Trump-Backed, Racist Republican Just Lost His Primary

Summary

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Bulwark Takes: Trump-Backed, Racist Republican Just Lost His Primary (August 7, 2026)

Main Theme & Overview

In this episode, Brendan Hartnett and Lauren Egan of The Bulwark dissect the surprising defeat of Rep. Andy Ogles, a Trump-endorsed and notoriously Islamophobic Republican, in his Tennessee primary. They dig into Ogles’ background, why his loss matters for the GOP and Democrats, the limits of Trump’s endorsement, and the shifting political landscape as a result of Tennessee’s recent redistricting. The discussion blends sharp criticism, dark humor, and straightforward analysis on a night that sent shockwaves through state and national politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who is Andy Ogles? [00:00–01:49]

• Lauren Egan: Ogles described as “probably the worst member of Congress,” accused of being a white nationalist, and noted for numerous Islamophobic and racist statements.
• Notable GoFundMe scandal: Ogles raised $25,000 in 2014 purportedly for a stillborn children’s memorial garden, but "the garden doesn't exist...and Andy Ogles has refused to say what happened to that money." (Lauren Egan, [00:52])

Memorable Quote

"I genuinely, genuinely think he is just objectively a piece of shit."
—Lauren Egan [00:24]

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2. Ogles’ Offensive Statements & Relationship with Constituents [01:49–04:44]

• Ogles tweeted: “homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month,” referencing Tennessee’s choice to celebrate families over Pride [01:49–02:24].
• Repeatedly condemned by his own party, sometimes blaming staffers for his social media outbursts.
• Openly antagonized his district’s sizable Muslim population (notably Nashville’s “Little Kurdistan”), creating an environment where Muslim constituents felt unsafe and afraid to speak out.
• Egan reports, “...please don't quote me on record because I'm really terrified that he's going to, like, come after me, which is just like, a crazy thing to say about the person who is supposed to be representing you in Congress.” ([03:25–04:44])

Memorable Quotes

"He just sits there and drafts up really offensive tweets and just tweets for a living, basically."
—Lauren Egan [02:39]

"...my member of Congress wants me to leave this country. I know it sucks and I'm scared for my safety here."
—Lauren Egan relaying a constituent’s fear [04:16]

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3. The Shock of Ogles’ Primary Defeat & Trump Endorsement [04:44–07:38]

• Ogles lost his primary by 7 points to Charlie Hatcher, despite a Trump endorsement, in a deep red district—defying expectations.
• Ogles didn’t campaign, spent no money, and relied heavily on the Trump brand.
• Hartnett and Egan discuss the emerging limitations of Trump’s endorsement power, referencing a similar case in Michigan.
• Trump’s attempt to spin the result on Truth Social is called out as misleading; the consensus leading into the election was that Ogles would win.

Memorable Quotes

“If you are an asshole, you raise no money and you are seen as corrupt…the answer last night clearly is no [Trump endorsement is not enough].”
—Lauren Egan [05:04]

“Trump is just wrong about how he had no chance of winning this.”
—Lauren Egan [06:57]

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4. Ogles’ Blind Allegiance to Trump [08:39–09:57]

• Ogles previously introduced a bill to allow Trump to run for a third term, explicitly excluding Obama and George W. Bush from such eligibility.
• A clip features Ogles defending his constitutional amendment proposal as “forcing a conversation.”

Notable Clip

“He has previously introduced a bill to allow Trump to run for a third term, but also to exclude Obama and George W. from having a third term, which pretty crazy.”
—Brendan Hartnett [08:39]

“He’s just so deeply unserious. Like, I have nothing else really to say about it. It’s just a joke.”
—Lauren Egan [09:57]

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5. The Role of Redistricting in Ogles’ Downfall [10:45–11:57]

• Tennessee GOP gerrymandering inadvertently undermined Ogles, splitting his home base (Maury County) and adding unfamiliar Western TN voters.
• Egan notes Ogles made no effort to introduce himself to new constituents, contributing to his loss.

Memorable Quotes

“Ogles, I feel like more than anyone else kind of got fucked by redistricting…”
—Lauren Egan [11:06]

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6. Implications for Democrats, and Challengers on the Horizon [11:57–15:08]

• Ogles’ primary loss complicates Democrats’ hopes of flipping the seat with Chaz Mulder, who now faces the more milquetoast “family guy” Republican Charlie Hatcher.
• Egan questions whether Mulder will adjust strategy, and contrasts his approach with that of Justin Pearson in another redrawn district.
• Discussion of “dummy manders”—the possibility that GOP overreach in redistricting could inadvertently create opportunities for Democrats in future races.

