DC MAYOR’S AIDE REQUEST FOR INFLUX OF MIGRANTS SENT BY TEXAS IS DENIED MAYOR WINS TENN. GOP PRIMARY IN REDRAWN 5TH DISTRICT

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense denied D.C. Mayor Murial Bowser’s request for the National Guard to assist in the influx of migrants sent by charter buses from Texas, a day after Gov. Greg Abbott criticized the mayor at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Abbott opened CPAC in Dallas on Thursday and focused his remarks heavily on problems at the U.S.-Mexico border. He said the state has bused over 6,500 migrants from the border to Washington.

“They cannot handle that one single challenge. We deal with that number every single day,” Abbott said about Washington leaders. “I have one thing to say to you and to them: There are more buses on the way as we gather at this convention.”

The Republican governor followed that up with an announcement Friday that the first bus of migrants sent to New York City had arrived, and that migrants picked up in Texas will now be sent to both cities. New York has a right to housing law, meaning the city is required to provide emergency shelter for any unhoused person.

Andy Ogles, the mayor of Maury County, won the Republican primary Thursday in Tennessee’s 5th District, which was redrawn this year to make the GOP nominee heavily favored to flip the seat in November.

Ogles, a business owner, got 37 percent of the vote in the nine-candidate field. Running second with 26 percent was Beth Harwell, a former speaker of the state House of Representatives, followed by 22 percent for Kurt Winstead, a retired brigadier general in the Tennessee Army National Guard who put $1.1 million of his own money into the race. The Associated Press called the race at 11:34 p.m.

Ogles will face state Sen. Heidi Campbell, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper opted not to seek reelection after the district was redrawn. Cooper’s current Nashville-area 5th District voted in 2020 for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, 60 percent to 37 percent, according to Daily Kos Elections. Under the new lines, the district would have