Several out-of-state groups, including the Club for Growth, are spending well over a million dollars to boost Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles’ bid for the Republican nomination for TN-5 and to attack his opponents Beth Harwell and Kurt Winstead.
Club for Growth famously spent $1,000,000 against then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
It later supported his 2020 re-election.
The Club for Growth’s School Freedom Fund PAC, based in Washington, D.C. and registered in November of 2021, has spent well over $400,000 in television ads and mail pieces attacking Beth Harwell and Kurt Winstead.
Pennsylvania-based billionaire investor Jeff Yass is the largest donor to the School Freedom Fund PAC, donating $10,000,000 in April and $5,000,000 in November of 2021. Yass additionally donated tens of millions of dollars to Club for Growth Action over a four-year period.
The Wisconsin-based USA Freedom Fund, which spent over $1.5 million to oppose former President Trump’s endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, JD Vance, has spent at least $786,500 to support Ogles, records show.
Club for Growth’s PAC, Club for Growth Action, additionally has transferred nearly $2.5 million into the USA Freedom Fund from October 2021 through April 2022.
The president of Club for Growth, David McIntosh, reportedly attended an Ogles fundraiser in July, multiple sources said.
Ogles himself has publicly stated on multiple occasions that Club for Growth was backing him in the race.
Other out-of-state groups are spending significant money in the TN-5 race.
The Virginia-based Americans for Prosperity Action, Inc., which does business as AFP Action, CVA Action, or Libre Action, and has endorsed Ogles, has spent significant money backing him.
FEC records show that AFP Action has spent at least $200,000 in support of Ogles’ run.
The Tennessee Star previously printed content that said the Koch family-controlled Americans for Prosperity backed amnesty for illegal aliens, released television ads backing big tech, and that “Vindictive’ Americans for Prosperity Foundation” filed an FOIA lawsuit that “targets conservatives working to repeal Section 230.”
Club for Growth donor Jeff Yass additionally serves on the board of the Koch think tank, the Cato Institute.
U.S. Representative Jim Jordan’s House Freedom Fund, which has endorsed Ogles, has spent several thousand dollars promoting the Maury County mayor’s candidacy.
The Star recently reported on Ogles’ own campaign finances, after he late-filed his July second-quarter FEC report.
For the FEC second-quarter report, Ogles raised $247,087.00 and loaned his campaign $320,000, giving him a Q2 cash-on-hand total of $508,798.61. The Ogles campaign spent $58,288.39 during that reporting period as well.
Ogles claimed in a press statement released on May 11 that he “raised $453,000” during the first month of his candidacy to secure the Republican nomination in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
For the pre-primary report, which was filed on time and covers the reporting period of July 1 through July 15, Ogles raised $17,315.00, spent $242,775.48, and has $283,338.13 on hand.
The Republican primary for TN-5 is scheduled to occur on August 4. Early voting ends on July 30.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, Truth Social, and Parler.
Photo “Andy Ogles and the TN-5” by Mayor Andy Ogles for Congress.
Harwell oops
The Kochs, Americans for Prosperity, and Club for Growth are on the opposite side of everything the immigration control movement has advocated.
RINO’s….. anything to keep out an actual conservative…..
Write in Robbie……. The great thing about DC political groups…… they tell you who they fear!!
Good gosh Andy actually had a fundraiser!!!! Must have been one of those $50,000 minimum jobs because while I thought I was on every right-wing fundraising distribution list I never received word by mail or e-mail that any Andy fundraiser was taking place. I contribute to the Club For Growth and I have contributed to Andy’s campaign so it pains me to see all that money wasted on what has a good chance of ending up as nothing more than a conservative vote splitting Gen. Weathervane electing venture.