Johnston touts record, wins traditional GOP backers in race for Tennessee's 5th District

Courtney Johnston arrives at a Brentwood conference room at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday with a spring in her step despite the early hour. As coffee brews, she greets attendees of the Hillsboro-Brentwood Exchange Club, chatting about their concerns with attention and respect.

Compared with incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles ― who has run for various political offices or worked as a lobbyist for more than 20 years ― Johnston is a relative political newcomer, a realtor and businesswoman who set aside her career in 2019 to focus on representing her Metro Council district in Nashville.

Johnston said she's running because she feels constituents deserve better representation.

“Based off his service there [as mayor], I had very low expectations," Johnston tells the Brentwood group.

“You should!” one attendee called out.

"Maybe those low expectations, even, haven't been met," she said, prompting a hearty chuckle from the room.

Unlike her opponent, Johnston’s public speaking isn’t peppered with talk radio-style sound bites or name-dropping professed friendship with former President Donald Trump ; she speaks from the heart .

“I think whether you are on the local, state, or federal level, at a baseline level the people that are representing us should have character, integrity, and the ability to tell the truth,” Johnston said.

“I don’t think he’s present in the district. I know that he’s not," she said. "He’s accomplished nothing. He created chaos in Washington."

She's referencing Ogles' opposition with others in the House Freedom Caucus to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, in January 2023, even before the freshman congressman was sworn into office, a move that delayed U.S. House business and subjected Congress to global ridicule.

Johnston is a Republican from Nashville’s Crieve Hall neighborhood who’s been a minority voice on Nashville’s progressive council throughout the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn. She has presented herself as a conservative outsider ready to take on career politicians, saying Ogles “gets nothing done” in Washington.

"Andy Ogles has spent more time fighting other Republicans than he has fighting for his district or getting anything constructive done," Johnston said during a recent talk radio interview. "He's been ineffective in the district as well. He's been completely gone. People haven't seen him. He hasn't brought any resources to the district."

If elected to Congress, Johnston said her top priorities are the Southern border, and reducing federal government spending.

“We have to secure the border,” she said. “In my opinion, the only reason that we have not secured the border to this point is because of politics. It is a national public safety issue. It has economic implications — we don’t have a country without a border. So we have to secure the border.”

She wants Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment, too.

“We in Nashville pass balanced budgets every year — we’re forced to by the state legislature, thank goodness, that’s our backstop,” she said. “The federal government has no backstop.”

The Tennessean requested interviews with both candidates in the District 5 Congressional race. Ogles did not respond to multiple requests, and declined to speak to The Tennessean during a recent campaign stop.

How she got here

A native of Alexandria, Louisiana, Johnston attended Louisiana State University on a full vocal scholarship, studying finance. After graduation, she moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music.

She worked for a time in debt service and debt reorganization at Deutsche Bank ― something she said has given her a strong foundation understanding municipal financing. She later opened a restaurant and catering company, Acklen Park Cafe, selling the business in 2012, to get into real estate.

According to federal campaign finance disclosures, Johnston has historically supported Republican candidates, making four federal contributions, all of $50 or less , to federal candidates through the Republican fundraising platform WinRed.

According to her Davidson County voting record, Johnston has primarily participated in Republican primaries. She did cast a vote in the Davidson County Democratic primary in 2022.

“Sadly, in the 42 races on the 2022 local primary ballot, only two had Republicans running,” Johnston told The Tennessean, explaining her vote. “I’m a lifelong Republican and as I said at the time, I believe we have to vote for the most conservative candidate in order to stop the radical left.”

Johnston still meets the Tennessee Republican Party’s new standards for party bona fides .

Johnston never imagined herself getting into politics. But felt a responsibility to become more involved in neighborhood organization after a break-in at her Creive Hall home two weeks after her wedding. When she sought help from her council member at the time, she "had a bad experience."

"I just thought, that's not what representation is supposed to be," she said. "I had never even thought about politics before all of that. I didn't even know who my council member was, quite frankly. But I knew that we deserved better."

So she ran. Johnston defeated incumbent Council Member Jeremy Elrod by 10 points in 2019, in the equivalent of flipping a seat on the nonpartisan body. Elrod had played a key role in legislation that brought e-scooters to Nashville.

"They said, 'you're going to lose, Courtney. You're a great candidate, but you're going to lose because he's an incumbent. He's got more money than you do. He's got more name recognition than you do. He's got all these endorsements,'" Johnston said at an event in Marshall County this month. "I beat him by 10 points ― because you're not going to outwork me."

