As Tennessee Republicans looked at ways to press their advantage and turn a 7-2 majority of U.S. congressional seats into an 8-1 one, the only remaining targets were Democratic strongholds in Memphis and Nashville. In the end, it appears the legislature will carve up the 5th Congressional District and send Rep. Jim Cooper into retirement — though the Democrats will likely take the matter to the state Supreme Court.
So who will be representing Nashville when the city is carved into three parts, as it likely will be? Here are the city’s probable new representatives.
U.S. Rep. Mark Green
7th District: Mark Green
The new 7th will pull a substantial portion of North Nashville into a district with Clarksville and Franklin that is currently represented by conservative GOP member Mark Green.
First elected to the state Senate in 2012, the Clarksville-based Green led the fight to repeal the Hall Income Tax, a levy on interest and dividend income from investments. A former Army doctor, Green was nominated by Donald Trump’s administration for the Secretary of the Army job after the initial choice withdrew. Green was dogged by negative comments he made about transgender and Muslim communities and withdrew his nomination a month later.
After initially filing to run for governor, Green turned his attention to Congress when Marsha Blackburn announced her Senate candidacy in 2017. In the general election, he beat Tennessee Holler proprietor and Democrat Justin Kanew in spite of criticism over comments about welfare.
“Government has stepped in, at least in this country, and done all the work for the church,” Green told a Brentwood men’s group in 2015. “So the person who’s in need goes — they look to the government for the answer, not God. And I think, in that way, government has done an injustice that’s even bigger than just the entitlement — creation of an entitlement welfare state.”
What kind of congressman has Green been? A FiveThirtyEight analysis showed that he voted with President Trump 90.9 percent of the time. Significant votes he took in the past three years include voting against background checks for firearm sales, against net neutrality, against raising the minimum wage, against requiring campaigns to report offers of foreign assistance, against restoring parts of the Voting Rights Act, against the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill in 2020, against the pandemic aid bill and against raising coronavirus stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000. On Jan. 6, 2021, Green objected to Arizona’s presidential electors hours after the U.S. Capitol was the subject of an insurrection by Trump loyalists. The next day, he objected to Pennsylvania’s electors, and a week later he voted against an impeachment charge of inciting the insurrection for Trump.
Green missed congressional votes more than most — 5.5 percent of the time, ranking 23rd-worst among 435 House members. During three years in office, he and his staff took 21 trips funded by outside sources, including visits to Mexico, Germany, Israel and England.
U.S. Rep. John Rose
6th District: John Rose
East Nashville and part of South Nashville will join Sumner County, Lebanon and Cookeville in the redrawn 6th, currently represented by Rep. John Rose (R-Cookeville). Nashvillians may be familiar with Rose, who in his capacity as head of the State Fair Association opposed Mayor Karl Dean’s redevelopment plan for The Fairgrounds Nashville. Rose holds a law degree from Vanderbilt in addition to a master’s degree in agriculture from Purdue. He has owned a couple of technology-related companies, but Rose is best known as a longtime farmer and former agriculture commissioner in Gov. Don Sundquist’s administration.
First elected in 2018, Rose ran as a Trump conservative and stayed true over his three-plus years in office. Rose voted with Trump’s position 94.3 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Like Green, he voted against background checks and voting rights. He attempted to block the first Trump impeachment by tabling the articles when they were introduced. He voted against a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, against transgender people serving in the military, against disaster aid for Puerto Rico and against a ban on flavored tobacco products. Like Green, he voted to object to Arizona and Pennsylvania electors and also voted against the second Trump impeachment. Rose was one of 21 Republicans who voted against honoring the Capitol Police and D.C. police officers in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot.
“There are findings that we don’t yet know whether they’ll be supported by the investigations that happened, and secondly, an award of this stature has historically been given years after the fact with understanding of the context,” Rose told reporters of voting against the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the officers. One of his fellow no votes, QAnon favorite Marjorie Taylor Greene, headlined a fundraiser with Rose in Wilson County last year.
Rose missed 4.3 percent of his votes, ranking him 46th-worst in the House. He and his staff have taken only eight trips funded by outside groups, almost all of them to Israel.
5th District: ???
While Jim Cooper has not made it official, it is widely assumed that he will retire instead of running in a redrawn 5th that would have gone for Trump in the last election. No Democrat has announced yet, but there are several Republicans who appear to be interested:
Beth Harwell. The former state speaker of the House told Axios that she is “leaning toward running.” Although she tacked to the right in a failed bid for governor in 2018, Harwell’s reputation has long been as an establishment Republican, and she might have an advantage in the Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Brentwood portions of the district.
Andy Ogles. The mayor of Maury County had been widely seen as a possible challenger to Bill Lee in a Republican primary for governor. Ogles formerly ran the Tennessee outpost of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-backed lobbying outfit.
Kurt Winstead. A lawyer and former brigadier general in the Tennessee National Guard, Winstead is actively exploring the race.
Robby Starbuck. Media gadfly Starbuck might be the dog who caught the car in redistricting. He had announced a plan to run against Cooper under the old map, but now might have actual, real Republican competition in a redrawn 5th.
