That law requires candidates and members of Congress to disclose their personal finances, so voters can know if they have any conflicts of interest.

Not only did Andy Ogles ignore that law during the campaign, he continues to ignore it today, NewsChannel 5 found.

"It doesn't reflect well on the people he represents back in Tennessee," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks the influence of money in politics.

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But Wait... There's More!

From the Tennessee Lookout:

Ogles’ resume details aren’t quite as weird. But the first-termer from Maury County does claim to be a graduate of Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. It’s listed in an Ogles bio for the Columbia Daily Herald, with the Club for Growth Foundation and Marathon Strategies Meet the Freshmen, which details the resumes of first-term congressional lawmakers and says he has a graduate degree from Vanderbilt’s Owen School.

Unfortunately, Ogles doesn’t appear to have that Vandy degree.

Publicly available information about Ogles’ educational experience indicates he participated in an executive education program through Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Participants in the short-term, non-degree programs typically receive a certificate, according to a Vanderbilt spokesman.

In other words, he probably attended a few hours of lectures and got a piece of paper. Graduate work, in contrast, requires at least two years of class and extensive coursework.

His congressional web page mentions only a degree from MTSU, work as chief operating officer of Abolition International, the first state director of Americans for Prosperity and executive director of the Laffer Center where he allegedly became a nationally recognized expert on tax policy.

State Sen. Heidi Campbell, who lost to Ogles in the gerrymandered 5th Congressional District races, is a bit incensed that he got away with misleading the public about his education. She also questions whether he was a police officer who investigated international sex crimes.

“As somebody who has a Vanderbilt MBA and knows how hard you have to work … I think it’s entirely inappropriate to tell people that you have a degree when you don’t. A certificate is nothing like a degree, and this is the same thing that Santos is doing,” says Campbell, a Nashville Democrat.

Ogles’ communications person and chief of staff did not respond to email questions or a phone call about his Vanderbilt claims. That’s not surprising considering his campaign refused to answer questions throughout the 2022 race, choosing instead to speak to supportive right-wing groups and try to raise money, even though Campbell outraised him by a considerable margin.

The strategy seemed to be to say nothing, since he already had a 20-point margin after the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew the 5th Congressional District, formerly held by Democrat Jim Cooper, split Davidson County into three districts and set them all up for GOP advantage.

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