trump’s endorsement angered another Tennessee transplant, Robby Starbuck, who began a campaign against Cooper before the redistricting effort. Starbuck had racked up a number of early endorsements among right-wing media personalities and lawmakers.
Consternation over the candidates made its way through the General Assembly, Harwell’s former stomping grounds, leading to legislation to enact residency requirements in congressional primaries.
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The legislation implicitly targeted Ortagus, though Gov. Bill Lee effectively neutralized the law for the current election cycle, allowing the legislation to linger unsigned on his desk past an April candidate filing deadline.
But within days, the Tennessee Republican Party took matters into its own hands.
The party booted Ortagus, Starbuck and Nashville businessman Baxter Lee off the ballot over bona fide concerns.
Ortagus chose to drop the issue, later throwing her support behind Winstead, while Starbuck attempted a failed legal challenge over his removal. He continues to campaign as a write-in candidate for the seat.
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Tennessee’s refigured 5th will give the GOP a comfortable chance at flipping a House seat in November, further entrenching the state’s Republican congressional majority.
Democratic candidate Campbell will enter the general election with more than $400,000 in her campaign coffers and said on Thursday the campaign was ready for whichever candidate emerged victorious in the GOP primary.
“No matter who gets this nomination, the contrast is going to be clear between our ‘Freedom for Families First’ agenda and a Republican who is beholden to Trump’s extreme MAGA agenda,” Campbell said prior to polls closing.
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In a speech to his supporters Thursday night, Ogles took an aggressive tone, sparking cheers from the crowd when he said, “Liberals, we’re coming for you.”
“We’re at war. This is a political war, this is a cultural war and this is a spiritual war,” Ogles said. “We’ve got to get back to honoring God and honoring country.”
