NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In 2006, as then-political director of the Tennessee GOP Randy Stamps sat under a portrait of Ronald Reagan, as he shared the party platform with a NewsChannel 5 reporter. But now, he's putting distance between himself and a Republican nominee for Congress.
In a letter he posted to Twitter on Friday, the former Hendersonville Republican state lawmaker explained why he couldn't support the 5th Congressional Republican nominee, former Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles.
The new District 5 takes shape with six counties: south Davidson, east Williamson, west Wilson, pieces of Lewis, parts of Maury and a slice of Marshall County. Rep. Jim Cooper is retiring from the seat.
He wrote in part, "Do I stand by and let people vote for a seriously flawed individual simply because he is a Republican? I have always loved my country more than my party. Republican control of the United States Congress would be a good thing in my opinion... but not at the cost of further dividing our country by sending an angry, narrow-minded political pawn to Congress."
"We certainly disagree on some important issues but her temperament and intellect are what is needed in our Congress today," Stamps said, writing about Democratic State Senator Heidi Campbell.
Stamps added in a separate, written statement to NewsChannel 5, "I am very proud of the decision I made to endorse Senator Campbell. I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. If I have created more interest in her race, that is a good thing."
NewsChannel 5 Political Analyst Pat Nolan says, in this current political climate, this is pretty unique.
"As our politics has continued to become more and more polarized, anybody who comes across the aisle to another side for any reason, but particularly to endorse somebody else for an office, that’s highly unusual," said Nolan. "I think the Stamps endorsement probably is helpful to Heidi Campbell."
Helpful, but is it enough to put Campbell over the top, in a new 5th Congressional district, designed by Republican lawmakers for a Republican victory?
"She obviously has her work cut out for her to win in this new district, but if it says to some people that there are some Republicans who are not comfortable with a MAGA type candidate, maybe there will be some others that come over. But it’s going to have to be a whole lot of them to make a big difference," said Nolan.
Nolan believes the fact that the national Republican and Democratic parties haven't pumped money into the race, shows Campbell will have to win over a lot more Republican supporters like Randy Stamps. "If this race was really close, both parties or at least one party would be down here helping out their candidate making sure their candidate won that race," explained Nolan.
NewsChannel 5 reached out to both campaigns for this story.
Sen. Heidi Campbell's team sent us the following statement:
"For me, public service isn’t about scoring political points, it’s about solving problems. I will work with anyone from any party to find common ground and get results for our families. That’s what Tennesseans deserve. I’m honored to have the support of Democrats, Independents and even lifelong Republicans, like Randy.”
Our team reached out multiple times to Mayor Andy Ogles' campaign team, but hasn't heard back.
