Trump-Backed Congressman Andy Ogles Loses Tennessee GOP Primary to Charlie Hatcher

Tennessee's new congressional maps got their first real test Thursday, Aug. 6, and they delivered at least one result nobody in Washington saw coming.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles lost his Republican primary to former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher, according to WPLN News and the Washington Post. Ogles had President Trump's endorsement. He lost anyway.

The Washington Post called it "a rare rejection of a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump." Trump-backed incumbents don't lose primaries very often, and when they do, it's news regardless of your politics.

Ogles was running in a significantly reshaped district after Tennessee lawmakers redrew the congressional map this year. The Tennessee General Assembly passed a new map on May 7, 2026, and Gov. Bill Lee signed it, according to Ballotpedia. That map changed who Ogles actually represented, and it clearly changed the political math against him.

The Redistricting Ripple Effect

The new maps didn't just reshape one district. They scrambled the whole field.

Ballotpedia reports that Tennessee, along with Alabama and Louisiana, reopened candidate filing after the new maps passed. The original filing deadline was March 10, 2026. States pushed it to May 15, 2026, once the new lines were final.

The result: 53 candidates filed for Tennessee's nine U.S. House seats, the most since 2014. That's up from 36 candidates before the maps changed. Nineteen Republicans and 33 Democrats are running total, an average of 5.9 candidates per district, according to Ballotpedia.

Two seats opened up entirely. Rep. John Rose, R-6th, is leaving Congress to run for governor. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-9th, announced his retirement after the filing window reopened. Neither seat had an incumbent on the primary ballot.

Memphis Gets Split, and a Real General Election Fight

The most politically consequential new map is in Memphis. The Washington Post reports the new lines split Memphis in a way that could flip a historically Democratic seat.

In the redrawn District 9, Trump-backed state Sen. Brent Taylor won the Republican primary. He'll face Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson in the general election, according to both the Post and WPLN.

Pearson is not a low-profile opponent. He was expelled from the Tennessee House in 2023 for joining a protest on the House floor calling for gun control legislation after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, and voters then reelected him to his seat. WPLN notes he's part of the so-called "Tennessee Three," the trio of lawmakers who became national figures after the expulsion fight.

Whether Taylor can actually flip a Memphis-anchored seat remains to be seen. The district's new boundaries make it more competitive on paper, but Pearson enters with statewide name recognition most first-time House candidates don't have.

Blackburn Wins Governor Primary, Hagerty Cruises

Away from the House chaos, the top-of-ticket races went about as expected.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican primary for governor and will face Memphis Democrat Jerri Green in the general, according to WPLN.

Sen. Bill Hagerty faced no Republican primary opponent at all. He'll face Democrat Marquita Bradshaw in the fall. WPLN reports Hagerty has more than $5 million on hand, while none of the four Democrats who ran raised more than $10,000 combined in the primary. Tennessee Democrats haven't won a U.S. Senate race in the state in decades, and nothing about this matchup suggests that changes in 2026.

Other Notable Results

State Rep. Johnny Garrett beat former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary for the open 6th District GOP nomination, a race WPLN flagged as one of the most competitive in the state given both men raised over a million dollars. Garrett, who describes himself as a "Trump conservative," will face Democrat Mike Croley, a military veteran, in November.

In the 4th District, incumbent Rep. Scott DesJarlais will face Democrat Victoria Broderick after Tennessee's redistricting shifted the district's boundaries.

Nashville businessman Darden Copeland won the Democratic primary for the new 7th District, a comeback of sorts after he lost a special primary for the seat to state Rep. Aftyn Behn roughly a year earlier.

Two state legislators, Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Justin Pearson, are now headed for one of the most closely watched general election contests in the state.

The question is whether Ogles' loss signals real erosion of Trump's primary influence in Tennessee, or whether it's simply a case of bad district lines meeting a well-funded, well-known challenger in Charlie Hatcher. Ogles has not conceded the broader political fight is over, and Tennessee's general election in November will show whether the new maps hold up as drawn or get challenged in court before then.