Mark Green seeks reelection on immigration, cybersecurity platform: 'One more term'
As early voting kicked off in Tennessee on Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Mark Green pulled his truck into the parking lot of the Clarksville Montgomery County Election Commission Office, eliciting cheers from volunteers decked out in Green campaign T-shirts and signs.
As hundreds of voters lined up to cast their ballots, Green, R-Clarksville, shook hands and took pictures with the dozen supporters who plan to be out for the next two weeks, rain or shine, to give a final push for the congressman's reelection campaign.
It's a campaign he wasn't interested in just a few months ago.
In February, Green said he was done with Congress. In a scathing statement, he characterized the country and Congress as nearly irreversibly broken, and suggested he needed to be "home" to take a fight to Washington, rather than fight "within Washington."
He was one of a string of high-ranking committee chairs bowing out this spring amid constant House GOP infighting. Plus, there were also those whispers he was ready to prep for a 2026 gubernatorial bid.
But the announcement he would not seek reelection triggered a flurry of phone calls, Green said, ratcheting up until former President Donald Trump personally asked him to run for reelection.
"Some of the stuff I've done is historic: impeaching the first sitting cabinet secretary in the history of the country, one of the most conservative bills for border security ever passed in the history of the country," Green said, also noting bipartisan passage of his bill to protect shooting sports. "I mean, I'm pretty good at this. The president called, the constituents called. Okay, I'll do one more term."
On the 2026 governor's race, Green said he's not "looking at that right now."
Instead, he's focused on winning reelection in Tennesse's 7th Congressional District, which he has represented since 2018. After a 2022 redistricting effort, he now represents downtown Nashville, North Nashville and northwest Davidson County, as well as parts of west Williamson County and more rural counties to the north and west. That's along with the traditional base for the 7th in Clarksville and Montgomery County.
This year, he's fighting off a challenge from former Nashville Mayor Megan Barr y. It's her first bid for public office since she resigned in 2018 before pleading guilty to a theft charge related to overtime pay for a security officer she was having an affair with.
Cybersecurity, immigration top priorities for Green
If reelected, Green's agenda for next session will prioritize cybersecurity and workforce issues, an issue he said he's been able to find bipartisan support for in the face of a rapidly developing technological landscape. Green points to his work on the PIVOTT Act, which would create a ROTC-like scholarship program for cybersecurity degrees at community and technical colleges.
"While I vehemently oppose the policies, overall policies of this administration and their candidate for election, there have been some opportunities and cyber is one of those areas where there's a lot of bipartisanship," Green said.
Still, Green is not positioning himself as a moderate in the race.
Green, a 59-year-old doctor and retired U.S. Army major, was first elected to office in the Tennessee General Assembly, where his rise as a tea party-aligned Republican drew Trump's eye in his administration.
Trump tapped Green in 2017 to serve as Secretary of the Army, sparking a backlash because of comments he made about LGBTQ+ groups and Muslim religious practices. Green has long held the comments were misconstrued, but he withdrew his candidacy amid the uproar.
In 2018, Green was elected in the 7th District. In Congress, Green again aligned with more rightwing factions of the party. He rose in influence, and in 2023 was tapped as chair of the powerful Homeland Security Committee, an appointment The Washington Post reported was made to appease the far-right Freedom Caucus.
In the committee, Green has repeatedly taken a hardline stance on immigration issues, which he tells The Tennessean is the No. 1 issue he hears about from constituents.
"This state has been impacted by the border and the crime and drugs,"Green said. "Everybody knows somebody's died of fentanyl. And so I think border security is the number one issue."
On Oct. 13, Green introduced Trump at an Arizona rally, where the congressman referred to "Vice President Kamala Harris and her socialist cronies" who want "authoritarianism," laying border woes at Harris' feet and accusing her of sowing chaos that has "metastasized" around the country.
But Green's rhetoric on immigration while in the district is at times more measured than at the Trump rally. He supports increasing "farm visas," a temporary work visa available to farmers who can't find domestic employees.
"We have to secure our country's border. When we do that, let's sit down and talk," Green said of working across the aisle on immigration solutions. "And I'm open to increasing the farm visas, but there has to be a legal way of doing it. And again, it needs to be merit and skill based."
