Tennessee State Employee Jim Tracy Backs Left Wing PAC That Supports Courtney Johnston in TN-5 Primary Against Rep. Andy Ogles

Jim Tracy

Jim Tracy, who is employed as a “Senior Advisor to the Department of Commerce and Insurance,” is a board member of the political organization that recently sent $140,000 to a super PAC attacking Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) and supporting Metro Councilwoman Courtney Johnston in the Republican primary in the 5th Congressional District scheduled for August 1.

Tracy was named a board member of The Best of Tennessee in a June 6 article by Tennessee Lookout, which reported that he was then “a Senior Advisor to the Department of Commerce and Insurance.”

Tennessee’s State Employee Salary Search confirmed Tracy is a current state employee as of Thursday. It also confirmed Tracy is paid $10,827 per month, or just under $130,000 per year.

Tracy previously represented Shelbyville’s 14th District in the Tennessee State Senate. He was elected in 2004 and held his seat until he was appointed to a Trump administration role in 2017. State Senator Shane Reeves (R-Murfressboro) won the special election prompted by Tracy’s departure.

In addition to Tracy (pictured above), the Tennessee Lookout reported that 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike McWherter, the son of former Governor Ned McWherter, is also on The Best of Tennessee’s board.

Ned McWherter was specifically named by Never Trumper political consultant and lobbyist Tom Ingram, one of three founders of The Best of Tennessee, as a Democrat for whom he holds “deep respect” in a 2022 speech.

Other founders of The Best of Tennessee include pro-abortion attorney Chloe Akers and seasoned political fundraiser Kim Kaegi, who is also the treasurer for Johnston’s campaign.

The Best of Tennessee’s $140,000 contribution to Conservatives with Character came one month before the second group began a $140,000 ad campaign targeting Ogles and supporting Johnston.

Randy Stamps, the treasurer for Conservatives with Character, told The Tennessee Star the two groups share a “mindset.” He also confirmed his group was behind the recent mailers which depict former President Donald Trump juxtaposed next to Johnston, despite the former president having endorsed Ogles last year.

Stamps confirmed the group is currently solely focused on defeating Ogles, and despite the mailers identifying purported similarities between Trump and Johnston, told The Star, “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.”

The Conservatives with Character treasurer also called Ogles an “embarrassment” who “doesn’t have good character values.”

On Monday, Ogles noted the mailers were sent in the wake of the attempted assassination of the former president, and told The Star it was “disgraceful and despicable” to “exploit Trump’s name at a time like this for the sake of deceptive politics.”

A source familiar with the matter additionally told The Star that both Trump campaign officials and the former president were made aware of the mailers and were “not pleased.”

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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 “Jim Tracy” by TNEnvironment.

 

 

 

 

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4 Thoughts to “Tennessee State Employee Jim Tracy Backs Left Wing PAC That Supports Courtney Johnston in TN-5 Primary Against Rep. Andy Ogles”

  1. Kari

    Bill Freeman is Nashville’s George Soros.  Freeman, owner of FW publishing is the grand daddy of Middle TN deep swamp left-wing gossip flyers. They are literally seen as litter throughout 7 counties. (very useful for starting campfires not so useful as reporting any truth).
    Freeman’s trash compiles of the Nashville Post, Nashville Scene,
    Nfocus Magazine and TN News that go right along with Phil Williams nonsense reporting.
    No one is allowed to submit any opinions that differ from the destructive demoncratic ideologies. Bill Freeman is the only one allowed to comment.
    We must align ourselves with demoncrats unscrupulous beliefs or be labeled as “national terrorist”. Our nation is being destroyed by unbelievers, activist protestors and the illegals are given carte blanche. It’s mindboggling.
    Kamala Harris is a loose cannon ready to finish off what is left of the United States of America and call it a middle east peace agreement.
    Harris warned that democracy everywhere was in peril and that strengthening it “depends fundamentally on the empowerment of black women.”
    Defining woman is selective and
    apparently there is a great distinction between woman and black woman.
    The menstrual cycles in the dc swamp are relentless. Those cycles created 12 new genders.
    One must wonder which gender Courtney Johnston plans to represent.
    Andy Ogles will protect God’s creation of man and woman, the unborn and the American traditional nuclear family.
    While Andy combats against the woke insanity Courtney adds to it.
    The demoncrat mafia is the new mayhem mania of America.

  2. Joe Blow

    This runs parallel to the state senate GOP primary contest between incumbent Ferrell Haile and challenger Chris Spencer. I have been inundated by glossy mailers from outsider groups, including many from out of state, telling me how wonderful Mr. Haile is and even more claiming that Mr. Sencer is lower than a snake’s belly Well, I have to assume that those producing a landfill of such mailers supporting Mr. Haile are expecting something in return from him assuming he retains his senate seat. I am doing my best to see that Mr. Haile disappoints these lobbyist/special interest groups by voting for Mr. Spencer in the primary.

  3. HATCH ACT

    UNIPARTY
    Is there a Hatch Act Violation?

  4. John Bumpus

    It would be my educated guess, that Ingram and his crowd and his related left-wing PACs (i.e., political action committees) are only interested in supporting people who, if elected, will do what they are told to do (i.e., people who will do WHAT they are told to do; WHEN they are told to do it; exactly HOW they are told to do it; and in WHO’s behalf they are told to do it for). Is this the type of person that you want to send to Washington, D. C. to represent you in our national government? Is this the kind of national government that you want for our country?

    The U. S. House of Representatives is chosen every two years, everywhere the same all over the United States, one congressional district/one Congressman at a time. And the American people are responsible for the national government that they enjoy by the character of the people that they elect.

    As Benjamin Franklin famously told that inquiring woman in September 1787 at the end of the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, when she asked him what kind of national government the Founding Fathers had created for our new nation, Franklin said: You have a Republic, if you can keep it.

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