Beaman Disassociates from Ogles’ Shady Campaign Report

TVA board candidate says he never agreed to serve as treasurer

Joined at the hip? Nashville car magnate and Republican megadonor Lee Beaman hit a snag in his confirmation process to the TVA board over his association with U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles. (Photos: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Outlook, Dec. 12, 2025 - Nashville car magnate and political donor Lee Beaman is distancing himself from a federal investigation into the campaign finance filings of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles.

But playing dumb about being named treasurer for Ogles’ first congressional campaign in 2022 couldn’t keep his nomination for a post on the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors from being postponed this week. It is unclear when, or if, it will be revived by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. 

When Senate Democrats grilled him in a hearing last week, Beaman said he served as Ogles’ campaign treasurer for only four months. But he filed written responses afterward repeatedly saying he never agreed to be Ogles’ treasurer and had no knowledge of a questionable $320,000 loan Ogles reported on a Federal Election Commission filing. Beaman said Ogles asked him in a text message to serve as campaign treasurer in early 2022 but that he didn’t answer.

Despite not agreeing to take the job, Beaman said in his official responses to senators he thought it was an “honorary” position and that he didn’t sign any FEC reports even though his name appeared on them. 

This wasn’t Beaman’s first deal with Ogles. As ProPublica reported in March, Beaman said he planned to raise $4 million in 2017 when Ogles announced a bid for U.S. Senate that didn’t come to fruition.

An Ogles spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

None of the senators asked Beaman whether he thought Ogles committed fraud by putting his name on FEC documents without permission.

The former owner of multiple Nashville auto dealerships and Beaman Bottling Company said he asked that he be removed as treasurer after seeing an ad listing his name.

Previously, the House Ethics Committee found Ogles likely violated federal campaign finance laws, mainly by reporting an inflated personal loan to make his bid for office look stronger in 2022. Ogles initially said he raised $450,000 for the race, yet his first FEC report showed he brought in only $250,000.

Ogles amended campaign finance reports in May 2024 and acknowledged making a $20,000 loan to his campaign and saying the additional $300,000 was in a joint account he shared with his wife.

Beaman said he had “nothing to do” with the FEC report filed in July 2022 showing the $320,000 loan and wasn’t familiar with allegations surrounding it until they were reported by local media much later.

According to committee questioning, the Ogles for Congress campaign issued a press release in July 2022 stating that Ogles “did direct donors to a few independent expenditure groups they were planning to assist in my getting elected.”

Beaman, though, said other than being a donor, during his time as campaign chairman he wasn’t overly involved in a dark money-group called Volunteers for Freedom Super PAC that backed Ogles’ candidacy three years ago. It’s illegal for campaigns and PACs whose money is not traceable to coordinate.

Beaman said he and his attorney started researching the dark-money question but didn’t know about a “donor-direction scheme” by Ogles because he didn’t know he was the campaign treasurer.

None of this scared Beaman off of political work: He and his wife, Julie, a former Williamson County Republican Party chair, recently served as co-chairs for U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps’ campaign. 

But despite asking to be removed as treasurer, Beaman said he didn’t become aware Ogles became treasurer for a short time until after the House Ethics Committee contacted him in September 2025. Political operative Thomas Datwyler, who also has numerous questions surrounding his work, then took the job.

“I am aware of certain prohibitions. My only involvement was as a donor to the Ogles campaign and to the Volunteers for Freedom Super PAC. I did not engage in any coordinated activity between these two entities,” said Beaman, who was removed from the Belmont University Board of Trustees in 2018 following salacious accusations against him in divorce proceedings. He returned to the board in 2021.

One Democratic senator broached the allegations Beaman’s ex-wife made but declined to specify them in the hearing because they’re just too embarrassing.

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Tennessee Lawmakers Weigh in on Redistricting Decision

by Kim Jarrett, The Center Square, Dec. 12, 2025 - The Tennessee Supreme Court's decision to dismiss a challenge to the state's redistricting maps is devastating, one lawmaker said.

The court dismissed claims over the state House and Senate maps drawn by the General Assembly after the 2020 Census. 

