Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles dominated in a straw poll held by the Wilson County Republican Party on Thursday night, the first test of grassroots strength in the contest for the Republican nomination in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
The straw poll was conducted at the conclusion of the candidate forum hosted by the Wilson County GOP. The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy served as the master of ceremonies. A crowd of 400 packed the room at the Wilson County Expo Center in Lebanon.
Each candidate was given five minutes to speak and then the poll was conducted.
Ogles came in first place with 112 votes, more than doubling his nearest competitor. In a surprising showing which was attributed to the strength of her speech, Natisha Brooks finished in second with 55 votes.
Former Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell finished in third place with 49 votes.
Morgan Ortagus and Robby Starbuck finished in fourth and fifth, with 42 and 38 votes respectively.
The full results are below.
1st Place – Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, 112 votes or 29.3%
2nd Place – Natisha Brooks, 55 votes or 14.3%
3rd Place – former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell, 49 votes or 12.8%
4th Place – Morgan Ortagus, 42 votes or 10.9%
5th Place – Robby Starbuck, 38 votes or 9.9%
6th Place – Geni Batchelor, 30 votes or 7.85%
7th Place – General Kurt Winstead, 24 votes or 6.2%
8th Place – Tres Wittum, 12 votes or 3.1%
9th Place – Baxter Lee, 9 votes or 2.3%
10th Place – Stewart Parks, 7 votes or 1.8%
11th Place – Timothy Lee, 4 votes or 1%
Three hundred and eighty two votes were cast in total.
This is the first straw poll during the Republican primary for the TN-5 GOP nomination.
Straw polls are non-binding and do not have any bearing on the ultimate election results, but are a good test of a candidate’s strength among bona fide grassroots Republicans.
– – –
Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Andy Ogles” by J. Daniel Jones.
