Tennessee picks House hopeful

Mayor wins hard race to bear GOP hopes of flipping district

State Sen. Heidi Campbell, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, hugs her friend Cal Cobb at a watch party Thursday night at her home in Nashville, Tenn. 
(AP/The Tennessean/Abbey Cutrer)
State Sen. Heidi Campbell, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, hugs her friend Cal Cobb at a watch party Thursday night at her home in Nashville, Tenn. (AP/The Tennessean/Abbey Cutrer)


NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles on Thursday won Tennessee's bruising nine-candidate Republican primary for an open congressional seat in Nashville, setting up a November fight over a district the GOP redrew to favor the party's ability to pick up the seat from Democrats.

The congressional contest in Thursday's primary came as voters also cast ballots for a Democratic gubernatorial nominee. Republican Gov. Bill Lee advanced to November without a GOP opponent.

Ogles, a Columbia resident and one-time leader of Americans for Prosperity's state chapter, emerged after weeks of negative advertising leading up to the election. He outpaced two other top contenders -- former Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell and retired Tennessee National Guard Brig. Gen. Kurt Winstead. Harwell and Winstead conceded.

Ogles scored Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's endorsement and overcame a fundraising gap compared with his other two main rivals. He also benefited the most from third-party groups, which ran TV ads touting his opposition to covid-19 mandates and dragging down his opponents as insufficiently conservative.

Ogles now faces Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell, who was unopposed in Thursday's primary, in the general election in November. The new district favored Donald Trump over Joe Biden by 12 percentage points in 2020.

The race for governor, meanwhile, remained too early to call between Nashville physician Jason Martin and Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley Jr., with Memphis community advocate Carnita Atwater in third. Atwater or Smiley would be the state's first Black Democratic nominee for governor. Martin is running for political office for the first time, spurred by Republican Gov. Bill Lee's hands-off response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Martin decidedly outraised and outspent the next-highest fundraiser, Smiley.

Lee will have a strong advantage in a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2006. He defeated a Democratic opponent by 21 percentage points in 2018.

Redrawn congressional districts helped put Tennessee among the states where Republicans hope to flip a seat in a push to reclaim control of the U.S. House. Tennessee held the only statewide elections nationally Thursday.

Nashville's 5th Congressional District drew heavy interest from Republicans after GOP state lawmakers carved Democratic-tilted Nashville into three districts, favoring their party in each seat. The longtime incumbent in the 5th District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, decided to retire, saying there was "no way" he could win reelection under the new redistricting maps.

In the other two Nashville-area districts, the Republican incumbents didn't have primary opponents. The new maps weight their districts in their favor.

In the new 6th District, which includes more of Nashville, Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose brings a huge fundraising edge into a general election against Democrat Randal Cooper, who defeated a primary opponent.

There was also a full slate of state legislative primary races. Additionally, Thursday is general election night for many local contests. The highlight of those is in Shelby County -- which encompasses Memphis -- where Republican District Attorney Amy Weirich faces a challenge from Democratic civil rights lawyer Steven Mulroy.

But at least in Nashville, anyone who turned on a TV was more likely to see ads for a Republican running for the 5th Congressional District than a candidate for anything else.

Competing TV attacks -- mostly run by generically named outside groups with mega-wealthy donors -- were trying to sow doubt about the conservative resumes of Harwell, Winstead and Ogles.

The election marked the first time voters get a say over a seat that had been subject to months of Republican political brokering.

Political infighting over the carefully crafted district -- it meanders through six counties -- led the state Republican Party to boot three candidates off the ballot, including Trump's pick, former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus. One of the booted candidates, video producer Robby Starbuck, was attempting a write-in campaign.

Lee, meanwhile, is the first governor to avoid a primary challenge since Democratic Gov. Ned McWherter in 1990, said Tennessee legislative historian Eddie Weeks.

Weeks said he could not find a Black nominee for governor, Democrat or Republican, in state history. Yet, he noted that in 1876, William Yardley, a Black Knoxville official later elected to the county court, ran as an independent when the Republican Party declined to nominate a candidate for governor. Democratic Gov. James Davis Porter won reelection that year.

Tennessee had a Black Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate as recently as 2020.

  photo  FILE - Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks Feb. 8, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn. Lee faces three Democratic challengers as the state's early voting period for the primary election begins Friday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
 
 
  photo  FILE - Bob Brown, left, a volunteer for Republican candidate Beth Harwell, positions a sign as he and Bernard Sparks, right, campaign for their candidates at an early voting site at the Brentwood Library on the first day of early voting, July 15, 2022, in Brentwood, Tenn. GOP lawmakers redistricted the left-leaning city of Nashville early this year, splitting its one seat into three to help Republicans gain a seat. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
 
 
  photo  FILE - Campaign signs are posted outside a polling location on the first day of early voting on July 15, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. GOP lawmakers redistricted the left-leaning city early this year, splitting its one seat into three to help Republicans gain a seat. (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise, File)
 
 
  photo  FILE - Dr. Jason Martin listens to a question during an interview July 11, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. Martin, a critical care physician from Nashville, is one of three Democrats running for Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee's job. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
 
 
  photo  Kurt Winstead, left, a candidate in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District Republican primary, waves to people arriving at a voting location Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, in Brentwood, Tenn. With Winstead are his mother, Wilma, and daughter, Bridget. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
 
 
  photo  FILE - Campaign signs are posted outside a polling location on the first day of early voting July 15, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. GOP lawmakers redistricted the left-leaning city early this year, splitting its one seat into three to help Republicans gain a seat. (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise, File)
 
 
  photo  Andy Ogles, a candidate in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District Republican primary, waves to drivers arriving at a voting location Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, in Brentwood, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
 
 
  photo  Andy Ogles, left, a candidate in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District Republican primary, campaigns at the entrance to a voting location Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, in Brentwood, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
 
 


  photo  Andy Ogles, winner of a nine-way race in the district’s Republican primary, arrives for a victory speech Thursday night in Franklin, Tenn.. (AP/Mark Humphrey)
 
 


  photo  In this file photo Memphis City Council member JB Smiley Jr. announces his bid for governor of Tennessee in Memphis, Tenn., Sept. 8, 2021. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)
 
 


  photo  Dr. Jason Martin answers a question during an interview July 11, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, Fle)
 
 


  photo  Carnita Atwater speaks during a forum in Memphis, Tenn. on June 16, 2022. (Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal via AP, File)
 
 


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