Gibson County resident Gary Wygant failed to prove the House redistricting map violated the Tennessee Constitution because it split counties that didn't need to be split to meet federal standards, the court said. In a ruling about Davidson County's four senatorial districts, the court said resident Francie Hunt did not have standing to challenge Davidson County's four senatorial districts.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Sen. London Lamar called the ruling a "breath-taking step backward."

"This ruling is devastating for anyone who believes constitutional rights actually belong to the people," London said in a statement. "The court has said, in effect, there are rights promised in the Tennessee Constitution, but enforcement is optional. This is the kind of radical decision that wipes away constitutional protections for the sake of insulating political power."

Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, told TCS that Tennessee Democrats had been the majority for 150 years, and 2010 was the first year Republicans had a chance to draw the maps.

"And I would argue that we ungerrymandered a large number of districts that had been drawn over that 150-year time period," Watson said. "We are very sensitive to the issues around the Voting Rights Act and I just reject the argument that we have unfairly gerrymandered the maps."

Justice Sarah Campbell wrote the majority opinion. 

"Although Wygant established that the Legislature could have drawn a more perfect map, he failed to prove that the state’s decision to split Gibson County was not rationally or legitimately related to achieving compliance with federal redistricting requirements," Campbell said. "The record here overwhelmingly establishes that the Legislature split Gibson County in an effort to comply with the Equal Protection Clause and the VRA (Voting Rights Act)."

Hunt failed to show that "misnumbering" of Davidson County's Senate district caused her "distinct and palpable" harm, according to the majority opinion. 

"Because she lacks standing to challenge the Senate map, her claim is not justiciable and must be dismissed," the majority said.

Justice Holly Kirby disagreed with the majority's decision on Hunt's claim.

"...in denying that Ms. Hunt has standing, Tennessee becomes the first state in the nation to hold that a voter does not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of her own voting district," Kirby wrote. "The state has cited no case from anywhere in the country – federal or state – holding what the majority now holds: that a voter who has been placed into an unconstitutionally-configured voting district suffered no harm from it and has no standing to challenge it."

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Davidson County Judges Request Security After Congressman Ogles’ Social Media Remarks

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Judges of the Davidson County General Sessions Court have requested heightened security from Gov. Bill Lee after “violent” remarks from Rep. Andy Ogles.

In a joint statement and letter to the governor, the judges requested that the state ensure safety and security at the Justice A.A. Birch Courthouse in Nashville.

In the letter to Lee, the judges accused Ogles of endangering elected officials in Davidson County, citing his “irresponsible use of the phrase ‘we are at war’ accompanied by the posting of the individual photographs of General Sessions Court Judges.”

Below is the language Ogles used in the social media post (from Dec. 5, 2025) being flagged by the judges:

BREAKING Meet Muhammad A. Muhammad. He was recently caught allegedly RAPING a woman on the steps of a church on Nolensville Road in Nashville. He is a Somali migrant let in by Obama.

Not only has this man been arrested over a dozen times, but he has had every case, from drugs to indecent exposure to criminal trespass, dismissed.

Every judge and prosecutor who let him off the hook was a DEMOCRAT. As long as local liberals are running things in Middle Tennessee, we are at war. The state should impeach all of the judges. Send the guard to Nashville.

Rod's Comment: When the incident occurred and I learned that the accused had a lengthy criminal record and had been arrested on previous occasions and General Sessions judges dismissed the charges, I too was disgusted. I know that America has a high incarceration rate, but I am of the view that we should take habitual criminals off the street. If men like this perpetrator have mental issues, he should be institutionalized. I think he should not be free to walk the streets because he is incompetent to stand trial.

General Sessions judges have limited authority, however, and I do not know if their rulings were inappropriate or not. Everyone who commits crimes of trespassing or public indecency or public intoxication is not going to become a murdering rapist. If this man has mental issues, deinstitutionalization has been public policy for decades. A single General Sessions judge cannot change such a policy. I think there should be a review process to see if things should have been handled differently. I just don't know if they should have. I don't have the facts. In any event, if one is outraged that this murder occurred and wants to blame it on the previous judges who let this man back out on the streets, General Sessions judges are elected, and one can vote against them. 

I condemn Andy Ogles for endangering the lives of our General Sessions judges and using this occasion to stir anti-immigrant passions. 

