The question to be resolved by some Tennessee voters this election year: How many Ogleses do we need representing us in Congress?

Thanks to legislative larceny, we already have one. Andy Ogles was elected in the 5th District after a partisan redrawing by the General Assembly’s Red supermajority made it numerically inhospitable for Democrats, ending their run of more than a century.

Now Brandon Ogles, a cousin of Andy’s, has announced his intention to seek the 7th District seat following the decision by Rep. Mark Green not to run for reelection, though he might now be reconsidering..

Green, a former state senator, withdrew from consideration as Army secretary in 2017 over disparaging comments about gays, transgender people, Muslims, Latinos and, for all I know, Munchkins and Ewoks. His notable achievement of late was to lead the successful – though bogus – impeachment of the secretary of homeland security. He’s now rumored to be considering a run for governor. Of course.

Andy Ogles most recently distinguished himself when confronted by an activist over the killings of Palestinian children in Gaza by Israeli forces and saying this: “I think we should kill them all, if that makes you feel better. Everybody in Hamas.”

So, his position on killing children: yea or nay? You decide.

Before that, he’d made his mark shortly after taking office last January by aligning with the wingnut fringe of the party who forced 16 votes before finally electing Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.

McCarthy has since been deposed, resulting in three weeks with no speaker at all. Ogles wasn’t party to that lunacy. Maybe he was too busy working on legislation he’s sponsoring, like the Cease Orwellian Surveillance and Targeting Act, the There Are Two Sexes Act and the Go Woke, Go Broke Act. I did not make any of those up.

Speaking of making things up: Ogles is not actually an economist, does not have a degree in international relations, was not a trained law enforcement officer working to fight international sex crimes, and did not do graduate work at Vanderbilt. (Hat tip to Phil Williams.)

Brandon Ogles – should we call him BOgles? – doesn’t present as easy a political target as his cousin Andy. During his two terms in the Tennessee House, he seems largely to have avoided the kinds of buffoonery that many of his colleagues routinely and enthusiastically engage in.

His signature achievement, he’d probably say, was a bill funding school resource officers. He also was a reliable opponent of measures to lessen the spread and impact of COVID, though not as wackily as the hydroxychloroquine-and-ivermectin queen, Sen. Janice Bowling.

He sought to amend the state constitution to prohibit recreational marijuana in perpetuity, but seemed to allow for the possibility of medical weed. And in the great Nathan Bedford Forrest bust dispute, he sided with moving it to a museum. So, some hints of sanity.

In his Instagram announcement of his intention, Ogles alludes to his COVID resolve:

“I have a conservative track record of not being a politician, but an effective legislator that fought against the greatest threat to your family’s economic prosperity, the government in Nashville and the government in Washington D.C.”

He’s right about the threat posed by the state government in Nashville and the federal government in Washington, but he’s wrong about the type of threat and which party is posing it.

As to that question facing voters on the number of Ogleses Tennessee needs in Congress, the ideal answer is none. But if we have to have one, I’d hold my nose and pick Brandon. Cousin Andy is a big part of the threat.

Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville.