Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles will face Republican opposition in the August primary as he seeks to retain a congressional seat passing through Nashville. The first-term congressman from Columbia learned who his challengers will be as candidates met last week’s filing deadline for state and federal positions. Ogles, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who secured former President Donald Trump’s endorsement for his reelection, will face Tom Guarente, a cybersecurity expert from Brentwood, and Courtney Johnston, a Nashville Metro Council member, in the Republican primary. On the Democratic side, multiple candidates have also qualified to run for the seat, including Maryam Abolfazli and Arnie Malham, both from Nashville.
Ogles emerged from a crowded primary field last time to win his seat by a significant margin in November 2022, flipping what had previously been a Democratic seat. Republican-led redistricting in Tennessee has now carved left-leaning Nashville into three districts that all favor the GOP. This change in district boundaries has resulted in eight congressional seats in Tennessee now being held by Republicans, with only one represented by a Democrat. Ogles faced scrutiny for issues outside of the Capitol, including questions about whether he embellished his resume by claiming to have a degree in international relations, which he later admitted was a mistake.
In other congressional districts in Tennessee, Republican incumbents Diana Harshbarger, Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, and John Rose will not face primary opponents in their heavily Republican-favoring districts. However, several other Republicans, including Reps. Scott DesJarlais, Mark Green, and David Kustoff, will face primary challenges in the upcoming election. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who is running for Green’s seat, will avoid a Democratic primary as she vies for the congressional district that includes Nashville. The Senate race featuring Marsha Blackburn and Gloria Johnson also includes primary competition for both candidates, with Blackburn facing former legislative staffer Tres Wittum and Johnson facing four Democratic rivals.
A slew of independent candidates have filed for various races in Tennessee, including Pamela Moses for U.S. Senate. Moses, who was convicted in 2021 for registering to vote illegally in Memphis in 2019, has said she was unaware that she was ineligible to vote. Prosecutors declined to keep pursuing charges after she was granted a new trial. At the statehouse level, where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, Democrats have fielded candidates for several Senate and House seats. In the 2022 election, Democrats ran candidates in a similar number of seats, indicating ongoing efforts to compete in Tennessee’s political landscape despite the Republican dominance in recent years. The upcoming elections in Tennessee will feature a mix of primary challenges and competitive races in both state and federal positions.
