Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles faces a wide financial gap in his bid for re-election. The incumbent for the state’s 5th congressional district has raised half of what his Republican challenger Courtney Johnston has raised and still faces questions about discrepancies in his finance reports.
In January, the Campaign Legal Center, a U.S. watch dog organization, flagged a more than $1 million discrepancy in Ogles’s financial disclosures. A spokesperson for the CLC tells WPLN News that Ogles amended his campaign finance reports in May, but that “it did not resolve all the discrepancies we discussed in our January complaint.”
Ogles raised $263,937 during the second quarter of the year, compared to Johnston’s $721,184, according to campaign finance disclosures. Johnston, a Nashville Metro Council member, garnered support from top state Republicans, like former Gov. Bill Haslam and former U.S. Senator Bob Corker.
Ogles and his campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.
WPLN News sat down with Johnston to talk about what sets her apart from Ogles.
Marianna Bacallao: When you talk with voters, what do you think it is about your platform that resonates with them?
Courtney Johnston: I think people are ready for someone that’s actually going to do the job, that’s there for the right reasons. I think people are tired of chaos, and they’re tired of politicians that they can’t trust. And I am, too. And so, that’s what I’ve always been in my service, 4 or 5 years on the council, as someone that’s been honest. I’ve served with character and integrity, and I’ve gotten meaningful things done, and I think that’s what really is resonating with people is just, you know, being effective, getting things done, with a heart for public service and someone that we can trust that has character.
MB: If Tennesseans send you to Washington, what is one of the big things that you hope to accomplish there?
CJ: I think the first thing we have to do is focus on securing the border. There’s a reason why we all have front doors with locks on our homes, and it’s not because we’re not friendly, but it’s because we want to know who’s coming into our home and for what reason. And so, we’ve got to secure the border. Without borders, we don’t have a country. Part and parcel to that is to reform immigration. It costs too much and takes too long to come here legally, which just exacerbates the problem of illegal immigration. And so, we’ve got to start having some meaningful change in a positive way for that. It’s been far too long, and the only reason we haven’t secured the border and reformed immigration is because of pure politics. And I think people are wanting to see meaningful change down there. It’s obviously a public safety issue. It’s an economic issue. And we have to deal with it in a serious, meaningful way immediately.
MB: How do you think your role as a council member prepares you for having those sorts of conversations across the aisle?
CJ: Yeah. So, I’m obviously outnumbered pretty decently about 10 to 1 on the council from a political perspective. We are a nonpartisan body, but I think it has prepared me incredibly well. You know, my LPR — my license plate reader legislation — is a prime example of understanding what my goal was, which was to improve public safety and give our police department a tool that they need to help keep us safe. And so, figuring out what people’s objections are, what their concerns are, having those conversations, dealing with that from a policy perspective, and coming up with a well-rounded policy that protects people’s privacy, but also gives the police department a tool to help keep us safe, which is the number one function of government. And so, it took a long time. It took about two and a half years to get that legislation passed, but that 100% was working across the aisle because I have to, obviously, but we also got a really good policy out of it. So, I’m very proud of that.
MB: What do you think the incumbent has done wrong?
CJ: I think the incumbent has caused chaos. The ouster of McCarthy was an absolute abomination, really. Not only for the Republican Party, but really for Congress as a whole. We were the laughingstock of the entire world as they watched that unfold, where we didn’t have a speaker of the House for almost an entire month. And so obviously, no meaningful work was being done on anything on the budget — on immigration, on the border, on foreign policy. Nothing. It was at a standstill. And it was all because of, Mr. Ogles and seven of his colleagues that decided to create that chaos.
I think he has proven to be an untrustworthy person. I don’t know that anything that comes out of his mouth is true. He’s obviously launching several attacks on me now that are absolutely baseless and untrue. He can’t fill out an FEC report correctly. He’s amended his reports going back two years, and now just last week, amended every report going back a year. So now multiple times he’s amended these FEC reports, which … I’m saying “FEC,” these are campaign finance disclosures. So, you know, to have to be so nontransparent in that way just shows that he’s lying. And I think people are tired of that. They’re tired of politicians just complaining about things, lying about things and not getting anything done. And it’s time to put better people in government.
Johnston and Ogles will face off in the primary election for Tennessee’s 5th congressional district on Aug. 1. The winner will face Nashville activist Maryam Abolfazli in the general election this November.
Early voting continues through July 27.
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