Trump in recent days has called for mass deportations under an 18th-century sedition law, which Green said couldn't comment on until he studied it further. The congressman does support "some deportations," and said the country should prioritize immigrants with criminal histories.
Barry has repeatedly criticized Green on reproductive health care, a leading issue on her campaign. In 2021, Green co-sponsored a bill that defined personhood at the moment of conception, with no protection for in-vitro fertilization procedures. Critics argue "personhood" legislation can lead to sticky legal implications, similar to the Alabama court case ruling that declared frozen embryos are legally children. The ruling effectively halted IVF procedures in the state and sent lawmakers scrambling for a solution.
Green tells The Tennessean he supports IVF procedures for families who need them, but he would not back federal legal protections for the fertility measures.
"If the state right now wanted to do something to protect that, I'd be supportive of the people doing that," Green said. "But I am very reluctant, as a federal guy, to get involved in state issues."
Asked if his state's rights reasoning extended to a national abortion ban, Green said he thinks it should be left "with the states."
"I don't think it's appropriate for us to have a national abortion ban right now, because the Supreme Court has decided that this is a state's right issue," Green said.
Personal accusations muddy fall campaign
Before early voting opened this week, Green ran a relatively quiet campaign, silent on the airwaves through September and early October as Barry dropped two ads, one directly attacking his stock portfolio record. On Wednesday, though, Green's campaign released his first attack ad, tying Barry to Harris and policies the ad claims "wrecked our economy with massive inflation."
It's his seat to lose, experts say, with political margins in the district leaning 10 points for Trump.
"It appears thus far that the Republican legislature did a pretty effective job of gerrymandering and cracking up Davidson County, but we really won't know for sure until we get some more data," said Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
In recent weeks, Green has sought to sidestep searing personal accusations after he filed for divorce in September, an unusual move for a candidate in an active campaign. His wife soon alleged Green was having an affair, according to reporting from the Nashville Banner and Politico . The congressman's daughter, Cathryn Brekken, told the Banner Green is not the "conservative, Christian family man" he claims to be.
When reached by The Tennessean, Brekken declined to comment further to "not hurt or hinder my mom from being successful, despite the fact that I would love the opportunity to share exactly what my dad has put our family through."
"You and the rest of Tennessee will just have to use your imagination," Brekken said.
Green dismissed the idea when asked if voters should be concerned by his daughter's assertion that his political career may have affected his character or values.
"My daughter's to the right of me. If I've moderated a little bit on one issue or two, that's probably what she's talking about," Green said. "In terms of the divorce, it's very personal and very private, and I'm not going to comment on that."
By the time early voting began on Oct. 16, a family photo of the congressman, his wife and their three children had been removed from Green's reelection website.
Despite the family turmoil, political experts are skeptical the divorce and its related allegations will have any real impact on the race. For one, Green's opponent, Barry, is certainly not making hay of the messy family situation, given her own personal indiscretions.
In addition, experts say, voters are increasingly willing to separate a candidate's personal life from their campaign or public persona.
"You've got them on both sides, and I don't think they resonate, in an environment that is so polarized," Syler said. "Things are so partisan, there's just not a lot of impact. Everyone is less concerned about who they're voting for than who that person is voting for (House) speaker."
The congressman has peppered in visits over the summer to local Republican groups and small-town community breakfasts, and attended events in Nashville and Montgomery County in recent weeks.
He also had a busy summer earlier this year, missing 69 of 231 votes between April and June, an unusually high number of absences and the highest absence rate in the Tennessee delegation in the last four years. In a statement, his congressional office said the votes coincided with his trip to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and his mother-in-law's funeral service in late June.
His office also noted 61 of the missed votes were for procedural or amendment votes, not final bill passage.
This week, Green said his role as a committee chair in Congress "makes it hard for me to get back to the district sometimes, but I am doing everything I can to get every minute back here" to connect with constituents and potential voters.
"This is a pretty safe Republican seat," Green said. "We just know that we have an opponent who is a good campaigner, right? She was the former mayor of Nashville, and I have a big chunk of Nashville, so we're not taking it for granted."
