Megan Barry officially announced her campaign for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District on Wednesday after weeks of public speculation. Barry, a Democrat, will face Republican Mark Green, a three-term incumbent who has struggled to find his footing in an increasingly fractured GOP. In 2022, Green won the seat over Democrat Odessa Kelly by roughly 40,000 votes.
Barry focuses on gun control, protecting reproductive rights and preventing rural hospital closures in a short campaign launch video posted to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. She also recounts the story of losing her son, Max, to a drug overdose while she was mayor, while criticizing Green and lamenting partisanship and dysfunction in Congress.
Initially considered a long shot candidate for Nashville mayor in 2015, Barry reached a broad political base that handed her a decisive victory over conservative David Fox. Barry resigned halfway through her term after pleading guilty to felony theft related to a romantic relationship with Robert Forrest, an MNPD sergeant on her security detail. The charge was expunged in 2021.
“I don’t think anyone should be defined by their worst moments,” says Barry in her announcement video, her only reference to the incident. “It’s what you do next that counts.”
Insiders say Barry has retained support among the political crowd that helped buoy her 2015 campaign for mayor. Few Democrats in the area match her campaign experience and penchant for retail politics. Her campaign’s first fundraising disclosure is due at the end of the year.
Green, a Clarksville conservative who previously served in the state Senate, reported almost $265,000 on hand as of Oct. 1. Green has vacillated between the party’s power center and its far-right fringe. While in Congress, he voted against certifying the results of Joe Biden’s 2020 election, spread conspiracy theories related to COVID vaccines, spoke on behalf of former speaker Kevin McCarthy during his ouster, and repeatedly ridiculed U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Should Barry win her party’s nomination, she and Green will face off on Nov. 5 of next year.
