Never Trumper political consultant and lobbyist Tom Ingram is one of the founders of The Best of Tennessee, which last month sent $140,000 to the Conservatives with Character super PAC that recently began a $140,000 ad campaign supporting Metro Councilwoman Courtney Johnston in her effort to unseat Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the Tennessee Republican primary on August 1.
Ingram (pictured above) was listed as one of three founders of The Best of Tennessee in April by Tennessee Lookout, which reported the group’s founders also include pro-abortion attorney Chloe Akers and seasoned political fundraiser Kim Kaegi, who is also the treasurer for the Johnston campaign.
He became well known in Tennessee politics in 1978 when he helped former Senator Lamar Alexander defeat Jake Butcher amid controversy generated by outgoing Governor Ray Blanton. Ingram continued working with Alexander through his years in the U.S. Senate until the senator retired in 2021.
The Ingram Group, a consulting and lobbying firm Ingram runs, generated $5 million in 2023, the Nashville Business Journal reported in June. Ingram also told the outlet his firm has existed for more than 40 years, boasts 15 employees, and generates 25 to 30 percent of its revenue from lobbying.
In 2022, Ingram delivered a speech that News Channel 11 reported was titled “Make Politics Great Again.” While the outlet confirmed that the name was a nod to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, the outlet reported, “It’s clear when you speak to Ingram, he doesn’t mean it as a compliment” to the former president.
“We have Republicans who won’t speak to Republicans, and Democrats who won’t speak to Democrats,” Ingram reportedly complained in his 2022 speech to the East Tennessee Republican Club in Johnson City after calling American politics “dysfunctional.”
The outlet reported Ingram told attendees he is an independent voter “with deep respect for Democrats,” including former Governor Ned McWherter and former Senator Anna Belle Clement O’Brien.
Years prior, following the tragic Charleston Church Shooting that occurred in South Carolina, Ingram penned a July 2, 2015, opinion article for The Tennessean in which he declared his support for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina House of Representatives.
After celebrating that protesters did not tear the flag down, Ingram wrote he was hopeful it would “be removed permanently on another day following an orderly legislative debate.”
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed legislation to require the immediate removal of the flag on July 9, 2015.
Conservatives with Character treasurer Randy Stamps confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday the group was behind the recent political mailers that juxtaposed images of Trump and Johnston, despite the former president having endorsed Ogles’ bid for reelection last year.
Stamps also told The Star he thinks The Best of Tennessee and Conservatives with Character are “of the same mindset” and presented Johnston with an effective, principled alternative to Ogles, whom he called an “embarrassment” to the Republican Party.
In an apparent reference to Trump, he argued, “there’s still a lot of Republicans that want to think through things and not just follow some personality and let that personality totally dominate the Republican Party.”
Ogles told The Star on Monday the mailers were sent in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump’s life, and stated, “[f]or my opponent to exploit Trump’s name at a time like this for the sake of deceptive politics is disgraceful and despicable.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tom Ingram” by Ingram Group. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by FaceMePLS. CC BY 2.0.
I wish to make a minor correction to my earlier comment appearing for this story concerning Mr. Ingram’s age. Ingram is now 77 years of age, soon to be 78 years of age in September (according to the Tennessee Blue Book for 1979-1980, page 18), and he was born in Ozark, Alabama. The internet information that I referenced was for another Tom Ingram. Such information is often hard to come by despite every effort made to be accurate. I apologize for this minor error.
A prime example of what is wrong with Tennessee politics. They cannot call themselves what they are, liberal Democrats, because they know that they will get virtually zero support everywhere but in the disgustingly liberal big cities like Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. He and his ilk do not represent traditional Tennessee values. Values that I embrace with pride.
John Bumpus writes a very good piece about this whole subject and the History of which he writes is very good. Thank-you, Sir, for this very revealing writing.
Good for Andy Ogles, a True Conservative who has “stuck by the stuff” even though attacked by Republicans who are RINOS. May the Lord Bless his works in the House of Representatives and make him strong that he may prevails to do what is Right. For God & Country
Ingram and Nikki Haley have been a lot of the problem in our country. Not voting for another rino. Ogles will get my vote.
Never Trumpers like Stamps & Ingram are the very reason people wanted a different GOP.
They want the UNIPARTY back, but the people do not.
Leave our Republic Alone. Let the People that you guys detest run this country. That’s the meaning of Republic.
YOU LOST, TRUMP WON.
YOU HELPED IN THE EFFORT TO BRING HIM DOWN
YOU FAILED.
You are the PAST that real Americans despise.
So Just Move On.
During the last almost four years of Joe Biden, our country is literally being destroyed before our eyes in almost every way imaginable. Former President Trump is trying to stop and reverse this. Trump’s efforts have cost him unimaginable sums of his own money, the Democrats and radical leftists have tried to put him in prison on fake LAWFARE charges, and about two weeks ago these radical left-wing efforts almost cost Trump his life. President Trump needs the help and support of every American who loves his country, and particularly support from those of us who call ourselves Conservatives and Republicans. Andy Ogles has been a leader on the national stage in support of President Trump and against those who oppose President Trump’s efforts to put our country back on the right path.
And then ‘along come’ people like Mr. Ingram and Ms. Johnston. Ingram is an old man (approximately 85-86 years of age, he was born in 1937 in Jackson, Tennessee according to information on the web) who has spent most of his life as a political consultant supporting liberal Republicans and what most of the rest of us call RINO (i.e., fake or false) ‘Republicans’ who want to completely undo and defeat President Trump and people like President Trump. (Ingram was a well-known consultant for and confidant of people like Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. This tells you a lot about Ingram.) And now Ingram is trying to help Ms. Johnston become Nashville’s next U. S. Representative in Congress.
In her recent mailing to Fifth Congressional District voters, Ms. Johnston implied (she didn’t quite expressly say so, but she sure as heck TRIED TO DECEIVE YOU and make you think that she had the support of President Trump in her race for Congress, and that she likewise supported President Trump). THIS WAS A LIE! The truth is that if elected, Ms. Johnston will probably not support President Trump in very much, if anything, at all. Ms. Johnston will be a foe of President Trump if she becomes a member of Congress. DO NOT BE DECEIVED BY MS. JOHNSTON. If you want to vote for her, fine, but understand what you are ‘getting’ if you do.
For a strong Conservative ‘real deal’ Republican leader, vote to re-elect Andy Ogles as your U. S. Representative in Congress.
People like Ingram are the reason we have been overrun by loony leftist policies. You have to travel deep into the far left to find the new middle ground.