If renewable energy is a political issue that’s close to your heart, you might not care all that much that Trump-endorsed Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee just got brutally primaried by Tennessee’s ex-agriculture commissioner Charlie Hatcher, meaning Hatcher—another Republican—will almost certainly head to Washington after November’s election.
But it’s the why and how that might interest you. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, a political action committee (PAC), which is taking credit for Ogles’s defeat, according to a Friday story in Politico, apparently thirsts for the blood of anti-renewable energy Republicans, and is reportedly weaponizing right-wing rhetoric to extract it.
The Green New Deal needs to die. The House passed OBBB brings the critical wins, the Senate’s falls short. https://t.co/QUXKMb2RM4
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) July 1, 2025
Invest in Tomorrow’s targeting makes sense. While in office, Ogles has been a big opponent of renewables, and someone who professed to believe “radical Green New Deal judges” were undermining American prosperity.
But the PAC’s strategy here could be seen as borrowed from the world of crypto. The person Politico called the PAC’s “top backer” is crypto zillionaire Chris Larsen. Larsen’s company, Ripple Labs, also co-founded the pro crypto PAC Fairshake. Fairshake has reportedly run negative ads against anti-crypto politicians like Representatives Katie Porter and Jamaal Bowman.
And the pro-Hatcher advertising credited to Invest in Tomorrow? It’s as right-wing as can be:
“Pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Trump, Charlie Hatcher is the trusted conservative leader we need,” says one ad.
This playbook hasn’t just materialized suddenly. Invest in Tomorrow took a similar victory lap earlier this summer when Texas Representative Chip Roy failed to be elected Texas Attorney General. Another Republican, Mayes Middleton, will almost certainly win now. However, the wind and solar industry counts Roy’s defeat as a victory anyway, because he was instrumental in perpetuating the phrase “green new scam,” and adding an anti-renewables crackdown to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
But if you think anyone’s sheer benevolence led to Roy’s defeat, think again; this is business. A Democratic strategist named Chris Moyer told Politico at the time—in a prior story about Invest in Tomorrow—the wind and solar industry “can’t waste another moment in building political power and understanding how to play hardball, how to instill fear, so that anyone who thinks of crossing them when it comes to an important vote thinks twice and knows that there will be political repercussions if they do.”
According to Friday’s story in Politico, Invest in Tomorrow had also targeted South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman earlier this year when he ran for Governor. He also lost.
Michael Brune, one of the founders of Invest in Tomorrow told Politico in that story, “The clean energy industry’s political muscle is only getting stronger and more intimidating.” He added that he hoped renewable energy could stop being a partisan issue, but first, he said, “we’ve got to continue our retribution tour and take out a few more members who have voted the wrong way.”
It may be the case, however, that Invest in Tomorrow is training its fire on already vulnerable candidates. To hear Hatcher tell it, a recent round of redistricting had created a situation in which a large share of rural Tennesseans suddenly found themselves in Ogle’s district without having heard of him. As a farmer himself, Hatcher sensed an opportunity. “We led a very aggressive grassroots campaign and met the people where they were, and talked about issues, and that resonated, as well as the ‘hire the farmer’ motto that we carried,” he said on CBS’ the Takeout.
In other words, no one knows if it was the renewables industry that actually moved the needle in Tennessee, but Invest in Tomorrow’s “retribution tour” will no doubt continue either way.
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