Ex-Nashville mayor to run for GOP-held US House seat, seeking a political return years after scandal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced Wednesday a Democratic run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by Republican Rep. Mark Green, seeking a political comeback more than five years after the fallout from an extramarital affair affair had shortened her term of office.
In an announcement video, Barry cited several reasons for seeking a return to elected office: a spate of mass school shootings, including at a Christian elementary school in Nashville earlier this year; the abortion ban in Tennessee; the closure of rural hospitals; and the opioid epidemic.
Barry is running in one of the three congressional districts that divided Nashville during last year's Republican-led redistricting in Nashville. Thanks to the efforts of Republican state lawmakers who favor their own party, the Republican Party last year won a new seat that was previously centered on Nashville and long held by Democrats. Barry is running as a Democrat, campaign spokesman Brian Córdova confirmed.
“I look at the total dysfunction in Congress and the inability to make any difference in the lives of our families,” Barry said. “It's scandalous. We don't have to tolerate it.”
Barry opened her House campaign by calling out her mistakes without rehashing the details. Barry was once a rising star and leader of a booming Democratic-leaning city from 2015 to 2018, but resigned in March 2018 after pleading guilty to theft charge for defrauding the city of thousands of dollars to have an affair with her then police bodyguard. She agreed to pay taxpayers $11,000 in restitution and her criminal record was expunged after completing her probation.
Barry reasoned that she was grieving the death of her only child, Max, after an overdose of a combination of medications, including opioids. She also said she took responsibility and worked through it with her husband.
“I don't think anyone should be defined by their worst moments,” Barry said. “It's what you do next that counts.”
Since her tenure, Barry has shared her son's story widely in an effort to combat the shame and stigma surrounding substance abuse.
Barry will try to make inroads in a district that stretches from Nashville to thirteen Republican counties. Last year, Green won his third term in Congress with a nearly 22 percentage point lead over a Democratic opponent. Voters in that district chose former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in 2020 by 15 percentage points.
Tennessee's congressional map is facing a federal lawsuit, but that case won't go to trial until April 2025.
As a metro council member, Barry officiated the city's first same-sex wedding before being elected in 2015. She pushed for massive growth and helped shape an ever-changing skyline of construction cranes and new high-rises. She also led a successful effort to bring professional soccer to Nashville. She was one of the strongest supporters of a light rail transit referendum, which voters rejected in an election following Barry's resignation.
Green, who served as an Army surgeon and is from Montgomery County, has attacked Democrats on issues ranging from COVID-19 pandemic restrictions to immigration. He rose through the ranks of the House of Representatives to become chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security. Green was once nominated by Trump to become secretary of the Army, but withdrew his nomination in 2017 amid criticism of his comments about Muslims and LGBTQ+ Americans.
After Barry's announcement, Green's team said he is “honored to serve and looks forward to continuing to fight for our values and principles,” citing securing the border, health care and “constitutional rights.”
“From three deployments in combat, to emergency medicine, to public service, Congressman Green has always put his fellow countryman before himself,” Green's chief of staff, Stephen Siao, said in a written statement.