Republican Rep. Mark Green will serve a fourth term in Congress after beating opponent Megan Barry.
Green, who initially said he would not seek reelection to Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, won Tuesday with about 60 percent of the vote from constituents in Clarksville and North Nashville.
“I will fight tooth and nail to ensure every Tennessean has a chance at the American dream, without Washington getting in the way,” Green said in a statement Tuesday night after his win was announced.
Earlier this year, former President Donald Trump talked Green into seeking reelection to help maintain Republican control of the House. Since then, Green has spent nominal time campaigning in his district and has faced a very public adultery scandal, yielding criticism from constituents and his own family.
Still, Green beat Barry, the former mayor of Nashville who left office in 2018 following her own cheating scandal.
Barry campaigned aggressively on the ground, centering the opioid crisis and her son’s 2017 overdose death, but still fell short of Green by about 25 percent.
She said Tuesday night that she was “absolutely” in the race to win but had also thought about how to “have wins along the way.” One such win, she said, was “getting our opponent to actually pay attention.”
“Before this year, Green had never run an attack ad on his opponent. He did multiple polls and apparently after that spent $400,000 on ads that tied me to Vice President Kamala Harris and he spelled my name right. So we felt like we were winning,” Barry said. “They can say now that they were never worried but I think their actions speak a whole lot louder than their words, and we held Mark Green’s feet to the fire.”
In his next term, Green is certain to remain a Trump ally and will continue to lean on his background as an Army flight surgeon to address healthcare and military policies. This election cycle Green has also emphasized the importance of the economy and immigration.
If Trump wins his much closer race, Green could be considered for a cabinet position, given the pair’s relationship. In 2017, Trump tried to appoint Green to be Army Secretary, but Green withdrew his nomination after backlash to his comments about the trans community.
Instead of campaigning in his own district this week, Green was featured on a bus tour of Pennsylvania, campaigning for Trump in the swing state.