{"id":30883,"date":"2026-08-07T08:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30883"},"modified":"2026-08-07T08:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:48:24","slug":"rep-andy-ogles-loses-his-republican-primary-in-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30883","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Andy Ogles loses his Republican primary in Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-e68494\" class=\"body-graf\">Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has lost his Republican primary, NBC News projects, falling to a former state official in a primary season that has seen an unusually high number of incumbents lose renomination.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-3832d9\" class=\"body-graf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2026-primary-elections\/tennessee-us-house-district-5-results\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>See live results<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b87142\" class=\"body-graf\">Charlie Hatcher, the former state agricultural commissioner, rode support from prominent establishment Republicans to a victory over Ogles, a controversial congressman backed by President Donald Trump. He is a heavy favorite in the general election in the deep-red district.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii\" id=\"anchor-f9ba50\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"1815\" data-original-width=\"2500\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260806-Charlie-Hatcher-ew-256p-5cb9be.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260806-Charlie-Hatcher-ew-256p-5cb9be.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260806-Charlie-Hatcher-ew-256p-5cb9be.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260806-Charlie-Hatcher-ew-256p-5cb9be.jpg 1x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260806-Charlie-Hatcher-ew-256p-5cb9be.jpg\" alt=\"US Congressional candidate Charlie Hatcher\" height=\"1815\" width=\"2500\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">Congressional candidate Charlie Hatcher speaks at a campaign event at Southall Angus in Franklin, Tenn., on July 13.<\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">Alan Poizner for The Tennessean \/ USA Today Network via Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-141c24\" class=\"body-graf\">Ogles was outraised and outspent on the airwaves, largely because of a massive ad effort <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/30\/republican-primary-andy-ogles-super-pac\" target=\"_blank\">from a pro-clean energy group<\/a> \u2014 a last-minute campaign Ogles criticized in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/top-trump-ally-warns-super-pac-bankrolled-dem-billionaire-meddling-gop-primary\" target=\"_blank\">interview with Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dbb13b\" class=\"body-graf\">While Ogles had arguably the most important endorsement in a GOP primary in Trump\u2019s, Hatcher had backing from Gov. Bill Lee, former Gov. Bill Haslam and other prominent Republicans, like former Trump Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-a995e0\" class=\"body-graf\">Ogles has faced various controversies over the years. He said this year that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/andy-ogles-sparks-backlash-saying-muslims-dont-belong-america-rcna262575\" target=\"_blank\">Muslims don\u2019t belong in American society<\/a>, deleted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/gop-rep-andy-ogles-deletes-homophobic-social-media-post-blames-staffer-rcna348227\" target=\"_blank\">homophobic social media post<\/a> after having blamed a staffer and argued last year that the federal government should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/calls-strip-zohran-mamdanis-citizenship-trump-denaturalization-power-rcna216653\" target=\"_blank\">revoke future New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s citizenship<\/a> and deport him. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-93a740\" class=\"body-graf\">He was also investigated on suspicion of campaign finance violations; he has not been charged with any crimes. <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ogles-investigation-phone-seized-justice-department-4e72588aae784f888f56c75ee933af24#\" target=\"_blank\">Ogles told The Associated Press<\/a> that the Justice Department returned his cellphone, which it had seized during the investigation. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5bd749\" class=\"body-graf\">But while Ogles had<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/house-freedom-caucus-member-fends-primary-challenger-tennessee-rcna164667\" target=\"_blank\"> fended off a well-funded primary opponent before<\/a>, he couldn\u2019t do it this time. Hatcher didn\u2019t run away from Trump, either, despite Trump\u2019s support for Ogles. Hatcher aligned himself with Trump and his policies and sought to contrast himself with Ogles. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6f0c22\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThink what President Trump could do if our congressman spent less time talking and more time doing,\u201d reads a quote on Hatcher\u2019s website. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f7a0e0\" class=\"body-graf\">Ogles is the ninth House member \u2014 six Democrats and three Republicans \u2014 to lose a primary this year. That\u2019s the most in a nondecennial redistricting year since 1970, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-7-Full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Vital Statistics on Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-630126\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">Two senators, Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, also lost their primaries, and an additional House member \u2014 Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas \u2014 finished second in his primary and then decided to drop out of the race and resign before a GOP runoff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has lost his Republican primary, NBC News projects, falling to a former state official in a primary season that has seen an unusually high number of incumbents lose renomination. See live results Charlie Hatcher, the former state agricultural commissioner, rode support from prominent establishment Republicans to a victory over Ogles,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-03\/260309-Andy-Ogles-gk-b9e610.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}