State General Services commissioner to run; state senator and state representatives considering candidacy.
Photo: U.S. Rep. Mark Green addresses supporters at the Montgomery County Republican Party on Nov. 5, 2024. Photo Credit: Anita Wadhwani/Tennessee Lookout
By Sam Stockard [The Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
The list of possible candidates for a special election to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Mark Green is growing after his second decision to quit before his term ends in 2026, with one person confirming he will run for the seat.
Tennessee Department of General Services Commissioner Matt Van Epps announced Tuesday he will seek the 7th Congressional District seat in the wake of Green’s plan to depart.
“Congressman Green is an American patriot who has served our country on the battlefield and served Tennesseans in the halls of Congress,” Van Epps said in a release. “From one West Point grad to another, I commend Congressman Green for his conservative legacy and his commitment to advancing President Trump’s America First agenda on behalf of Tennessee.”
Van Epps graduated from West Point and served multiple combat deployments as a helicopter pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment based in Clarksville. He continues to serve in the Tennessee Army National Guard. A Nashville resident, he was previously senior vice president of operations at Main Street Health, a rural healthcare company.
Tennessee state Sen. Bill Powers and state Rep. Jody Barrett, as well as former state Rep. Brandon Ogles, told the Lookout Tuesday they are looking at potential candidacies.
Powers, a Clarksville Republican, said he is “seriously considering” a run for the 7th Congressional District seat after Green announced he will resign from the post once the House votes on President Donald Trump’s budget and domestic policy bill.
“This is nothing I take lightly and am talking with family and friends as we carefully consider this major decision,” Powers, a second-term senator, said in a text message. “We do need conservative leadership and someone who will support the president’s agenda. I’m prepared to fill that role.”
Barrett, a Dickson Republican, said he has consistently stated that he has no “burning desire to climb any political ladder or get to the next proverbial level” but left the door open for a candidacy amid public support.
“If I were to run for Congress, it would be for the same reasons I decided to run for state representative. My family and I are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and encouragement from throughout the 7th Congressional District for me to jump into this race, but I have never been one to act impulsively or out of self-interest. We will continue to wait, watch and seek direction as to what is best for the Tennesseans that love living in western Middle Tennessee,” said Barrett, who is in his second House term.
Ogles, who served two terms in the House before opting not to seek re-election, told the Lookout he and his family are praying about a potential run. His cousin, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
Others being mentioned for the election include Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Green, chairman of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee, announced in February 2024 he would be leaving the U.S. House but reneged within two weeks. He had been dogged at that point by revelations he and his wife were going through a divorce as she said publicly he started carousing in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress.
Trump selected Green, a graduate of West Point, to serve as secretary of the Army in 2017. But questions about his stances on vaccines and whether former President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen or a Muslim left him short on support and he withdrew from consideration.
Green said this week he decided to step down from Congress because of a private sector opportunity “too existing to pass up.”
His vote is expected to be critical in passing Trump’s budget plan because Republicans hold a narrow House majority.
District 7 includes 14 counties in Middle and West Tennessee, with more than half of votes cast coming from Davidson, Montgomery and Williamson Counties.
The district was redrawn after the 2020 census and with the inclusion of portions of Nashville, picked up more Democrat territory but is still considered a safe Republican seat by the Cook Political Report, which provides nonpartisan analysis of federal campaigns and elections.
