Pro-Trump congressman labelled an 'embarrassment' in scathing local news column

Before Tennessee Republicans used their supermajority to gerrymander the state’s 5^th congressional district, establishment conservatives such as former state House Speaker Beth Harwell, or Kurt Winstead, a retired National Guard brigadier general, likely would have been heavy favorites to win their party’s nomination for an open congressional seat.

No more.

Andy Ogles, a far-right election denier, vanquished the two conventional Tennessee Republicans last year on his way to a general election victory over state Sen. Heidi Campbell.

Ogles, according to reporting in the Nashville Scene, has emerged as "a local embarrassment" who reflects the plight of today’s GOP as it tries to advance mainstream conservative positions that have greater appeal to centrist voters amid the rise of right-wing populism.

Ogles has joined the GOP’s Freedom Caucus, forging alliances with other far-right lawmakers such as Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, and Jim Jordan.

“With a tailored district and a base of conservative activists, Ogles lives in his own kind of echo chamber, largely insulated from the fragile dynamics of the national GOP that is slowly turning against him. Fresh off of a national debacle in the Tennessee House, state Republicans are stuck with a right wing whose brazen and embarrassing abuses of power have enabled a destructive new brand of conservatism,” Eli Motycka writes for The Scene.

“Meanwhile, the party’s concerned center — still a majority at the ballot box by many measures — whispers about a challenger to Ogles who could peel enough Democratic votes to win in Tennessee’s open primaries. As pressure mounts in the coming years, Ogles’ natural response would be to go harder against RINOs and establishment conservatives, clinging to his seat while he forces his party into shambles.”

Ogles has emphasized gun rights, gender identity and his opposition to abortion rights and critical race theory, issues that animate the far right but that the national GOP leadership seeks to tone down in the aftermath of the 2022 midterms, Motycka writes, noting that “In recent weeks, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has told major news outlets that the party’s internal autopsy report blames Trump and the party’s hard line against abortion for GOP losses in 2022.”

Ogles also has a George Santos problem.

According to NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams’ reporting cited in the report, Middle Tennessee State University has declined to confirm Ogles’ claim that he received a degree in international relations, with minors in psychology and English.

Additional reporting from Williams calls into questions an Ogles claim during a debate that he served in law enforcement where his work included working to stop human trafficking.

The television station reports that Ogles served as a volunteer reserve deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office from 2009 to 2011, but that his position was revoked after he failed to meet minimum standards.

The WCSO said that records show no indication that Ogles trained or worked against international sex trafficking as a reserve deputy.

“Like his ideological peers in Congress — Gaetz, Greene and, most of all, Jordan — Ogles is concerned with destroying things,” Motycka writes for The Scene, noting that “Ogles has joined a debt-ceiling battle that threatens to plunge the country into a recession because it fits nicely into Republican crusades against government spending.”

Ogles last month joined fellow Freedom Caucus member Randy Weber (R-Texas) in introducing an amendment to undermine military aid to Ukraine.

“Such a move to weaken America’s military capability would be indefensible for a Republican less than a decade ago,” Motycka writes.

Motycka asserts that Tennessee Republicans have two options for addressing Tennessee’s 5^th district.

“The first and simplest is to do nothing and stick with Ogles,” Motycka writes. “He will continue to parrot talking points he sees in right-wing media and soak up attention from fellow hardliners in the losing wing of his party, where his positions enjoy narrow but enthusiastic appeal.”

The other option calls for heavy lifting, to “confront the party’s extreme right and build a political identity that can better ensure its own long-term survival and tackle predictable governing crises.”

Motycka writes: “Ogles is not a pugilist like Jim Jordan or Lauren Boebert, not a media mascot like Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene (none of whom, for what it’s worth, seems concerned with governing or delivering for their home district). Most have safe seats that exist outside the political calculus of the national GOP. Instead, they’ve become addicted to the attention from national media and used culturally divisive issues like guns, abortion, trans people and immigration to become media stars.

“Ogles clearly aspires to do the same.”