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PAC playing in Middle Tennessee's 5th district U.S. Congress race goes negative • Tennessee Lookout [1]
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Date: 2024-07-30
In the waning days of the Republican primary, a political action committee backing Metro Nashville Councilmember Courtney Johnston is shifting its strategy to attack U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in Middle Tennessee districts stretching across Nashville into Columbia.
Conservatives With Character started running TV ads and sending mailers questioning Ogles’ claims as an economist and challenging his support for a sales tax increase in Maury County during his mayoral term there, in addition to reports showing he failed to pay property taxes on time for several years in Williamson County.
The group had spent $640,000 as of July 24, and spending is expected to spend $1.2 million by Election Day set on Thursday.
Her name ID wasn’t where it needed to be, so we did that one positive piece that was all about her and the previous Republican president. But from the beginning, our mission was to make sure people understood the character of Ogles. – Randy Stamps, Conservatives with Character
Conservatives With Character has received funding from more moderate Republicans, including $10,000 from former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist. It is also backed by another political action committee called Best of Tennessee, formed by pro-choice lawyer Chloe Akers, and longtime Republican fundraisers Kim Kaegi and Tom Ingram, which gave $140,000.
All of the group’s spending was to be used for pro-Johnston pieces. But its treasurer, former state Rep. Randy Stamps, said Monday the PAC opted to change its plan and publish “anti-Ogles” mailers and TV ads.
“Her name ID wasn’t where it needed to be, so we did that one positive piece that was all about her and the previous Republican president. But from the beginning, our mission was to make sure people understood the character of Ogles,” Stamps said.
News reports questioned Ogles’ resume last year, including his claims that he earned a degree from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management and worked as an economist, even though he had no degree or formal training in the field. Ogles, a Columbia resident, also filed an amended federal campaign finance report showing he brought in much less than he initially claimed in 2023.
Ogles, who started running ads last weekend claiming an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, worked as state director of Americans for Prosperity, which has been flooding markets with money supporting pro-school voucher candidates.
The House Freedom Action Fund set up by the House Freedom Caucus has also spent about $85,000 on the campaign, $50,000 to support Ogles and $35,000 to oppose Johnston.
The former Maury County mayor filed articles of impeachment against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris last week following her entrance into the presidential campaign after President Joe Biden left the race. Ogles claimed Harris should be removed from office because of the administration’s policies at the southern border.
The move by Ogles led to a bump in fundraising for Johnston, according to Stamps.
Johnston, who claims to have been a thorn in the side of liberal Metro Council members, hasn’t had problems raising money for the primary, bringing in more than $700,000 and running her own second TV ad accusing Ogles of being a “do-nothing” Republican who accomplished nothing on border security or inflation in his first two-year term.
Ogles won the his current seat in Congressman in 2022, after state Republicans split Nashville across the three districts, eliminating its Democratic lean. Following the gerrymandering, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who held the 5th District for nearly two decades, dropped out of the race.
Ogles then vaulted to the win with the help of dark-money independent spending on ads that blasted his opponents, former House Speaker Beth Harwell and retired Brigadier Gen. Kurt Winstead as “too liberal.”
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