A Tennessee lawmaker known for his frequent anti-Muslim remarks lost his primary race on Thursday, even though he had the endorsement of US President Donald Trump.
The president’s backing is seen as a golden ticket for Republican candidates.
Two-term congressman Andy Ogles lost the Republican primary race to dairy farmer and state agriculture official Charlie Hatcher, who also expressed his fondness for Trump.
Campaigning with the tagline “hire a farmer”, Hatcher’s website describes him as “pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Trump”.
He also outspent Ogles in the race with an influx of cash from outside groups backing Hatcher’s platform, which was focused on reviving renewable energy production.
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The upset can be attributed to the redrawing of the lines around the district that Ogles was running in – something that became possible because a recent US Supreme Court ruling undermined the Voting Rights Act.
But Ogles was also very fixated on certain groups.
In a now-deleted post on X, he said in June that “homosexuality has no place in America”.
But he went after Muslims more than anyone else.
A staunch supporter of Israel and a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, Ogles has floated several hardline proposals targeting Muslims. He recently said he intends to introduce legislation banning immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries.
Ogles also declared that “diversity is our weakness” and called for the deportation of naturalised Muslim Americans, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Zohran ‘little muhammad’ Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York,” Ogles wrote on X in June. “He needs to be DEPORTED. Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings.”
Rise in anti-Muslim sentiment
Earlier this year, Ogles sparked widespread condemnation after declaring on social media that Muslims have no place in American society.
He wrote on X in early March that “Pluralism is a lie.”
Social media monitors reported a sharp increase in anti-Muslim content on X since Israel and the US launched their joint war on Iran on 28 February.
The Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate said it tracked posts that explicitly dehumanised, excluded, and incited violence against Muslims from 1 January to 5 March, during which Trump was consistently threatening to start the war.
On the day the war began, the volume of such posts surged from just under 2,000 per day to more than 6,000, the report said.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (Cair) condemned Ogles, calling him “an anti-Muslim extremist”.
“Ogles is a member of the so-called ‘Sharia-Free America Caucus,’ a group of US representatives who support extremist legislation that would, if enacted, essentially ban the practice of Islam in the United States,” the statement said.
“Islam is an American faith that has been present since the colonial-era when large numbers of Muslims were imported as slave labor, without any individual liberty or freedom of religion,” said Cair.
The comments triggered swift condemnation from Democratic lawmakers, who described the rhetoric as openly Islamophobic.
Judy Chu called the remarks “abhorrent”, while Lisa Blunt Rochester urged Republican leaders to publicly denounce the Tennessee congressman.
Katherine Clark, the House minority whip, wrote on X: “This disgusting shit doesn’t belong in American society. And Republicans who support it don’t belong in Congress.”
But there were never any consequences, such as an effort to censure Ogles – a largely symbolic move – in the House of Representatives.
Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was censured last year for using the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Andy Ogles’ current term will end in January 2027.