A conservative council voice

Since her election, Johnston has been a conservative voice in the majority progressive body. She says her strategy has been to focus her efforts on issues in which local government direct purview, and not exhaust energies on resolutions that she feels will not have an impact.

“Knowing that I am politically outnumbered — even though it’s a nonpartisan body — I’ve chosen my battles wisely,” Johnston told The Tennessean in an interview. “Local government does not have any purview in any type of social subject: gay rights, abortion, gun rights, immigration — none of those things.”

“I chose to fight about the things that really do matter," she said.

She counts passing legislation to authorize a License Plate Reader pilot program in Nashville for Metro police as her biggest success. Johnston championed the bill throughout a months-long fight, arguing that the devices ― already in use in several Nashville suburbs ― would act as a "force multiplier" for police in missing persons and property cases.

Her bill ultimately prevailed despite stringent opposition from council members who argued the program could be an avenue for permanent surveillance of Nashville drivers, or an enforcement mechanism for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as data from LPRs could be subpoenaed by federal law enforcement.

Johnston has earned the endorsement of all Fraternal Order of Police lodges in the district in response to her record supporting law enforcement.

The six-month LPR pilot program ended in June 2023, resulting in recovery of 87 stolen vehicles valued at more than $1 million, and recovery of 14 guns. During the program, Metro police made 112 arrests resulting in 130 felony charges, according to a police report. Mayor Freddie O'Connell's administration has not yet moved forward to implement the program.

LPRs assisted Metro police in apprehending seven suspects connected to the fatal shooting of 27-year old Christopher Harris, who was gunned down in broad daylight when more than 100 rounds were fired on July 4, 2023 at an apartment complex on Buena Vista Pike. Dr. Patricia Courts, Harris' great aunt, wrote to Metro Police to applaud the LPR program that helped catch those responsible.

"My family and the community are THANKFUL and grateful the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department was/is able to catch the killer's role in the homicide of Christopher Harris and bring them to face prosecution to the fullest extent of the law when using the LPR System," Courts wrote.

While Johnston touts the LPR work as her biggest success, Americans for Prosperity Action ―which is backing the Ogles campaign ― accuses Johnston of not being a real conservative.

"Everywhere you look, there are flashy videos, television ads, or mail pieces — each claiming to be a conservative who can get things done," reads a letter from AFP Action Senior Advisor Tori Venable to Republican primary voters in Ogles' district. "Anyone leaning Republican can look like an outsider next to the progressive socialists on the bloated Nashville council. We've seen this tactic time and again, attacking opponents with their own weak spots - the lack of conservative credentials or a record to run on."

Johnston also backed legislation to require the city to build financial reserves with revenue from a 34% property tax increase approved in 2020, in an effort to prevent the need for another such increase in the future.

"The vast majority of the new money from that property tax increase went into a savings account, because we had completely depleted it... because there was no policy around required reserves as a percentage of operating budget," Johnston said during a recent radio interview.

Johnston was initially a skeptic of the $2.1 billion Titans stadium deal, questioning estimates on renovation costs for the existing stadium and Metro’s contractual obligations under the existing contract with the Titans.

“My concern, and I think a lot of my colleagues’ concern is the fact that we have a cost of a renovation,” she said during a November 2022 meeting. “We have no idea within the cost what’s a need and what’s a want, what we’re obligated to and what we want to be nice and shiny and cool.”

She ultimately voted in favor of the deal, which allocated a historic $1.26 billion in public money to the new NFL Stadium.

During her time on the council, Johnston has also worked to close down a homeless encampment in her district and restore a public park. She helped match 41 homeless individuals with social services, and raising money to purchase home essentials like blankets and towels as they moved into temporary housing.

After flash flooding of Seven Mile Creek poured through the Paragon Mills neighborhood in her district in 2021, Johnston went out to help neighbors pick up the pieces of their homes and coordinate relief efforts.

Johnston and her husband are both gun owners.

After the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas — and months before a shooter opened fire at The Covenant School in Nashville — Johnston wrote an open letter to Gov. Bill Lee asking him to call a special session on “gun rights and responsibilities, mental health, and school security.”

“This is not about gun control. I’m not questioning the Second Amendment,” Johnston wrote. “But with that right comes responsibilities. It shouldn’t require more education and licensure to drive a vehicle that was designed for transportation than to get a gun that was designed for the sole purpose of killing.”

