Despite Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) already securing the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in his bid for reelection in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district, political advertisements mailed to voters depict his only Republican challenger, Metro Councilwoman Courtney Johnston, alongside Republican presidential nominee.
The mailers do not appear to be sent by Johnston’s campaign, but are attributed to Conservatives with Character, the super PAC that recently began an advertising campaign against Ogles, and were obtained by The Tennessee Star from a recipient within the district.
In a statement to The Star, Ogles said Trump “sacrificed everything to fight to Make America Great Again. The entirety of our DOJ has been weaponized against him, and he has literally just taken a bullet for his country.”
Ogles added, “For my opponent to exploit Trump’s name at a time like this for the sake of deceptive politics is disgraceful and despicable.”
He also stressed his relationship with the former president, who praised Ogles when endorsing his reelection last year.
“I was one of the very first public officials to receive President Trump’s endorsement because he knows I will never stop fighting for Tennessee’s Fifth District. I was with Trump in New York during that sham trial,” Ogles told The Star. “Come hell or high-water, I will always put my constituents first.”
The front side of the ad features Trump and Johnston and describes them both as “conservatives,” “business leaders” and “outsiders.”
A photo of the mailer’s front side was posted to the social media platform X, where the user questioned whether Ogles was aware of its existence and wrote, “[d]esperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose.”
The reverse side of the ad claims Johnston and Trump “know that politicians won’t fix our problems” and “real conservative leaders can.” It claims both Johnston and Trump intend to secure the border, “end inflation [and] shrink the debt,” impose term limits on Congress, and “crack down on crime.”
While the mailer does not claim Johnston is endorsed by Trump, the reverse side of the document contains an image of the former president giving a thumbs-up.
Neither Johnston’s campaign nor Randy Stamps, the treasurer for Conservatives with Character, replied to inquiries from The Star prior to press time.
A source familiar with the matter told The Star both Trump and his campaign were made aware of the mailer after several high profile pro-Trump celebrities, who live in Nashville and received the mailer, forwarded it to the former president in frustration. The source told The Star that Trump’s campaign “was not pleased.”
The Star previously reported that Stamps, once the Tennessee Republican Party’s political director, more recently endorsed the 2022 Democratic opponent Ogles faced after he won the Republican Party’s nomination.
At the time, Stamps declared Ogles “an angry, narrow-minded political pawn,” and claimed Nashville would be best served by the “temperament and intellect” of his Democratic opponent, State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville).
Ogles, while maintaining his support from Trump, was this week endorsed by Dr. Ben Carson, the former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration.
He also boasts a 100 percent rating on the Heritage Action Scorecard, and in 2023 Ogles was named one of the Top Defenders of Liberty by the Republican Liberty Caucus, which later endorsed his bid for reelection.
The primary date for Tennessee is August 1, and Johnston is the only Republican candidate challenging Ogles for the nomination.
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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 “Courtney Johnston” by Courtney Johnston for Congress.
