A political action committee funded by clean energy investors is spending nearly $700,000 to support Republican challenger Charlie Hatcher against Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), marking the group’s latest effort to influence a Republican primary involving a House conservative.
The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC is running advertisements backing Hatcher, a former Tennessee agriculture commissioner and fifth-generation Tennessee farmer who served under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, Punchbowl News reported July 17.
The advertisements describe Hatcher as an “America first conservative who gets things done” and emphasize that he is “pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Trump.” Former Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has endorsed Hatcher.
President Donald Trump has endorsed Ogles in the August 6 primary. The Freedom Caucus Fund has spent roughly $285,000 on advertisements supporting Ogles and touting Trump’s endorsement.
The race is taking place in a newly redrawn district that became more Republican through mid-decade redistricting. Punchbowl News reported that Democrats are still targeting the seat because they believe Ogles is “so unpopular he could lose anyway,” while they “really do not want Ogles to lose his primary.” The outlet added that DCCC-backed Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder “would much rather face Ogles than Hatcher.”
The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC previously spent more than $650,000 opposing Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) during the Republican primary for Texas attorney general. Roy finished second with 31.6 percent of the vote, advancing to a May 26 runoff.
The PAC, which had been established the month before the March primary, targeted conservative voters on platforms including Rumble and Truth Social with messaging saying Roy was “not MAGA enough for Texas.”
Following the primary, the organization said the outcome sent “an unmistakable message to every politician in America: declare war on the clean energy industry, and we will bring the fight directly to your door.”
The group also said it had helped force Roy into a runoff and was “just getting started.”
E&E News reported that Roy emerged after the 2024 elections as a leading congressional advocate for rolling back clean-energy tax incentives. In a May 2025 letter, Roy and other conservatives urged Congress to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy subsidies.
Nearly all of the credits are now scheduled to end for projects that begin construction after July or are not placed into service by the end of 2027. The report said Roy largely achieved his objectives and also secured a promise from Trump to implement the phaseout as strictly as possible.
As the PAC spent against him, Roy said “a group out of California” was bankrolling attack ads against his campaign because he had fought what he called the “Green New Scam.”
Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC’s largest disclosed contributor at the time of the Texas race was Chris Larsen, the billionaire cryptocurrency executive and Ripple Labs co-founder who gave the group $250,000.
Larsen, whose net worth was reported at nearly $13 billion, told Politico in May that he planned to boost California Gov. Gavin Newsom “any way we can” in a likely 2028 presidential campaign.
“I’m a big believer in Gavin,” Larsen said. He credited Newsom with getting “the balance right between tech and the broader community,” which he said would become increasingly complicated as artificial intelligence develops.
Other contributors to the PAC included Aligned Climate Capital CEO Peter Davidson, MUUS & Company Chair Michael Sonnenfeldt, Nextpower President Howard Wenger, and CleanChoice Energy CEO Tom Matzzie.
Jigar Shah, who directed the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office under President Joe Biden from 2021 until January 2025, also donated, as did Mark McCall, who led the office during the Obama administration.
Shah oversaw approximately $400 billion in loan authority and the deployment of $108 billion in debt financing for clean energy, advanced transportation, and tribal energy projects during his tenure. He previously founded the solar company SunEdison, co-founded the sustainable-infrastructure company Generate Capital, and served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a climate organization co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite.
The PAC had also identified several other Republicans it was considering targeting, including Rep. Barry Moore in Alabama’s Senate race, Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace in South Carolina’s gubernatorial race, and Rep. Byron Donalds in Florida’s gubernatorial race.
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