Tennessee Rep. Mark Green announced his sudden retirement Monday before the end of his term, leaving Republicans with a slender majority.
Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, revealed that he would be moving into the private sector once the House votes on any Senate changes to Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” The initial legislation squeaked by in the House last month, 215 to 214.
“Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up,” he said in a statement.
Green didn’t elaborate on the role, and his office didn’t immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Upon Green’s exit from the House, the GOP’s majority will shrink to seven—219 to 212. A special primary election will take place within two months from that date, with a general election to follow a few weeks later.
Green’s seat—Tennessee’s 7th congressional district—is reliably red, having been in Republican hands since 1983.
A former Army flight surgeon in Afghanistan and Iraq who interviewed Saddam Hussein during Operation Red Dawn, Green later founded a staffing company for hospitals’ emergency departments. He also launched two medical clinics in Tennessee and “numerous” medical mission trips, his website states.
Green was elected to the Tennessee state senate in 2012. He briefly ran for governor in 2018, but later launched a bid instead for his current seat when then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn announced her run for Senate.
In February 2024, Green announced he would retire from Congress, but changed his mind two weeks later after Donald Trump said he would endorse him if he ran for reelection.
That summer, Green drew attention over personal matters. While in the process of getting divorced, Green’s then-wife accused him of having an affair.
In a statement acknowledging a “difficult time for my family and me,” Green didn’t deny the claim, which the woman in question confirmed to Politico after Green’s wife initially identified the wrong woman.
“We are currently going through divorce proceedings,” Green said then. “As this is a deeply private matter, I ask for privacy. I will continue to serve this district with all I’ve got, as I have the last five and a half years.”
Green’s daughter, Catherine, subsequently told the Nashville Banner that he had not been living up to his public image.
“My dad sells himself in politics as being a Christian, conservative family man,” she said. “His actions in the last, whatever, year have not been that.”
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