The Centrist Independent Voter Political Action Committee endorses Charlie Hatcher in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
This is not an endorsement of every position Hatcher holds. He is a conservative Republican who strongly supports President Trump, and CIVPAC would undoubtedly disagree with him on important questions. But primary elections require voters to choose among the candidates who are actually running. In this race, Hatcher is clearly preferable to incumbent Representative Andy Ogles.
Hatcher is a fifth-generation Tennessee dairy farmer, livestock veterinarian and business owner who served as Tennessee’s commissioner of agriculture under Governor Bill Lee. His career has centered on managing organizations, solving practical problems and serving an industry that is especially important in the newly redrawn, heavily agricultural district.
Ogles, by contrast, has devoted much of his congressional career to inflammatory statements, publicity-seeking gestures and ideological performance. His tenure has also been clouded by questions involving his résumé, campaign finances and personal conduct. Tennessee’s 5th District deserves a representative who spends more time doing the work of Congress and less time attempting to attract national attention.
Hatcher’s endorsement by former Governor Bill Haslam is also meaningful. Haslam represents a more responsible tradition of Tennessee Republican leadership—conservative, certainly, but serious about governing, institutional competence and personal conduct. Hatcher has described Haslam’s advice as an instruction to run with integrity and to do things the right way.
We would prefer a Republican candidate willing to demonstrate greater independence from both President Trump and the national Republican Party. Nevertheless, Republican primary voters are being offered a meaningful choice between two very different kinds of conservative.
Charlie Hatcher brings substantial executive experience, knowledge of the district’s agricultural economy and a record of accomplishing things outside the world of partisan political theater. Andy Ogles has had four years to demonstrate that he can become a serious and effective member of Congress. He has not done so.
Hatcher would also be the more appealing Republican candidate in the general election. His professional experience, agricultural background and emphasis on competent government give him a better chance of reaching voters beyond the Republican Party’s most committed base. Republicans who want both a more responsible representative and a stronger general-election nominee should choose Charlie Hatcher.
CIVPAC endorses Charlie Hatcher in the August 6 Republican primary. CIVPAC will evaluate the general-election nominees after the primaries.
Kansas will hold its primary election on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
CIVPAC endorses Representative Sharice Davids in the Democratic primary for Kansas’s 3rd Congressional District.
This is a straightforward endorsement.
Davids is the only Democrat in Kansas’s congressional delegation. She has repeatedly won in difficult political territory by presenting herself as a practical, business-friendly, center-left Democrat focused on Kansas rather than national ideological performance. That is exactly the kind of Democrat a competitive district needs.
Her primary challenger, Sarah Preu, is running from the left. Preu’s campaign criticizes Davids for taking AIPAC money, voting for immigration enforcement measures, and emphasizing bipartisanship. Her campaign argues that bipartisanship has become a “comfortable way to manage decline” and that Davids’s approach amounts to capitulation.
CIVPAC disagrees.
Bipartisanship is not always a virtue. Sometimes it can become mush, evasion, or surrender. But in a competitive district in Kansas, the ability to work across party lines is not a defect. It is part of the job.
Davids has shown that a Democrat can win and hold Kansas’s 3rd District without sounding like a national progressive activist. That matters. Districts like KS-3 are exactly where Democrats need candidates who can support abortion rights, lower costs, public investment, and fair treatment while still speaking to moderates, independents, business owners, and voters who do not identify with the activist left.
CIVPAC does not endorse every vote Davids has cast or every position she has taken. But the choice in this primary is clear. Democratic primary voters can support an incumbent who has learned how to represent a politically mixed Kansas district, or they can nominate a challenger whose critique points toward a narrower and more ideological Democratic Party.
CIVPAC believes Democratic voters should choose the practical candidate who has already shown she can win and govern.
This endorsement is also about the broader direction of the Democratic Party. A true win-everywhere strategy requires candidates who fit their districts. It requires Democrats who can compete in suburban, mixed, and Republican-leaning territory without treating moderation as betrayal.
Davids fits that model. Her challenger does not.
CIVPAC endorses Sharice Davids in the Democratic primary for Kansas’s 3rd Congressional District.
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