The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office is now posting weekly updates to the list of individuals collecting petitions for various offices in Tennessee.
The Secretary of State’s website lists 11 individuals collecting petitions in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.
There are nine Republicans currently collecting petitions: Geni Batchelor of Lebanon, Natisha Brooks of Nashville, former Williamson County GOP Chair Omar Hamada of Franklin, Timothy Bruce Lee of Nashville, Annabelle Lee of Madison, music video director Robby Starbuck of Franklin (listed as Robert Starbuck Newsom), and Alan Clement of Nashville. Brooks and Starbuck are publicly announced candidates. Hamada recently told The Tennessee Star that while he is collecting petitions he is still weighing officially getting into the TN-5 race.
There are two Democrats collecting petitions: Richard H. Harris and Joel Michael Hurbert, both of whom reside in Nashville.
The list of individuals collecting petitions is current as of Friday, February 11, 2022. The first day to begin collecting petitions was Monday, February 7, 2022. Candidates must collect 25 valid signatures from registered voters in the district they are seeking to represent in order to qualify for the ballot. Noon on April 7, 2022 is the deadline to turn in those qualifying petitions.
Candidates have until noon on Thursday, April 14, 2022 to withdraw their name from the August GOP primary ballot if they’ve already met the petitions requirements by April 7.
Candidates running for U.S. Representative must also file paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission. According to the FEC, “An individual running for a seat in the Senate or the House of Representatives or for president of the United States becomes a candidate when he or she raises or spends more than $5,000 in contributions or expenditures.”
The FEC reports candidate filing forms on a rolling basis. Odessa Kelly, a Democrat, has filed her paperwork with the FEC. Kelly has been running since last year and has raised over $500,000. Kelly had been challenging outgoing Representative Jim Cooper until his announced retirement.
The FEC reports that former Trump administration State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus, Robby Starbuck, Natisha Brooks, businessman Baxter Lee, and retired Brig. Gen. Kurt Winstead have filed their FEC forms.
Ortagus and Starbuck are newcomers to Tennessee and have been referred to as carpetbaggers. Ortagus has lived in Tennessee for less than a year and has been registered to vote in Nashville for less than three months. California native Robby Starbuck says that he did not become a full-time Tennessee resident until after the August 2020 Republican Senate primary.
Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles and former Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell are potential candidates as well.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck, photo “Omar Hamada” by Omar Hamada, photo “Geni Batchelor” by Geni Batchelor and photo “Natisha Brooks by Natisha Brooks.
