US President Donald Trump hit with another setback after Representative Andy Ogles was ousted by a Republican challenger.
According to Politico, Ogles lost his bid for reelection Thursday, August 6, as GOP challenger Charlie Hatcher won the Republican nomination in the redrawn 5th Congressional District.
Former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner won the GOP primary for the 5th District after outraising Ogles, receiving a late endorsement from GOP Gov. Bill Lee and seeing a flood of outside money on his behalf from a renewable energy super PAC.
Ultimately, that spending, coupled with a newly redrawn district that forced Ogles to reach new voters, helped end his reelection bid. Ogles has also faced a number of controversies since he was first elected in 2022.
He deleted a homophobic social media post that was denounced by members of his own party in June, and he drew severe backlash for another post in which he said “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”
In 2024, the FBI searched Ogles’ phone during an investigation into campaign finance records, which came after a watchdog group filed an ethics complaint into his use of campaign funds and in 2023, he faced scrutiny for false claims about his resume.
Ogles is the ninth House member, six Democrats and three Republicans, to lose a primary this year. That’s the most in a nondecennial redistricting year since 1970, according to Vital Statistics on Congress.
Ogles’ loss makes him the second Trump-endorsed candidate to lose a primary this week, after a Michigan House candidate who had the president’s backing fell to a challenger who had already dropped out.
November elections
Hatcher will face the Democratic mayor of Columbia, Tennessee, Chaz Molder, in November. Molder has posted strong fundraising hauls, while Hatcher will basically be starting from scratch.
But Republicans redrew the seat to favor Trump by 23 points after the Supreme Court severely limited the Voting Rights Act earlier this year, leaving Hatcher as the front-runner.
