Can Democrats defeat Andy Ogles?

Political observers were shocked last month when Democratic House candidate Chaz Molder raised $500,000 in a district President Donald Trump won by 13 points.

Molder has an impressive résumé—he’s the youngest mayor ever elected in Columbia, TN—but his early momentum is largely due to the odiousness of his opponent, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who has represented the state’s 5th District since 2023.

Ogles made national headlines in March 2023 when a school shooting in his district claimed the lives of six people, including three children. The tragedy occurred just a few months after Ogles sent out a Christmas card featuring his smiling family brandishing assault weapons. He deleted the photo from his social media feeds but refused to apologize for it.

Ogles has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since.

NewsChannel 5 reported in Nov. 2023 that Ogles loaned $320,000 to his 2022 campaign, even though his personal finance disclosures showed he had no significant wealth or even a savings account. It was speculated that Ogles was either concealing assets or a large donation—both of which could be federal offenses.

In May 2024, Ogles suddenly claimed there was no $320,000 contribution. He said he gave his campaign $20,000 and the $320,000 figure was a paperwork error. This explanation didn’t satisfy FBI investigators who later seized Ogle’s cell phone as part of an investigation into the matter. The investigation is still ongoing.

Ogles has been accused of other shady financial dealings.

Ogles’ wife gave birth to a stillborn baby in 2014. Shortly thereafter, Ogles set up a GoFundMe to raise money to build a special cemetery for his child and other newborns. He raised $25,000, and GoFundMe confirmed Ogles received the funds—but the cemetery was never built. 

When NewsChannel 5 pressed Ogles on the issue, he claimed state regulations blocked him from building the cemetery and that the money was instead used to help grieving parents. But no such regulations exist, and he offered no proof or further details of where the money went.

Ogles often speaks on the campaign trail about the loss of his child, saying the resulting hospital bills were financially draining. Despite this, he voted for the One Beautiful Bill Act, which will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, forcing 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance.

Ogles has been mired in other controversies, including calling for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to be denaturalized and introducing a bill in Congress to give Trump a third term.

Even though Ogles won handily last year, Democrats believe he’s beatable. The DCCC announced in June that it would spend money to defeat him.

Expect to hear more about Ogles and his record in the months ahead.