Would-be first-term U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles is already making headlines in D.C. for bucking party leadership and preventing Republicans from installing a House Speaker. In November, Ogles, formerly mayor of Maury County, was elected to Tennessee’s gerrymandered 5th District, which includes parts of Nashville. (Ogles and the other elected representatives cannot be sworn in until after a speaker is selected.)
Ogles courted money and help from McCarthy throughout his campaign, pledging to support McCarthy ahead of voting and posing with McCarthy holding a speaker’s gavel while adopting a platform aligned with the party’s right wing. Ogles was elected by 15 percentage points over Democrat Heidi Campbell.
Twenty GOP representatives opposed Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid through a fourth chamber vote on Wednesday, voting instead for second-term Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. The bloc represents a right flank critical of party leadership and has already extracted concessions from McCarthy. The last time the majority party couldn’t consolidate enough support to elect a speaker on its first vote was in 1923.
Ogles supported Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a founding member of the House’s far-right Freedom Caucus, through three votes on Tuesday. Ogles supported Byron Donalds in a fourth vote on Wednesday, just after noon Central. After a day of Republican disarray, former President Donald Trump told representatives to fall in line and vote in McCarthy. President Biden called the Republican struggles “embarrassing.”
Tennessee's seven other Republican Representatives supported McCarthy. Lone Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen supported Hakeem Jeffries, his party's choice for speaker. Through four ballots, Jeffries led with 212 votes to McCarthy's 201. Donalds received 20 votes. A candidate secures the position with 218 votes.
Update: Ogles stuck with Donalds in the chamber’s fifth and sixth floor votes on Wednesday afternoon, which ended in the same vote totals and no speaker.
