As the fourth-term Congressman prepares to leave office and hopefuls begin campaigning, state elections officials look to an untested statute to predict when a special election will be held.
Image Credit: @RepMarkGreen / X
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by Sarah Grace Taylor, [The Nashville Banner, Creative Commons] –
Congressman Mark Green will vacate his District 7 seat later this month, leaving the majority of his term up for grabs, sparking a frenzy among local candidates and tapping into national interest in the future of the narrowly controlled House.
As a spate of candidates throw their names in the ring to take Green’s seat, the basic details of the special election are unclear, according to Tennessee’s top elections official, Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins, who described the situation to the Banner as “extraordinarily rare.”
An early departure
Green used the Fourth of July to resign publicly, posting a five-minute video to social media in which he touted working to help pass President Trump’s divisive “Big, Beautiful Bill” and addressing immigration before departing, six months into his fourth term.
“My goal in this Congress was to fight for Tennesseans and to reverse the Biden-Harris Administration’s border disaster. And I am proud of the progress made,” Green said in the video. “The border security aspects of the reconciliation bill are the strongest in the nation’s history, and I am proud of the work of my committee getting that done.”
In the video, Green again hinted at his next job, but did not give specifics, saying he would “now go back into the private sector to start my own company, and while I cannot give the details, doing something specifically designed to help America compete against the Chinese Communist Party.”
Audibly emotional, Green also thanked his family, with whom his relationship was strained last year as his wife publicly accused him of an extramarital affair and filed for divorce, and their daughter accused Green of being corrupted by his Congressional career.
“Most of all, I have to thank my family,” a tearful Green said with a long pause, “who endured the stress and difficulty of this job.”
Green caused some confusion with the video, saying “farewell” and noting the intentionally chosen date of Independence Day, causing even election officials to believe Friday was his last day in Congress. However, in a letter to U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Green clarified that his last day would be July 20.
The exact date of his resignation matters because Green’s departure sets a series of already nebulous election deadlines into motion.
Murky election dates
No matter when Green’s last day actually lands, the state likely will have to test an uncharted 2010 statute, allowing later-than-usual special elections, according to Goins.
Under Tennessee’s generic special election statute, the governor has 10 days to submit a writ of election after a member of Congress resigns. From that point, the state would set a special primary election 55 to 60 days out and a general election 100 to 107 days out. Under that process, the vacancy would be filled by early November.
But, the Secretary of State’s Office is preparing for a later election, likely not resolved until December.
Goins says the state would not have time to comply with the federal requirement that military ballots be sent 45 days before the primary election under the generic statute. In some scenarios, the state may not even be able to meet that requirement for the general.
While the state could ask the federal government to waive the 45-day requirement, such exemptions are rare and typically tied to lawsuits or extenuating circumstances. Goins does not believe a slightly longer vacancy would meet that threshold.
Plus, with the district’s sizable military population, including those associated with Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Goins said it would not benefit voters to try to condense the timeframe.
“I’m fairly confident they wouldn’t grant it,” Goins said Monday. “And it’s ultimately better for the voters to have more time to vet the candidates.”
The more likely scenario, Goins said, is that the state uses a 2010 provision of law that allows a longer timeframe after the writ of election, meaning this election could fall as late as December.
Under this section, the coordinator of elections can “determine an undue hardship exists and a timely waiver may not be granted,” giving the state 75 to 80 days from the writ to hold a primary and 130 to 135 days to hold the general election.
In this case, the state would likely set the primary for Green’s seat between October 3-18, and a general between November 27- December 12, though even those dates are uncertain, depending on when the governor calls for the election and whether the Governor’s Office interprets certain deadlines to be calendar days or business days.
The governor’s office did not provide details about the timeline on Monday.
Growing list of candidates
Even as the uncertain election dates leave the candidate filing deadlines in limbo, several hopefuls have recently announced their campaigns to fill Green’s seat.
A pair of conservative veterans promising to more-or-less pick up where Green left off were the first to announce their candidacy last month, starting with Matthew Van Epps — who resigned his role as commissioner for the Tennessee Department of General Services and announced his candidacy within a day of Green’s initial announcement — and Jason Knight, a Montgomery County Commissioner and former Clarksville City Council member was next.
A slew of state lawmakers are also vying for the promotion.
On the Republican side, Tennessee Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson), Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin), and Rep. Lee Reeves (R-Franklin) have all filed paperwork to run for Green’s seat, which does not require them to give up their current seats.
The first Democrat to join the race was state Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), who officially announced his campaign on social media Monday, offering bipartisanship and slamming the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“I’ll always put the people of Tennessee first,” Mitchell wrote. “That means I’ll work with anyone in either party when it helps our state, and I will continue to stand up to anyone who tries to hurt our state — like this new law will do.”
State Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) has not publicly announced her candidacy, but did file financial disclosures related to her run on Monday.
