Republican Rep. Andy Ogles Loses Tennessee Primary In Upset, Despite Trump Endorsement

By Ashley Brasfield

Incumbent Republican Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles lost his primary for the state’s 5th congressional district to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher.

With 85 percent of the vote reporting Thursday night, Hatcher led Ogles by 53 percent to 47 percent, marking it one of the most closely watched House primaries, according to an Associated Press projection.

Rep. Andy Ogles, the controversial hard-right Republican backed by Trump, loses primary bid to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher, CNN projects

While most of Trump’s picks tend to win in primaries, Ogles is one of several Trump-backed candidates to lose…

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 7, 2026

Hatcher, who secured endorsements from Republican heavyweights, including Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, former Gov. Bill Haslam and former Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue, is now the overwhelming favorite to win the deep-red district in November. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Ogles Introduce Legislation To Repeal DC Home Rule)

The incumbent entered the race with President Donald Trump’s endorsement. He was outraised and outspent in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Hatcher’s campaign received a late boost from the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, a clean energy-aligned super PAC that has poured millions into efforts to unseat Ogles, according to an Axios report.

The group ramped up its spending in the final stretch of the race with a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz, according to an Axios report.

The coalition also commissioned a poll showing Ogles with a narrow four-point lead over Hatcher, 37 percent to 33 percent, among 400 likely Republican primary voters surveyed between July 26 and 28.

The super PAC also announced it committed an additional $700,000 in paid media during the final week of the race, on top of the $1.3 million it had already spent as of Wednesday.

The coalition is backed by renewable energy executives seeking to punish Republicans who supported rolling back clean energy tax credits in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Our campaign is here to show that politicians who oppose clean energy do so at their own political peril. Andy Ogles is next,” Invest in Tomorrow Coalition Chair Tom Matzzie, who also serves as CEO of CleanChoice Energy, said in a statement to Axios.

The group previously spent heavily in an unsuccessful effort to help oust Rep. Chip Roy during the Republican primary for Texas attorney general, where Roy was defeated by Republican Mayes Middleton, according to an E&E News report.

Ogles blasted the late spending as outside interference during a Fox News interview.

Ogles faced criticism earlier in the year after saying Muslims “don’t belong” in American society. He later deleted a homophobic social media post he blamed on a staffer, and previously called for revoking Democratic New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s U.S. citizenship and deporting him. (RELATED: Tennessee House Descends Into Chaos As Dems’ Only Congressional District Eliminated In New Map)

Ogles was also investigated over campaign finance allegations, though he was never charged with a crime, according to NBC News.

Hatcher largely embraced Trump’s agenda while arguing the district needed a more effective representative in Washington.

Ogles becomes the third Republican House incumbent to lose a primary in the 2026 cycle and the ninth House member overall to be defeated in a primary, the highest total in a non-redistricting year since 1970, according to a Vital Statistics on Congress report.