Note: This story was updated May 15 to correct the list of GOP members of Congress who have endorsed Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
NASHVILLE — As former President Donald Trump accelerates his bid to win the 2024 Republican nomination, another Tennessee GOP congressional member has climbed aboard the Trump train.
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty are backing him. So are U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischmann of Ooltewah, Diane Harshbarger of Kingsport, John Rose of Cookeville and Mark Green of Portland.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Culleoka, was the latest Republican to endorse Trump.
Trump later returned the favor, heaping praise on the freshman lawmaker.
“Congressman Andy Ogles is a fantastic Representative for the incredible people of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District,” Trump said in a statement that was linked to Ogles’ tweet. “I was pleased to recently receive his Endorsement for President.”
Also endorsing Trump is U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, Georgia, an ardent Trump fan. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, has also endorsed the former president.
But a number of Republicans haven’t.
Among them is Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee. Earlier this year, Lee was in Palm Beach at a donor retreat for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is gearing up for a nomination challenge. At the same time, Trump was holding an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
A Lee aide told the Chattanooga Times Free Press at the time that Lee was there in his role as vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Business Insider reported May 5 that many GOP figures are holding back. Just two Republican governors had endorsed Trump — Jim Justice of West Virginia and Henry McMaster of South Carolina. Eleven of the 49 Republican U.S. senators had, while 53 Republican the 222 House Republicans had. Ogles’ endorsement raised the number to at least 54.
Special Session: Covenant School parents engage
With the General Assembly set to reconvene Aug. 21 in a special session called by Lee to address gun violence in the wake of March 27 shooting deaths of three three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville, Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, said it is “imperative” Metro Nashville Police release the “manifesto” of the shooter.
“We must be equipped with all the facts related to the horrific evil committed at Covenant,” Zachary tweeted last week. Zachary, while complimenting the police response, said lawmakers need access to the document written by Audrey Hale, the shooter, who was armed with two semi-automatic weapons.
“We as state lawmakers need their cooperation and transparency in providing us with the manifesto, which may contain insight in to what led to the murder,” Zachary wrote.
He said lawmakers will need to consider legislative steps toward transparency during the special session if the “manifesto” is not released.
Zachary and a number of fellow Republicans have been keen to gain access to the writings, which police haven’t released. The issue is now before a Nashville judge with a status conference scheduled this week.
Pushing back against Zachary is Sarah Shoop Numann, a mother whose children attend Covenant and were not harmed in the shooting.
Hale’s writing changes nothing, Shoop Nuemann wrote on Twitter, responding to Zachary. “She was evil & in mental health crisis. Anyone in that state is illogical & irrational so there isn’t reasonable explanation why this happened in any journal. The reason is she could legally buy semiautomatic weapons in crisis.”
Nick Hanson, another Covenant parent, said on social media the writing doesn’t matter to him.
“What matters to me is preventing it from happening again,” he said. “Do you want a manifesto from all other shootings as well? Trump administration has done that research for you.”
Lee has proposed legislation to create an emergency “order of protection” that establishes a legal avenue for officers to ask a court to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed as a threat to others or themselves. It would allow the person to appear in court with legal representation to object before any firearms are removed.
The governor, who along with his wife, Maria Lee, knew the head of Covenant who died in the attack, said the order of protection, which builds on existing law, is the “right thing” to do.
But many of his fellow Republicans are resistant, as are gun-rights groups that argue it is a red flag law and an infringement that would be abused. Lee has previously said it is not a red flag law.
Maria Lee: ‘Clean bill of health’
Tennessee’s first lady is “doing really well” following a bone-marrow transplant earlier this year for lymphoma, according to a knowledgeable source.
That would be her husband.
The governor was asked last week by reporters how the first lady was coming along as he signed into law a $400 million tax cut passed in this year’s General Assembly.
“She is so grateful for people’s interest and care and concern and prayers for her,” the governor said. “She reports that she’s doing great. I say she reports, she’s actually visiting her family right now. It’s the first time she’s really traveled to do that.
“She’s about 80 days post-transplant and things are going really great,” the governor added.
Maria Lee was diagnosed in 2022 with cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s germ-fighting network.
She was in Waverly, Tennessee, in April as part of the governor’s Tennessee Serves initiative. She announced the initiative not long after her husband first took office in 2019, saying it was an effort to “transform” the state with a special emphasis on meeting the needs of the state’s distressed counties.
“I’m feeling amazing,” Lee told Nashville television station WTVF. “Last Monday, I got a clean bill of health saying there was no evidence of cancer and that I’m officially in remission.”
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-285-9480.