Notable Quotes

“If you are planning to run a sort of, like, 'I'm a good family guy and Andy Ogles is the worst person in the world,' but, like, you can't run that campaign anymore. That is a way harder argument to make against Charlie Hatcher who's just like...also a good family guy."
—Lauren Egan [12:20]

“We’ll get this really good test of what might work in a really red district like this. And it might be that neither works.”
—Lauren Egan [13:55]

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Most Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• [00:24] Lauren Egan: "I genuinely, genuinely think he is just objectively like, a piece of shit."
• [03:25] Lauren Egan: (paraphrasing a constituent) "...please don't quote me on record because I'm really terrified that he's going to, like, come after me, which is just like, a crazy thing to say about the person who is supposed to be representing you in Congress."
• [05:04] Lauren Egan: "If you are an asshole, you raise no money and you are seen as corrupt. And the answer last night clearly is no."
• [06:57] Lauren Egan: "Trump is just wrong about how he had no chance of winning this."
• [09:57] Lauren Egan: "He's just so deeply unserious. Like, I have nothing else really to say about it. It's just, it's just a joke."
• [11:06] Lauren Egan: "Ogles, I feel like more than anyone else kind of got fucked by redistricting..."

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Conclusion

Brendan Hartnett and Lauren Egan deliver a candid, irreverent, and insightful look at Andy Ogles’ fall from grace—underscoring the risks of political laziness, the limits of Trump’s influence, and the accidental casualties of GOP gerrymandering. The episode closes with an eye towards future races, a frank skepticism about Dem chances, and a promise to keep watching as Tennessee’s political experiment unfolds.

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Transcript

[Brendan Hartnett]

Trump's favorite Islamophobe is officially not returning to Congress next year. Hey, guys, it's Brendan Hartnett with the Bulwark. Here with Bulwark Takes, I'm joined by Lauren Egan, author of the Opposition Newsletter and our resident Tennessee correspondent. We're here to talk about what happened in a primary in Tennessee last night. But before we do, make sure you smash that, like, button and subscribe to the Bulwark for more content like this. Before we get to the results, Lauren set the stage for us. Who is Andy Ogles?

[Lauren Egan]

I think Andy Ogles is probably the worst member of Congress. And I recognize that's an incredibly low bar, but I genuinely, genuinely think he is just objectively like, a piece of shit. He's essentially a white nationalist. People might have heard of him because earlier this year, he was tweeting off a bunch of really Islamophobic and racist things. I wrote a piece about it at the time, earlier this spring. For me, I think the most disturbing story about him. Have you heard about this GoFundMe situation with him? Okay.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Yes.

[Lauren Egan]

So, yeah, I think this is worth, like, digging into for a second before we, like, get into the results. So basically, I think it was, like, 10 or 12 years ago, I think 2014, Angie Ogles lost a child, stillborn child, and he started this GoFundMe account, which he said it was going to be, to create this garden for other families that have lost kids who have had stillborn kids. Basically, this beautiful garden where you can go and remember your child, whatever. Like, great community, nice idea. That's fine. Creates this GoFundMe, raises $25,000. The garden doesn't exist. There's never been a garden created, and Andy Ogles has refused to say what happened to that money. So basically, from, like, in my opinion, he just kind of prayed off people's vulnerabilities, and we don't know what happened to this money. And then he just went on and got elected to Congress. And, yeah, essentially he's a horrible person. So not that. Not that many tears shed for him after last night.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah, I mean, he just seems like a scumbag all around and, like, a uniquely bad one. In fact, he's, like, even been condemned by some Republicans at times. In June this year, he fired off a tweet that said homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month, which I believe is a reference to Tennessee making June not Pride Month, but Nuclear Family Month. Sounds like things are going great down there.

[Lauren Egan]

Yeah, we have a great parade for it. No, it's like, it's the dumbest thing ever. Like, it's just no one. Whatever. It's stupid. But that's. That's entirely his whole personality.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Damn. I mean, he even got shit from Republicans, like, who were selling him that, like, saying, this is super fucked up. I think eventually he decided to blame an unnamed staffer, if I recall correctly saying that they sent it and not him. But, I mean, one.

[Lauren Egan]

It's always good when you're blaming staffers. Like, always a good day when you have to blame your staffer. Yeah, I like, he doesn't do anything in Congress either. And, you know, we can. We'll get into the. How his district has shifted, but I live just outside of his old district. I've never seen him around the community. He's not present at all. I genuinely think he just sits there and essentially, like, drafts up really offensive tweets and just tweets for a living, basically.

[Brendan Hartnett]

One other one. And you've done some reporting on this is back in March, he said, Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. Which. Which is just, like, so insane to me because that's like, counter to everything that America's supposed to be about. But you went. He's got actually Muslim, like, a real Muslim constituency in. I don't know if it's also his new district, but definitely in his old district. Right.

