Nashville-area GOP House race and Senate primaries top Tennessee’s primary ballot

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A first-term Tennessee congressman backed by former President Donald Trump will face a Republican challenger who calls the lawmaker ineffective, a contest that is among the top races in the state’s August primary election.

The primary will also cement who will be the Democratic contender in the fall matchup for the seat that Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is running to keep.

The U.S. Senate contest will top the ballot, with contested Republican and Democratic races. And a full slate of legislative contests is on tap, with all 99 House and about half the 33 Senate seats up for grabs, including a handful of prominent fights for sitting Republican lawmakers and in open GOP seats.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents one of three Republican districts that carve through Democratic-leaning Nashville, will face off against Nashville Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston in the Republican primary next week.

A look at what is at stake on Aug. 1:

Ogles’ House seat

Two years ago, Ogles didn’t nab Trump’s endorsement until after he won a crowded primary for an open seat made possible by Republican redistricting of largely Democratic Nashville.

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This election, Trump didn’t waste any time backing Ogles, throwing him his support last year before many others were considering tossing their hat in the race.

Yet his opponent, Johnston, is hoping that Ogles has irked enough Republicans by creating headaches over questions about his resume, inaccurate campaign finance reporting and headline-grabbing approach to lawmaking.

Johnston so far has outraised Ogles, with campaign checks from prominent Tennessee Republicans including former U.S. Sens. Bill Frist and Bob Corker and former Gov. Bill Haslam. She also is getting a boost from a group of Nashville-area business figures, such as real estate developer Tony Giarratana and businessman and Nashville SC pro soccer team owner John Ingram, who have given to her campaign and helped fuel a complimentary super PAC.

Ogles is relying on outside help from the Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family’s well-heeled free-market group that once employed the Republican as its state director. One of his state’s senators, Bill Hagerty, and several of his Tennessee GOP colleagues in the House have endorsed him. He has received campaign donations from House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Ogles, a member of the Freedom Caucus, was among the Republican holdouts in Kevin McCarthy’s prolonged speakership nomination in January 2023, voting against him 11 times before switching to support him. When McCarthy was ousted in October, Ogles voted against removing him.

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Ogles has faced scrutiny for issues outside the Capitol. For instance, he ultimately replied that he was “mistaken” when he said he graduated with an international relations degree after a local news outlet raised questions over whether he had embellished his resume.

Ogles also doubled back on his reporting that he loaned his 2022 campaign $320,000, in recent months fixing the report to remove the loan.

On the Democratic side, Maryam Abolfazli is running opposed.

Eight congressional seats in Tennessee are Republican held. The ninth is represented by a Democrat.

Blackburn’s Senate seat

A slate of Democratic hopefuls are vying to become their party’s Senate nominee in the fall, where they’ll likely face off against Blackburn as she runs for a second six-year term.

This includes state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who shot to national fame last year after surviving a Republican-led expulsion effort for her participation in a gun control demonstration.

Last year, days after a school shooting that killed six people, Johnson joined fellow Democratic Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones as they walked to the front of the state House floor with a bullhorn. The trio joined the chants and cries for gun control legislation by protesters in the public galleries and outside of the chamber.

The trio were quickly dubbed the “Tennessee Three” as they soon faced expulsion hearings for violating House rules. Pearson and Jones, who are both Black, were expelled, while Johnson, who is white, was spared by one vote. Shortly after the expulsion vote, Johnson quickly noted that she avoided expulsion likely because she was white. Republicans denied race was a factor.

Johnson, 62, has been a critic of Blackburn’s policy positions, arguing that most Tennesseans want “common sense gun legislation” and better access to reproductive care. According to latest campaign disclosure reports, Johnson has around $2 million available after raising $4.8 million since entering the race.

Blackburn, 71, has opposed gun control measures throughout her political career and has deflected when asked whether she supports a national ban on abortion, saying that she supports the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion and that the issue should be left to voters. Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, in 2020 and prior years she voted to advance a bill that would have banned abortion at 20 weeks.

As of early July, Blackburn has $9.2 million cash on hand after raising $3.9 million during the second quarter of 2024.

Tres Wittum, a 37-year-old former Tennessee legislative staffer, is the only Republican running against Blackburn.

In the primary, Johnson is running against Memphis community activist and organizer Marquita Bradshaw. Bradshaw won the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020, and she lost the general election to Republican Bill Hagerty by 27 percentage points.

Other Democrats running are Civil Miller-Watkins and Lola Denise Brown.