Andy Ogles is a Middle Tennessee native with deep roots dating back to the founding of our state. After graduating from Franklin High School, he married his high school sweetheart, Monica. They currently live on a small farm south of Columbia with their three children, Adley, Drew, and Isaac.
Andy obtained his degree from MTSU, where he studied policy and economics. He’s had a successful career as an entrepreneur owning and operating restaurants and a real estate investment business. Feeling the call to serve his community, Andy became the COO of Abolition International, overseeing operations and investments in 12 countries to fight human trafficking. He then became the first State Director of Americans for Prosperity Tennessee, where he led grassroots coalitions fighting for principles of limited government and lower taxes across the state. After leaving AFP, Andy served as Executive Director of the Laffer Center, which advises the White House and multiple Governors on tax policy. While working at the Laffer Center, Andy became a nationally recognized expert on tax policy and healthcare, having been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily. Since 2018, he has served as Mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, and was recognized as Tennessee’s most conservative mayor.
Andy has served the people of Tennessee for decades fighting for limited government, lower taxes, and greater freedom. In Washington, D.C., he will work to preserve a better future for our children and the families of our community. Andy is humbled and honored to have the opportunity to faithfully represent Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District in The United States House of Representatives.
ABOUT ANDY
Andy Ogles is a Williamson and Maury county native with deep family roots in Tennessee dating back to the founding of the state. Andy studied Political Science at MTSU and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. He’s had a successful career as an entrepreneur and has used his considerable experience in the non-profit sector. Andy and his wife, Monica, live on a farm in Culleoka with their three children, Adley, Drew, and Isaac.
THE MISSION
Andy Ogles has an extensive history of fighting for liberty and freedom within Tennessee. He wrote the amendment that resulted in the largest tax cut in Tennessee history. He led a statewide grassroots campaign that stopped Obamacare expansion. He spearheaded the fight against the 2017 gas and diesel tax increase here in Tennessee, bringing hundreds of grassroots activists to the state legislature to meet with their representatives. He led a grassroots effort to stop Common Core and defeated Nashville’s wasteful “Amp” bus transit proposal. In 2020, Mayor Ogles stood up to the Biden Administration’s draconian mandates, and government officials across the state followed his courageous leadership, strengthening his standing with conservative grassroots across the state. When it mattered most, when government overreach was at its greatest Mayor Andy Ogles stood in the gap and led the fight for personal freedom. Andy will carry those same principles of limited government, fiscal stewardship, and conservative values to Washington D.C. He is running to get the federal government out of Tennessee and faithfully represent the people of Tennessee’s fifth district.
THE MOTIVATION
Feeling the call to serve his community decades ago, Andy became the COO of Abolition International, overseeing operations and investments in 12 countries to fight human trafficking. He then became the first State Director of Americans for Prosperity Tennessee, where he led grassroots coalitions fighting for principles of limited government and lower taxes across the state. After leaving AFP, Andy served as Executive Director of the Laffer Center, which advises the White House and multiple Governors on tax policy. While working at the Laffer Center, Andy became a nationally recognized expert on tax policy and healthcare, having been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily. Since 2018, he has served as Mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, and was recognized as Tennessee’s most conservative mayor. Maury County is the fastest-growing county in the State of TN, and Mayor Ogles has helped negotiate over $5 billion in economic investment as Mayor of Mayor County. Andy has always been motivated by one thing, a desire to faithfully serve his community.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY
As the adage goes, we have a Republic in America…if we can keep it, but a terrible lack of accountability and transparency in our federal government threatens to destroy it all. President Trump started the process of draining the swamp, and it is incumbent on us to finish the job. We can never allow what happened to Trump to happen to anyone else ever again. Transparency in government is fundamental to ending corruption and ensuring our liberties are never violated. Therefore, I will commit to providing greater availability of government policies and actions, unwavering honesty in the legislative voting process, and sharing all information necessary for the people of Tennessee’s fifth district to hold their elected officials accountable.
IMMIGRATION
America is a proud nation of immigrants. Immigrants who are motivated to improve their lives and contribute to society will enrich America. However, illegal immigration strains our country’s financial wellbeing, threatens national security, and erodes the rule of law. First and foremost, we must secure our physical border. A borderless nation cannot establish itself as a nation. We need enforcement measures that ensure visitors leave our country when they’re supposed to, we need to provide law enforcement with the necessary tools to enforce current immigration laws, and we need common-sense reform that will attract and keep highly-skilled entrepreneurs so that immigrants can continue to thrive in the land of opportunity.
EDUCATION
The purpose of education is to help students discover, develop, and apply their unique abilities, establishing a foundation for a life of fulfillment and success. Parents should decide how to educate a child best-not the Federal Government. I support efforts to transform education from the current top-down (one-size-fits-all) standardized model to a bottom-up system that enables every family and student to customize education that best matches their values and priorities. Through an individualized approach, students can discover the subjects that meet their passions and interests, develop mastery of skills in those areas, and learn how to use those skills to create value and live the life they want to live. The federal Department of Education should not be involved in our children’s education. It should give up its power and transfer it back to the states whenever and wherever possible. Students and families should be trusted to make decisions about their education, and Tennesseans know what is best for their children. They should have agency over what, where, and how they learn.
2ND AMENDMENT
As an elected official, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. The Second Amendment is abundantly clear that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” I will fight tirelessly to ensure that your constitutional rights are protected and never infringed upon. Disarming the people is the most effective way to enslave them, and we must remain vigilant when anyone seeks to erode our civil liberties. The rights of the people to keep and bear arms, protect themselves and their families, and prevent tyrannical rule is a fundamental liberty of our constitutional republic.
SANCTITY OF LIFE
I believe that life begins at conception, and we are duty-bound to protect it at every stage until natural death. The unborn are the least capable of defending themselves, and in the most desperate need of protection. America is a nation that recognizes and honors the intrinsic value of all human life; therefore, I will commit to protecting the rights of the unborn from the point of conception, block taxpayer funding of abortions everywhere, and defund Planned Parenthood.
SEPARATION OF POWERS AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
It’s an undeniable fact that our federal government has grown well beyond its specifically enumerated powers. The ever-increasing scope and size of government violates the original intent of our founders while threatening to suffocate our liberty and destroy our principles of federalism. The Judiciary has taken over the Legislature’s job by essentially writing laws from the bench. Our Executive branch now rules through executive orders and unconstitutional mandates. Meanwhile, the Legislature has ceased to represent the will of the people and failed to fulfill its duties laid out in Article 1. We must transfer power back to the people. We must begin to follow the simple mandates of the U.S. constitution again. I will commit to ending the federal government’s encroachment upon Tennessee’s sovereignty, restoring our system of checks and balances, and dutifully representing the people of Tennessee’s fifth district above all else.