NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles hopes to fend off his Democratic rival in Tennessee in a complicated race FBI investigation To early Republican campaign finance.

Ogles, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, faces Democrat Maryam Abolfazli in the Republican-leaning 5th District, which includes part of left-leaning Nashville and runs through five conservative-voting counties.

In August, Ogles said on social media that the FBI had taken his cellphone due to inconsistencies in his campaign finance files in the 2022 race. He said the FBI retrieved the phone a day after his death. defeated a well-financed Republican primary opponentNashville Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston by 12 percentage points. Ogles was boosted by the support of former President Donald Trump.

Agents also had access to his personal email account, but have not yet examined it, court records show.

Ogles said he was cooperating and was confident investigators would find his mistakes were “based on honest mistakes.”

Ogles reported loaning $320,000 to his campaign committee in 2022. He later amended his filings in May to show that he had loaned only $20,000 to his campaign, and told news outlets that he had originally intended to “pledge” $320,000 but that pledge was mistakenly included in his campaign listing. campaign reports.

Ogles was also the subject of a January ethical complaint On personal and campaign finance issues by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, the group compared him to the expelled GOP U.S. Representative. george santos From New York.

Ogles trails Republicans to win seat by more than 13 percentage points in 2022 Redraws the state’s congressional districts In their favor after the last census. State lawmakers split the heavily Democratic district of Nashville into three seats, electing then-Democratic congressman Jim Cooper of Nashville. towards retirement. In the seat flip, Tennessee’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, consisting of eight Republicans and one Democrat, goes to Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis.

In one of the other seats that includes Nashville, Republican Rep. Mark Green faces a challenge from Democrat Megan Barry, the former Nashville mayor. Green, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, announced in February He said he wouldn’t run away again but would reconsider. Barry attempts political comeback after Mayoral resignation scandal In 2018, when he was a rising Democratic figure.

Ogles, meanwhile, caused a stir by siding with Republicans on Kevin McCarthy’s long-shot presidential bid, voting against him 11 times before switching to supporting him in January 2023. When McCarthy was dismissed in OctoberOgles voted against his removal.

Ogles later said that he was “wrong” after all. I graduated with a diploma in international relations After a local news outlet raised questions about whether he had embellished his resume.

His opponent, Abolfazli, is from Nashville and founded Rise and Shine TN, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control changes following the March 2023 shooting of a Christian elementary school in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead.

since 2022 voteOgles has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden’s administration and last year filed articles calling for the impeachment of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He filed new articles to unseat Harris after she became the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination after Biden withdrew from the 2024 race.

Ogles is the former mayor of Maury County, south of Nashville. He also served as state director of Americans for Prosperity, which spent money to re-elect him.