Mark Green
Mark Green has had lots of options because of his political talents, and the great job he has done as a Congressman, but given the fantastic work he’s doing as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I hope he runs for Re-Election to the U.S. House of Representatives. - Donald Trump, February 2024
Mark Edward Green, a sitting U.S. representative from Tennessee and the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, could be poised to take on a leading role at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a second Trump administration. Green is a member of the most conservative, far-right bloc in Congress as a member of the House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee. In 2017, Green was nominated by Trump to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Army, but his nomination was derailed after his past homophobic and racist comments came to light, forcing him to withdraw. As Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, Green has aggressively pushed the MAGA agenda, including overseeing the impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and amplifying extreme views on immigration and national security. A religious extremist, a self-identified “creationist,” an anti-abortion zealot, a climate change denier, and a vaccine skeptic, Green’s potential control over DHS represents a significant shift towards hardline, far-right policies.
In 2023, Green’s ability to drive MAGA policy forward increased dramatically when he was named Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Under his leadership, the Committee has been politicized, focused on amplifying Donald Trump and the MAGA movement’s extreme immigration narrative and agenda, including by overseeing the impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Today, Green remains one of Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill and uses his official position as a bully pulpit for brazen partisan attacks. On February 14, 2024, Green announced he would not run for reelection, but reversed his decision two weeks later at the request of Donald Trump.
Green was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, succeeding Senator Marsha Blackburn, after serving in the Tennessee Senate for five years. A member of the House Freedom Caucus and Republican Study Committee, Green helps lead the most conservative, far-right bloc in Congress. Since January 2019, Green has used his position to support and enable Donald Trump and his extreme agenda.
His tenure in Congress has been marked by a series of actions that align with his far-right ideology: He has voted against impeaching Donald Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors, against the Respect for Marriage Act, and against the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act to restore and modernize the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Additionally, he voted against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act. He also voted against the 2022 PACT ACT to expand VA benefits to veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during their military service and against the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. Green has also faced controversy for violating federal conflict-of-interest law by failing to disclose a stock purchase worth up to $250,000 on time, and for missing House votes and voting by proxy while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Green was a notable figure in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Shortly after the election, Green joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded in order to change the outcome of the election. In the case, Republicans proffered lies and a novel legal theory which the Supreme Court rejected. Green was also a part of a coordinated campaign with the Trump Administration to pressure state legislators to reverse their own certifications of election results and declare a winner without regard to vote totals. On January 6, 2021, in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Green voted to omit Arizona and Pennsylvania from the counting of presidential electors, which could have altered the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor. Soon after, he voted against the formation of the January 6 commission intended to investigate the storming of the Capitol.
In 2017, Green was nominated by President Trump to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Army but withdrew his name from consideration after his past homophobic and racist comments came to light. These comments included his statement that, as a state senator, “my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewarded and the people who do wrong are crushed. Evil is crushed. So I’m going to protect women in their bathrooms, and I’m going to protect our state against potential infiltration from the Syrian ISIS people in the refugee program.” He also claimed that “transgender is a disease” and criticized President Obama for supporting “transvestites in uniform” while allegedly prohibiting a Bible on a soldier’s desk. His nomination faced immense criticism and pushback, including from late Republican Senator John McCain. Less than one month after being announced, Green withdrew his name from nomination, stating, “Tragically, my life of public service and my Christian beliefs have been mischaracterized and attacked by a few on the other side of the aisle for political gain.”