Andy Ogles

William Andrew Ogles IV (born June 18, 1971) is an American politician and businessman who has served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 5th congressional district since 2023.

Ogles was born on June 18, 1971.

He describes himself as "a Maury County native with deep family roots in Tennessee dating back to the founding of the state."

Ogles graduated from Franklin High School and later attended Western Kentucky University and Columbia State Community College from 1990 to 1993, studying allied language arts and English.

Ogles later studied at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where he failed every course taken in the fall of 1995 and the fall of 1998; he returned to the university in 2007 and graduated with a 2.4 grade point average, with a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies.

The Washington Post described Liberal Studies as "a general education degree typically for those who cannot settle on a major"; NewsChannel 5 gave a similar description.

Ogles said in late February 2023 that his failed university courses were due to "an interfamilial matter" that led him to abandon his studies "to financially support my family during a difficult time"; and that he eventually completed his studies with online courses.

After Ogles became a congressman in 2023, his congressional biography claimed that he received his degree from MTSU, "where he studied policy and economics."

Ogles' claim was questioned by NewsChannel 5 in February 2023, which published an investigatory report detailing that in a 2009 resume and also in a background check of unspecified date, Ogles claimed to have an MTSU degree in international relations, with minors in psychology and English.

NewsChannel 5 additionally reported that MTSU declined to confirm Ogles' degree, referencing a federal law allowing students (like Ogles) the ability to block the release of academic records.

Ogles later spoke to WWTN radio, calling for everyone to "lock down your transcripts ... so you're not a victim of identity theft."

In other comments to WTTN made on February 21, 2023, Ogles said that he does not remember "saying I had an economics degree … because I've been quite clear that I studied political science and international relations", while maintaining that he studied political science from "the economic perspective".

On February 26, Ogles said that he was "mistaken" in claiming to have an MTSU degree in international relations, and claimed that he requested his college transcript the week before, and only learned then that his degree was actually in Liberal Studies.

NewsChannel 5 called Ogles's statement "apparently preemptive" because Ogles "ignored our requests for comment" after the media outlet obtained his MTSU transcript from an old job application.

On February 27, NewsChannel 5 published Ogles's transcript, which showed that Ogles took only one economics course at a community college, scoring a C pass, while he passed nine (and failed several other) political science courses at MTSU.

By February 28, Ogles's congressional biography was edited to simply state: "Andy obtained his degree from MTSU."

Ogles has worked as a restaurant operator and a real estate investor.

His involvement in politics began when he became the first director of the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group.

He later became involved with the Laffer Center, an organization that advocates for fiscally conservative tax policy.

He has also been a Club for Growth Foundation fellow.

Ogles made two unsuccessful bids for elected office, a run for the state's 4th district in 2002 and for Tennessee Senate in 2006, losing in the Republican primary both times.

NewsChannel 5 reported that Ogles was a volunteer reserve deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office from 2009 to 2011, with his position revoked for failing to meet minimum standards, failing to progress in field training, and failing to attend required meetings.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office said that records do not show Ogles trained or worked against international sex trafficking as a reserve deputy.

In 2011, Ogles worked as a chief operating officer for Abolition International, a non-profit organisation which described its work as giving grants to "holistic ministries".

Ogles indicated that since his stint at Abolition International overlapped his stint as a reserve deputy, "Maybe I created some of the confusion or maybe it was someone looking to write a story".

While Ogles claimed he was "heavily involved in the fight against human trafficking", NewsChannel 5 reported that Abolition International's tax records showed that Ogles worked in a part-time position that paid him $4,000 in total.

In September 2017, Ogles announced he would challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Corker, whom he believed was insufficiently conservative, in the following year's primary.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as the mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, from 2018 to 2022.

Ogles has worked as a conservative activist, serving as the executive director of the Laffer Center, a think tank supportive of fiscal conservatism and the free market, and the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

Ogles has taken strongly conservative positions and been described by media as on the far-right of the political spectrum.

He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.

Two months later, Corker announced that he would retire instead of seeking the 2018 nomination.

That led incumbent U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, the eventual winner, and former representative Stephen Fincher to announce they would seek the seat, and as their campaigns were likely to be well-funded, Ogles announced shortly afterward that he would withdraw.

Ogles has repeatedly made public claims of being an "economist."

After NewsChannel 5 questioned how much formal training in economics Ogles had, he said he was an economist because when "you look at the body of someone's work ... I've spent the last decade working on economic policy and tax policy. " During that time, Ogles had worked for roughly five years as an anti-tax lobbyist with Americans for Prosperity, and then for a year as the executive director of the Laffer Center, an organisation run by economist Arthur Laffer.

The executive director position seemed to involve mainly "administrative" work, reported NewsChannel 5, with Ogles not being named as an author of any economic reports uploaded on the Laffer Center's website.

Ogles' congressional website claims that "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".

NewsChannel 5 questioned this claim, being unable to find any articles in the publications independently citing him as an expert, only finding three columns written by Ogles in these publications, all of which were written when he was a lobbyist, before he worked for the Laffer Center.

At a political debate, Ogles called himself "a former member of law enforcement, worked in international sex crimes, specifically child trafficking", while at a separate forum, he said: "I went into law enforcement. I worked in human trafficking."

During the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, Ogles falsely claimed that it was stolen, and was one of the original 19 congressmen to vote against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House.