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The On-line's Conspiracy Right is Getting Crazier and Crazier

Candace Owens

by Rod Williams, Dec. 8, 2025 - I have a lot of time on my hands, so I consume a lot of news and analysis. I normally watch or read mainstream or respectable stuff from a variety of viewpoints. I daily watch Meet the Press and I watch a lot of The Bulwark podcasts and The Dispatch. I sample some Fox News and occasionally will zip through a little bit of Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly just to see what they are talking about.  I watch some Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum, Ezra Kline, Matt Walsh, Josh Shipiro, any podcast with David French, and various others. I also read The Atlantic and National Review, and Wall Street Journal online. 

While I consume a lot of news and commentary from a variety of viewpoints, I seldom get down in the gutter with the far-right weirdos. For the last two days I have. What spurred me to delve into the far-right pool of crazies was the controversy surrounding Charlie Kirk's assassination and Candace Owens' claim that maybe it was an inside job. She is claiming that because she is raising questions about the Kirk assassination, the French foreign legion, with the help of Israeli intelligence, has marked her for assassination, and she is living in fear for her life.

There have been a lot of others who have weighed in on the topic of who really killed Charlie Kirk, and there are a variety of theories about who was behind the assassination. I am not going to try to document who said what and the evidence for the claims, but it is bizarre. 

One theory is that Kirk had long been a supporter of Israel but had seen the light and was going to turn against Israel, and so the Jews had him killed. Another theory is that Donald Trump had him killed, but I am not exactly sure why. And there is a theory that Turning Point USA staffers had him killed, again, not exactly sure why, but part of it was that Charlie was preparing to purge Turning Point USA of some staffers who had been stealing from the organization. 

There is another theory that Charlie Krik is not really dead, and it was someone else who was buried. Bizarre!

While none of the podcasters say explicitly that Erica Kirk had Charlie killed, they hint at it. A few of the podcasts have done stories on Erica and painted her as a bad mother, a manipulative, and a power-hungry woman. She is said to have some ethical lapses and connections with shady characters. One podcaster says she has her sights set on marrying J. D. Vance and becoming First Lady.

Watching all of these podcasts, I am not sure how much of this is genuine and how much of it is performative.  Do they really believe this stuff, or are they chasing followers, clicks, views, and subscriptions? It seems that upping the ante and criticizing a fellow podcaster increases viewership for both parties to the fight. 

Another thing I learned from watching over 20 hours of the far-right nut jobs is that they are paranoid. They think their fellow podcasters are actually "fed" out to discredit the movement. Some of them think their fellow podcasters intend to have them killed, and they go on each other's podcasts with trepidation.  It is a bizarre world.

Today, I got the Morning Jolt National Review newsletter written by Jim Geraghty in my inbox, and it addressed the very thing I had been observing and thinking. I am reposting excerpts of it below. I would like to post the whole thing, and it is behind a paywall, but I try to respect copyrighted material and so am attempting to follow fair-use guidelines. Here is an excerpt: 

The latest question from the “I’m just asking questions” crowd is, “Is Charlie Kirk really dead?” I wish I were making that up, but I am not. Unfortunately, a new survey from the Manhattan Institute indicates that the GOP is made up of two factions; the smaller but still sizable faction of new Republicans is not only not all that conservative in their policy preferences — in fact, on issue after issue, they’re pretty progressive — but significant numbers believe that 9/11 was an inside job, that stories of the Holocaust are exaggerated, and that the moon landing was faked. 

Tim Pool

Geraghty then introduces us to Tim Pool, a rightwing podcaster with 2.57 million subscribers on YouTube.  During my two days of exploring far-right podcasters, I watched some Tim Pool. Geraghty reminds us that Pool was one of six commentators who worked for Tenet Media, which was a front for Russian-government-funded propaganda operations. Tim Pool is a big guy on the far right.

Garaghty posts excerpts from a Pool podcast featuring Milo Yiannopoulos and George Santos as guests. You may remember Milo Yiannopoulos. A few years ago, he was in the news for this or that outrageous thing he said.  He is a British far-right political commentator whose speeches and writings criticise Islam, feminism, and anything considered woke except acceptance of homosexuality. He had worked for Britbart and Buzzfeed and worked as an intern for Marjorie Taylor Greene. He is still around but fell out of favor with some on the right, due to his saying that sexual relationships between teenage boys and adults could happen “perfectly consensually” and can be positive experiences for adolescents. 