[Lauren Egan]

And you went there in the old district. A Little Kurdistan, which is this part of Nashville. Nashville has a huge Kurdish population. I think it's the biggest actually in North America. And so there's this neighborhood in Nashville, it's called Little Kurdistan. Great Kurdish restaurants, Kurdish markets, the whole thing. And that was. Fell into his old district. So he's. When he's tweeting these things off earlier this year, he's doing so as he has this huge Muslim constituency and just, like, does not give a shit. And so I went there when he. This was all going down earlier this year and talked to a lot of his Muslim constituents who were all just like, yeah, we know that this man is insane, but please don't quote me on the record because I'm really terrified that he's going to, like, come after me, which is just like, a crazy thing to say about the person who is supposed to be representing you in Congress. Like, it was just, you know, for me personally, like, I live in. I live in Nashville. This is. This is my home. It was just, frankly, like, really, really deeply upsetting. And I just felt so horrible for these people who were like, yeah, I know that my met. My member of Congress wants me to leave this country. I know it sucks and I'm scared for my safety here.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Jesus. Just horrible. That brings us to Thursday, when Tennessee had their primary and Andy Ogles lost by a spectacular seven points to some, some guy. I don't even remember his name. I'll let you say more about that. But he was Trump endorsed and yet he fell in a really conservative district. And it seems pretty crazy to me.

[Lauren Egan]

Yeah, it was definitely a surprise. I'll make a few points about this one. Andy Ogles is really fucking lazy. Like he did not campaign. He basically spent no money. I don't know if he ever held campaign events. I never saw anything like he didn't really try in this race. I think he thought Trump endorsed him and that that was going to be enough. And I will say, like, Trump's endorsement felt a little half hearted. It's not like Trump came to the state and campaign for him, but like, why would you. It's a primary, you know, like he should have cruised through this primary. And that's kind of what everyone was thinking going into it. I think that this was kind of like a natural experiment of whether the Trump endorsement is the only thing you need in Republican politics. If you are an asshole, you raise no money and you are seen as corrupt. And the answer last night clearly is no. And that I think is probably a pretty good sign for the country. Again, not like Trump came and campaigned for him. So I think there's some limitations to how we can kind of frame that up. But that's how I'm thinking about what went down last night.

[Brendan Hartnett]

And the other example that I think would prove that a Trump endorsement is everything is that that if you have a Muslim sounding name as a candidate in Michigan's, I believe 8th District did. And despite having Trump's endorsement lost to a guy who like, already had dropped out of the race but had a super white WASP sounding name and I like. So yeah, no, I completely agree. Well, Trump took to true social today and he wrote last night was a good. Another good night for endorsements. 8 and 1 and 1 was a person who I remained loyal to even though he had virtually no chance of winning and was running against a great Trump candidate and former Agricultural Commissioner of Tennessee named Charlie Hatchner. Trump wishes him good luck. But like it's, it is really remarkable now that we're seeing a few different times Trump's endorsement is failing to really, you know, get candidates across the finish line.

[Lauren Egan]

Yeah. And like him claiming that he had no chance of winning is just obviously not true. The conventional wisdom even going into the Thursday primary was that Andy Ogles was going to win this race. Republicans thought that and Democrats thought that. Everyone had kind of, you know, Tennessee's primary is obviously one of these later primaries in August. So you have to start gaming out general election beforehand. And Democrats and Republicans were approaching the November race as if it were going to be Andy Ogles on the ballot. So this was a pretty big surprise to people that live here, to folks on the national stage as well, like Trump is just wrong about how he had no chance of winning this.

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[Brendan Hartnett]

Interesting. Interesting. I didn't fully realize that, but yeah, it's a good point. I mean it wasn't, I, it was seven points, which is, you know, a real win. Yeah, it's, you know, in a primary you can make that up, I think. So it's pretty shocking. And I mean I think what's craziest too is that like Andy Ogles is a total cuck to Trump. Like he, I mean obviously he's an insane person, but. And I believe we have the clip available. He has previously introduced a bill to allow Trump to run for a third term, but also to exclude Obama and George W. From having a third term, which pretty crazy. Let's take a look.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

So, so you're, you're willing to break the Constitution and have President Trump have a third term?

[Andy Ogles]

Well, actually I Have a bill that amends the Constitution, and there's a process by which you can do that. Now, let's be honest, that the tough and long road has to go through the House, has to go through the Senate, it has to be ratified by the states. But I think what it does is it forces a conversation when you juxtapose the Trump administration, his vision for America versus the failed policies of Joe Biden and what he did to the economy and international trade.

[Interviewer or Moderator]

Yeah, I mean, the bill was made a big splash when you first launched it. What kind of reception have you gotten from colleagues on that bill?

[Andy Ogles]

You know, again, it's one of those. It forces a conversation. We have a lot of support.

