Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has said he won’t seek reelection this year and will go “out with a win” after the chamber voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
During his Feb. 14 announcement on the Capitol’s steps, Mr. Green said he has achieved everything he set out to do and more, so he won’t run for a fourth term. He was first elected to represent Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District in 2018.
“I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do. I wanted to get a great border security bill done,” Mr. Green said.
“We did that. And I wanted to hold the administration accountable, and we just impeached, for the first time, a sitting Cabinet secretary,” he said.
The House voted 214-213 for impeachment after an effort led by Mr. Green over several months; a similar vote last week fell short of adoption. Mr. Mayorkas is only the second Cabinet official to be impeached; Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876.
In his announcement, Mr. Green didn’t say what he plans to do next but alluded to taking on a new role soon. He also took the opportunity to call out what he saw as failures by the federal government.
“As I have done my entire life, I will continue serving this country, but in a new capacity,” he said.
“Our country, and our Congress, is broken beyond most means of repair; I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington; our fight is with Washington.”
Mr. Green previously served as an Army surgeon and was elected to the Tennessee State Senate in 2012. He began a campaign for the office of governor of Tennessee in 2017 but suspended it after President Donald Trump nominated him to become the Army secretary. He later had to withdraw his nomination after backlash over past comments about Muslims and LGBT people.
He said at the time he was withdrawing because his nomination had become a distraction for the president. He also said his comments had been mischaracterized, leading to “false and misleading attacks” against him.
So far, Republican Caleb Stack has pulled petitions to run in Mr. Green’s congressional district. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced last year she was planning to run as a Democrat for the seat.