Milo Yiannopoulos

Former Representative George Santos is the Congressman who lied about his job, his education and a lot else and who pled guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, then was sentenced to more than seven years in prison but was then pardoned by President Trump. 

Here are the excerpts from the Tim Pool episode with George Santos and Milo Yiannopoulos:

Santos: What? How is she sinister? No, Milo. Milo, please.

(CROSSTALK)

Santos: Please, please, explain to me, how is Erika Kirk sinister?

Yiannopoulos: Have you seen the difference in the size of her hands with Charlie’s in their wedding pictures, and then compared it to him in his casket?

Santos: Are you saying she’s a man?

Yiannopoulos: No. No. I’m saying that that wasn’t Charlie in there.

Santos (stunned): What are you talk — come on!

The conversation continues:

George Santos

Yiannopoulos: But his body hasn’t been buried. Did they lose it? It happens.

Pool: Do you think there’s a possibility that Charlie is alive?

Yiannopoulos: I think it’s vanishingly slight. I think it’s the probably the most —

Santos (incredulous): Oh, you even give it a slight —

Yiannopoulos: Of course it’s possible. And the behavior of some of the Turning Point people makes me wonder.

Is that not bizarre? Yet these are the people that millions of Americans are turning to for their news and insight. These are prominent new right-of-center voices. 

Geraghty then turns his attention to a new survey from the Manhattan Institute which compares the beliefs between longtime Republican voters and what they call “New Entrant Republicans,” these being “recent first-time GOP presidential voters, including those who supported Democrats in 2016 or 2020 or were too young to vote in cycles before 2020.” This group made up 29 percent of the overall sample of Republicans. Among the findings are these:

The 2020 election: Just over half of the Current GOP (51 percent) believes that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was fraudulent, while 41 percent say that view is probably or definitely false. Among New Entrant Republicans, support for this belief rises to 60 percent.

Vaccines and autism: One in three in the Current GOP (33 percent) believe that childhood vaccines cause autism. This view is more common among college graduates (42 percent) than non-graduates (29 percent), and among New Entrant Republicans (47 percent).

9/11 conspiracies: Four in ten in the Current GOP (41 percent) believe that the 9/11 attacks were likely orchestrated or permitted by U.S. government actors. Belief is highest among men (48 percent), college graduates (51 percent), Republicans under 50 (53 percent, compared with 34 percent of those over 50), and New Entrant Republicans (53 percent). Among black GOP voters the figure is 58 percent, and among Hispanic GOP voters, 56 percent.

Holocaust denial or minimization: Nearly four in ten in the Current GOP (37 percent) believe the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe. Younger men are especially likely to hold this view (54 percent of men under 50 vs. 39 percent of women under 50). Among men over 50, 41 percent agree, compared with 18% of women over 50.

Moon landing: A similarly sized chunk of the Current GOP (36 percent) believes that the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked by NASA. Again, younger men are more likely to hold this view (51 percent of men under 50 vs. 38 percent of women under 50). There are stark racial divides: while only 31 percent of white GOP voters believe the conspiracy, this rises to 59 percent among Hispanic Republicans and 63 percent among black Republicans.

... These “New Entrant Republicans” aren’t just not all that conservative, and they are prone to believing in conspiracy theories. On policy preferences, they’re really not all that much of Republicans at all:

Younger, more racially diverse, and more likely to have voted for Democratic candidates in the recent past, this group diverges sharply from the party’s core. They are more likely, often substantially more likely, to hold progressive views across nearly every major policy domain. They are more supportive of left-leaning economic policies, more favorable toward China, more critical of Israel, and more liberal on issues ranging from migration to DEI initiatives. A significant share also report openly racist or antisemitic views and express potential support for political violence. Yet they overwhelmingly identify as Republicans today and voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

Wow! I knew there were a lot of nut-jobs in the MAGA movement, but 36 percent of Republicans believe the moon landing was faked and 41% believe 9-11 was an inside job. I am speechless. It is alarming. 

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