[Lauren Egan]

He's just like, so embarrassing. I don't even know what to say. It's just like, what a waste of a member of Congress, frankly. Like, it's, you know, with Charlie Hatcher, he's not. He's very much like, more in the traditional vein of Republicans, Republicanism in the state of Tennessee. He's obviously going to hug Trump in this election. He did in a little bit in his primary. I mean, in his announcement video, he really highlighted the fact that he's this dairy farmer with these beautiful scenes of rural Tennessee. He operates a well known dairy farm in the state. But he also talked about how he liked President Trump and how he'd be a good ally for him in Congress, the whole thing. But yeah, that video of Ogles is just like, he's just so deeply unserious. Like, I have nothing else really to say about it. It's just, it's just a joke, you

[Brendan Hartnett]

know, poetic thing is that it seems that Andy Ogles kind of lost a seat by calling for the Tennessee redistricting that we saw where they, you know, made it basically what should be just an all Republican state for their delegation to Congress. And yet he lost. Because my understanding is that the redistricting had a big role in him losing. Right.

[Lauren Egan]

Yeah. I mean, Ogles, I feel like more than anyone else kind of got fucked by redistricting because when they redraw the lines, his home base of Murray county was basically split in half, and he gained a lot of the western part of the state. Like, think about, like, Memphis area, part of the state that really doesn't know him at all. And, and because he's so freaking lazy and didn't spend any money. Like, it's not like he tried to go out there and like, introduce himself to all of these new voters that really don't. Aren't that familiar with him. So he decided to not campaign. Then he pushes referred redistricting, loses his like home base of support or a huge part of it and then just like gains all these voters that don't owe him. So yeah, he kind of like made his own bet in a way but he is definitely a casualty of this redistricting.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Damn well, you know, couldn't think of it happening to a better guy. So he deserves one thing. Yeah. Now here's a question. Did him losing make this race harder for Democrats to flip? I know it's been on there, I think red to blue lists and they've nominated Chaz Mulder who I don't really know much about but I'm not feeling very confident in Dem's ability to pick up a seat here. They Tennessee as a whole.

[Lauren Egan]

No, that's. And that's totally fair. You're right to be skeptical. This Chaz Chaz's race was one of the, I think it made the very first list of red to blue states that the D trip kind of put out. So from very early on Democrats on the national level were targeting this seat because they thought they were going to be running against Andy Ogles. Him losing makes this a lot, a lot harder for Democrats to flip. Chaz is a good candidate. He's a small town mayor. He was a good recruit. He. If you are planning to run a sort of like I'm a good family guy and Andy Ogles is the worst person in the world but like you can't run that campaign anymore. That is a way harder argument to make against Charlie Hatcher who's just like, is also a good family guy. Chaz has kind of been playing it safe, I would say. He's. When people are talking about, you know, oh, moderates can be like a little bit boring and milquetoast and squishy. That's kind of, kind of the campaign that Chads has been running so far. And I think he could get away with it when it was up against Andy Ogles. You cannot get away with that against a Charlie Hatcher. So I think the big question now is does that campaign try and shake things up? I don't know if Chaz Mulder is that kind of candidate. Everything that I've seen from him so far tells me he's not. So I, you know, I'm very, very skeptical that Democrats can pull off upset here and I know folks are disappointed that they are not going to be facing off against Andy Ogles.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Damn. Is there any chance that any of these redrawn districts could result in a dummy mander for Republicans. Is there any, you know, any path for Democrats to pick up a seat here?

[Lauren Egan]

The Justin Pearson race, which I believe that's Tennessee 9. Do I have that right? All these districts kind of shifted around. But Justin Pearson, who folks might remember as part of the Tennessee Three, he initially was running to primary Steve Cohen in that Memphis seat that obviously got cracked up and so now it's his R&10 district. R&9, R+10, something like that. Pearson is a really hard worker. He's been working his ass off. He's an aggressive candidate, but he clearly went into this race prepared to run this sort of like Justice Democrat style campaign in a safe district primary, an older member of Congress and, and he hasn't really shown that he's shifted his campaign strategy even though the makeup of the district has changed dramatically. So I'm very interested in that race. I'm not like ruling that out because I do think he's a much more compelling and dynamic candidate. And I think we're going to get a really interesting experiment with both Chaz Mulder and Justin Pearson running in very similar districts. They're both, 1 is R plus 9, 1 is R plus 10, and they're going to run very different kind of campaigns. So we'll get this really good test of what might work in a really rad district like this. And it might be that neither works. We will find out in November.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Well, we'll be sure to keep an eye on this race and obviously, folks, be sure to subscribe to the Bulwark and follow Lauren for the Opposition newsletter. It's the best source on Democratic politics as Dems are in the wilderness. Lauren, great chat with you. Until next time. See you guys later.

[Lauren Egan]

Thank you so much. Bye, guys.