Johnston has said that while she doesn't support more gun regulations, she wants to see a bigger emphasis on firearms safety.

"It is my right to carry a gun, but with that right comes responsibility to handle that gun in a safe manner, to know how to use it, to know how to store it," Johnston said during a radio interview. "It would be nice to have people understand how to safely use a gun, how to safely store a gun ― and we don't have any of those requirements ― it takes more to get a driver's license."

Other key Metro Council votes Johnston took include:

• Johnston proposed a resolution to condemn the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. Council members objected to taking up the resolution during the July 16 meeting, and will take it up at the next meeting.
• Johnston was not present for a final vote on O’Connell’s transit plan, which includes a half-cent sales tax increase. She was one of eight council members who did not sign on as a cosponsor.
• She voted against a 34% property tax increase approved by the Metro Council at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
• Johnston served on the Council’s COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee, and supported a $10 million aid disbursement for rent and mortgage relief out of federal COVID relief funds in 2020.
• Earlier this year, Johnston opposed using federal pandemic relief funds to renovate Burrus Hall at Fisk University, saying that using them to “bail out a private university” is “just not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”
• She supported a resolution in 2022 to bring the RNC to Nashville.
• Johnston has supported funding efforts for school resource officers in Metro schools.
• She has opposed Metro using tax dollars to purchase properties, including the old Tennessee School for the Blind, citing lack of a concrete plan for property use, and questioning costs for redevelopment.

Running for the 5th District

Tennessee’s new 5th District was drawn into existence during reapportionment in 2022, when the Republican-controlled state legislature carved up Davidson county to make the 5th heavily favor Republicans.

The W-shaped district now spans from Lebanon in Wilson County, through southern Davidson County, and south across Williamson, Maury, Marshall, and Lewis counties. It’s a wide mix of urban, suburban, and rural agrarian communities and includes some of Nashville’s most diverse neighborhoods.

Ogles’ base is in rural Maury County, where he served a term as mayor before he won a GOP crowded primary in 2022. At the time, Ogles carried double-digit leads in all counties except Davidson, where former Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell led by nearly 20 points.

Ogles went on to defeat state Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, in the November 2022 general election.

So, can Johnston win? If it’s a money race, Johnston is in the lead .

Johnston outraised Ogles significantly during the last quarter, bringing in $721,000, according to finance disclosures, and entering the final days of the heated primary with more than $500,000 in the bank ― nearly double Ogles' cash on hand.

Spending by independent PACs on the race is neck-and-neck. The Tennessee-based Conservatives with Character has spent $220,000 supporting her bid. National PACs have spent a combined $225,000 backing Ogles.

While Ogles landed an early Trump endorsement (now emblazoned on his signs), Johnston has earned support from Republican establishment notables including former Gov. Bill Haslam, and former U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Bill Frist. She’s also received financial backing from Nashville VIPs including developer Tony Giarratana former Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, and former Nashville first lady Laura Cooper.

Given the hard Republican slant of the district, and Tennessee's open primary laws, it's possible Johnston will draw some crossover votes from more moderate Democrats who find Ogles repulsive, and are realistic about Democratic challenger Maryam Abolfazli's chances in the general election.

Johnston is best known by Republicans in Nashville, despite losing a straw poll at the Davidson County GOP picnic after an Ogles' Congressional staffer recruited Wilson County Republicans to attend the event and boost his numbers, the Tennessee Journal reported.

In more rural parts of the district, Johnston has worked to build name recognition. In some areas, it’s been an uphill climb.

During a recent Republican dinner in Lewisburg, Johnston introduced herself and made her pitch to voters, emphasizing her accomplishments in the Metro Council as Ogles scrolled on his phone. The room listened politely and applauded. But cheers were noticeably louder when Ogles took the stage to tout his friendship with former President Donald Trump.

It is an indication of how much support Trump has in rural communities across Tennessee. He won Marshall County in 2020, for instance, with 74.2% of the vote. In Lewis County, the margin was even greater, with Trump winning with 79.8%.

Still, by the end of the night ― despite Johnston losing the straw poll by a significant margin ― several voters quietly left the building carrying signs for Johnston.

“Representing people is an honor, and with that honor comes a lot of responsibility. I take it incredibly seriously," Johnston said. "I've delivered results for my district for five years, and I fully intend to carry on in Congress."

Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com or on X @Vivian_E_Jones.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Johnston touts record, wins traditional GOP backers in race for Tennessee's 5th District