Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents confirm Randy Stamps is the treasurer for the Conservatives with Character super PAC, which so far has reportedly spent at least $140,000 on ads targeting Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05).
Stamps’ involvement in an effort which could benefit the only Republican to challenge Ogles, Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston, comes after he backed Ogles’ previous political opponent, former Tennessee House Representative Beth Harwell, in 2022.
Ogles won his 2022 primary election against Harwell and nine other candidates with 35.4 percent of the vote, while Harwell came in second with 24.9 percent.
After Harwell lost the primary contest, Stamps (pictured above) later endorsed Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville), the Democratic candidate who opposed Ogles in 2022, in a now-deleted post to the social media platform X.
During that election, Campbell emphasized her support for abortion, claiming Tennessee enforces “a law that says women and girls are not allowed to control their own future.”
Campbell would introduce 17 gun control bills in the General Assembly the next year, including a red flag law.
According to NewsChannel 5, Stamps in the deleted post described Ogles as “an angry, narrow-minded political pawn,” and claimed Campbell’s “temperament and intellect are what is needed in our Congress today.”
In an additional statement to the outlet, Stamps said at the time, “I am very proud of the decision I made to endorse Senator Campbell. I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. If I have created more interest in her race, that is a good thing.”
While Stamps deleted his original post from social media, a second post including the NewsChannel 5 article remained online at press time.
#TN #CD5 @Campbell4TN Lifelong Republican endorses a Democrat in the 5th Congressional Race https://t.co/CHMv8GMKY7 #Vote #Now !
— Randy Stamps (@randystamps) October 25, 2022
Stamps represented Tennessee’s 45th District as a Republican from 1988 through 1998, served as the political director for the Tennessee Republican Party from 2003 to 2009, and joined the Tennessee State Employees Association in 2014.
Full details regarding funds for Conservatives with Character remain unclear, as the organization gave notice to the FEC in June that it intended to file its reports quarterly. Its next report will be due on July 15. The primary election will occur on August 1.
In addition to the outside spending, Johnston has reportedly raised $700,000 since she declared her candidacy in April.
Johnston also stands to benefit from The Best of Tennessee, which is comprised of three strategically linked political organizations that its co-founder Chloe Akers predicted would raise up to $7 million over the 2024 election cycle.
The other co-founder of The Best of Tennessee is Kim Kaegi, a seasoned political fundraiser who is reported to serve as a fundraiser for Johnston’s campaign for U.S. House.
While there has been no polling for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district, Ogles recently won the straw poll at the Davidson County Republican Party’s annual picnic, securing 144 votes compared to Johnston’s 48.
Ogles is the only member of the House Freedom Caucus who also boasts a 100 percent rating on the Heritage Action Scorecard. In 2023, the Republican Liberty Caucus named him one of the Top Defenders of Liberty, and it has since endorsed him for reelection.
In May 2023, former President Donald Trump also endorsed his campaign for reelection, declaring, “Congressman Andy Ogles is a fantastic Representative for the incredible people of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.”
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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 “Randy Stamps” by TNVol4Life. CC BY-SA 4.0. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by Andre Porter (imagN Images). CC BY-SA 3.0.
I like Andy Ogles who is doing a good job of standing for Tennessee.
People like Stamps are no more than Democrats that pretend to be Republican to get elected.
As for Blackburn, I washed my hands of her when she co-sponsored a Bill with a Communist from Connecticut.
Also, not one of these big mouths will ever go after the criminal element of society. They need the criminals to stay in power.
REPRESENTATIVE ANDY OGLES HAS DONE AN OUTSTANDING JOB IN HIS FIRST TERM. I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO SEE WHAT HE CAN GET ACCOMPLISHED AFTER TRUMP WINS BACK THE WHITE HOUSE.
RANDY STAMPS & BETH HARWELL ARE BOTH RINOs who are part of the UNIPARTY. If Im not mistaken, tgey both voted for a State Income Tax.
COURTNEY, LIKE MEGAN BARRY, GOT A LITTLE TASTE OF POWER, & THIS IS HER ONLY SHOT. SHE JUST CANT BEAR TO GOING BACK TO BEING AN AVERAGE PERSON.
WE DONT NEED A DUMMY WHO WANTS TO PUNISH LEGAL GUN OWNERS. WHY IS THAT ANYWAY? A REPRESENTATIVE VOTES THE VOICE OF THEIR CONSTITUTENTS NOT THEIR PERSONAL IDEOLOGY.
VOTE ANDY OGLES FOR DISTRICT 5 ON NOVEMBER 5, & DONALD J. TRUMP FOR POTUS. WHAT A TEAM!!!
Normally, I would have also voted for Marsha Blackburn as US Senator, BUT she turned on her Constituents on Jan6, 2021 when she voted to certify the Shell of a man named Joe Biden, as our U S President. Look what she gave us. TOTAL INSANITY.
VOTES HAVE CONSEQUENCES
His appears to confirm my belief that Democrats are running the Tennessee Republican party. No wonder the state government governs as if it were a Democrat controlled body. Time to be very careful about voting for a “Republican” before doing your own vetting of the candidate. I feel that way about my state senator, Ferrell Haile. He seems to oppose everything that I support when in critical liberal vs conservative bills. I get snubbed by his office any time I make the case for my position. Now during his re-election campaign, the money-seeking PACs and special interest groups are supporting him against a true conservative. Looks like he can be bought,
I was not surprised by this story. I have been trying to keep abreast of issues in recent years. Red states like Tennessee have been targets for infiltration and subornation of leaders for some time now. We are fortunate to have so many steadfast legislators pushing against this infiltration. We must pay attention to what goes on in the Legislature and how our district representatives and senators voted AS WELL as our Congressional representatives and senators. If we do not, with bitter tears we will wish we had in the future, maybe near future.
Johnston is a fraud, and it’s normal for other fraudsters to follow along. There’s nothing conservative about her. Ogles has done an outstanding job. Listen to her ads – she says she’s gonna shake things up in Washington and make things happen. Yeah, right. Haven’t heard tht one before. She just oozes incompetence.
I do not live in the Fifth Congressional District of Tennessee. But my family has lived in Tennessee since the late 1790s shortly after Tennessee became a State. How Nashville’s Congressman votes definitely affects me. So, I am ‘putting in my two cents’ about Courtney Johnston. IMO Ms. Johnston is what many would call a RINO (i.e., fake or false) Republican. I still remember the June 13, 2022 story in AXIOS Nashville news website, by Nate Rau. Let me quote a bit of the leading lines of this story:
“Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston called on Gov. Bill Lee to hold a special legislative session to address gun violence, mental health and school safety.
Why it matters: Johnston’s letter, which was sent to the governor Friday and shared with Axios, is a rare example of a right-leaning Tennessee elected official demanding the state take action on guns.
Gun control is increasingly becoming a bipartisan issue. Seventy percent of Americans and a majority of Republicans think gun control laws should take precedence over protecting gun ownership, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.”
IMO Tennessee is privileged to have a true Conservative Republican Congressman in Andy Ogles who represents the views of most Tennesseans in the Congress. Control of the U. S. House of Representatives is gained, and retained, one seat at a time. Andy Ogles is ‘the real deal’ and he needs the support of true Conservatives in the upcoming August Republican Primary and in the November General Election.
The TN GOPe is the controlled opposition. They never even offered token candidates against Jim Cooper for 20 years.
See also Tom Lawless.
Even Ron Ramsey and Randy McNally hired a trojan like Adam Kleinheider as a spokesperson who worked tirelessly at Channel 2 to smear and scandalize Republicans for years.