Records show Tennessee newcomer and D.C. insider Morgan Ortagus has finally moved into the boundaries of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, a district she seeks to represent in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Tennessee Star reported last month that Ortagus did not reside in the district. Her voter registration record showed that the address she registered to vote from was not located within the Tennessee 5th Congressional District lines.
As of Friday afternoon, Ortagus is listed on the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website as having picked up her qualifying petitions for the TN-5 Republican primary. The paperwork shows the congressional hopeful used an address that is different than the one from The Star’s February 9 reporting. The deadline to turn in those petitions is April 7.
A search shows that the address that Ortagus used as her residence to pick up the petitions is located within the boundaries of the 5th Congressional District.
Prior to moving to Middle Tennessee, Ortagus lived for lengthy periods of time in New York and Washington, D.C. Ortagus previously served in the Trump administration as U.S. State Department spokesman from 2019-2021.
Ortagus is a native of Florida, where she also competed in beauty pageants. Ortagus once earned the title Miss Florida Citrus. Ortagus was also reportedly the runner-up for the Miss Florida pageant.
The Star reached out to the Ortagus campaign to confirm that she had, indeed, moved to the address provided on the Tennessee Secretary of State’s petitions listing. The Star did not hear back from the Ortagus campaign.
Tennessee law does not make it a requirement to live in the U.S. House district that a candidate seeks to represent, but most political observers consider it to be politically advisable to do so.
However, Ortagus faces the possibility that she may not even make it onto the August 4 Republican primary ballot. Her Republican bona fide status, a requirement candidates must satisfy in order to be on the GOP ballot, has been challenged to the Tennessee Republican Party. A committee made up of Tennessee GOP state executive committee (SEC) members that include Tennessee Republican Party Chair Scott Golden will meet after the April 7 filing deadline to decide the fate of those challenges and her ballot status. The committee will have 15 voting members.
Another hurdle that Ortagus may face is pending legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly. That legislation establishes a three-year residency requirement for U.S. House and U.S. Senate candidates in Tennessee primaries. If the State House and State Senate agree on an immediate effective date and the legislation is enacted into law, Ortagus would be immediately disqualified from the race.
Ortagus’ very recent Tennessee residency falls far short of a three-year residency requirement. She has been registered to vote in the state for approximately three months. If the legislation fails to be enacted into law or takes effect after this year’s election, then Ortagus would be free to run if the Tennessee GOP doesn’t keep her off the ballot.
Other candidates in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District include former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, California native Robby Starbuck (listed as Robert Starbuck Newsom), David Vitalli, former Brig. Gen. Kurt Winstead, Geni Batchelor, Natisha Brooks, and Stewart Parks.
Senate aide Tres Wittum is expected to announce during the first week of April.
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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.
Photo “Morgan Ortagus” by U.S. Department of State. Background Photo “Nashville Skyline” by Jacknstock. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Let’s see how long Ortagus lives in TN-05 after she loses the election. I predict 48 hrs.
This entire line of stories illustrates one huge issue, in general, American/Tennessee citizens are not informed and engaged enough! If they were, we wouldn’t need to be talking about residency laws, carpetbaggers, or even term limits. Living in a republic is not a spectator sport!
But that’s my serious side.
I think Ms. Ortagus keeps a lot more in the “jar by the door” than just lip gloss, foundation and fake eyelashes! Her association with all sorts of ideologically varied efforts tells me that she resides wherever the wind is blowing!
She’s a Carpetbagger who doesn’t give a darn about Tennessee or her District. She just wants a ticket back to Washington, DC