The Conservatives with Character super PAC supporting Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston in her campaign to unseat Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the Republican primary on Wednesday spent more than $256,000 in advertisement in the final days before the election.
A reported filed with the Federal Election Commission by Conservatives with Character Treasurer Randy Stamps confirmed the organization spent $200,000 with the New Mexico-based Ad Placement Results LLC, an additional $30,000 to the Nashville-based VOR Media advertising firm, and $26,820 with HTTV Direct LLC, a Virginia-based political mailing firm.
In total, Conservatives with Character spent $256,820 right before the election. The primary election is on August 1.
The report also revealed the group has so far spent $640,627 in its effort to unseat Ogles, meaning the final ad purchase represents about 40 percent of Conservatives with Character’s total ad purchases in 2024.
Stamps confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that Conservatives with Character was behind the recent political mailers that included Johnston and former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Ogles last year.
Despite the group’s mailers linking Johnston to the former president, Stamps told The Star he is among the contingent of Republicans who, “want to think through things and not just follow some personality and let that personality totally dominate the Republican Party,” in an apparent reference to Trump.
Stamps also described Ogles as an “embarrassment” and compared him to former Representative George Santos, who was expelled from the U.S. House after he was accused of financial crimes despite not being convicted. Ogles has not been accused of any crimes.
Ogles told The Star on Monday the pro-Johnston mailers were sent in the wake of the failed attempt to assassinate the former president, and declared it “disgraceful and despicable” for Johnston’s supporters to “exploit Trump’s name at a time like this for the sake of deceptive politics.”
Conservatives with Character previously spent $140,000 on pro-Johnston and anti-Ogles political advertising shortly after it received a $140,000 contribution from The Best of Tennessee, which is linked to the Johnston campaign through its co-founder, Kim Kaegi, who is also Johnston’s treasurer.
Stamps told The Star that Conservatives with Character and The Best of Tennessee are of a “similar mindset,” and suggested the $140,000 contribution was evidence of their shared political leanings.
Other founders of The Best of Tennessee include pro-abortion attorney Chloe Akers and Tom Ingram, a political consultant and lobbyist who has been a fixture of Tennessee politics since 1978.
Ingram stated in a 2022 speech that lampooned the Make America Great Again slogan employed by Trump that he is an independent voter with “deep respect for Democrats.”
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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 “Andy Ogles” by Andy Ogles. Photo “Courtney Johnston” by Courtney Johnston.
