A left-wing California billionaire is bankrolling a super PAC spending $2 million to unseat one of President Trump’s most outspoken allies in Congress — and the target says it proves how much money green-energy groups are making off taxpayer subsidies.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., faces a Republican primary challenge Thursday backed by the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition super PAC, which has dumped $1.3 million opposing Ogles and supporting his GOP challenger, former Tennessee agriculture commissioner Charlie Hatcher. The group just bought another $700,000 worth of ads.
The super PAC is bankrolled almost entirely by Chris Larsen, the California-based billionaire chairman of Ripple, a cryptocurrency financial technology company. Larsen has donated $6 million to the super PAC since February 2026 alone.
“When you have a group spending roughly $2 million in a Republican primary, that tells you how much money they’re making off of government subsidies, and they’re upset that the government welfare has been taken away from them.”
Larsen’s latest $5 million donation to Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC is his second-largest single political donation ever — his biggest was $5.4 million to Future Forward PAC in 2024 to support Kamala Harris’s failed presidential campaign.
The billionaire has also donated over $1 million to the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, over $1 million split between the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and over $300,000 supporting Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., among other six-figure donations to top Democratic campaigns and PACs.
Ogles, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, has been one of the most vocal Republicans calling for a rollback of Biden-era clean energy subsidies embedded in the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
But Ogles believes it’s his proximity to Trump that made him the target.
“It’s because I’m close to the president. It is because I am outspoken. And quite frankly, it is because I speak plainly on these issues,” Ogles told Fox News Digital.
Trump has endorsed Ogles and reaffirmed his support ahead of the primary.
“Andy will be really enshrined as one of the best congressmen that you’ll ever see. He’s just fantastic. Andy has always been there when we needed him and when I needed him. He’s been a great help. He’s been a source of inspiration to a lot of people in Congress.”
Tom Matzzie, the PAC’s executive chairman and CEO of solar energy company CleanChoice Energy, framed the spending as a warning to Republicans who oppose green-energy subsidies.
“Our campaign is here to show that politicians who oppose clean energy do so at their own political peril. Andy Ogles is next,” Matzzie said in a statement to Axios.
Ogles isn’t backing down. He said he doesn’t think his views are at odds with voters and characterized the opposition spending as an attempt to buy a seat energy groups can control.
“If trying to build an energy sector that is self-reliant, because it’s a national security issue, makes me an extremist, then so be it,” Ogles said.
Ogles said he supports an all-of-the-above energy approach but rejects the idea that government should pick winners and losers in the energy market — especially as the country barrels toward $40 trillion in debt.
“I’m not against solar. We have a farm. I’ve got a big shop. You know, I’ve contemplated putting solar on my shop to help to run my farm. But I don’t want a government subsidy to make it work. I don’t need a government subsidy to pay for it,” Ogles said.
The Tennessee Republican primary takes place Thursday, Aug. 6.
