House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) is reconsidering his decision to retire after the end of his term, a source familiar confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Green is reconsidering whether to step down from office less than two weeks after the Tennessee Republican announced he would not seek a fourth term in office. The reversal comes as some members of the Tennessee delegation, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), have pushed Green not to resign, another source told the Washington Examiner.
Green announced on Feb. 14 that he would not run for reelection, telling the Washington Examiner the decision came through tough deliberation but after he acknowledged he had accomplished the goals he initially campaigned on.
“It’s pretty clear that the founders, the framers of the Constitution at least, intended the people’s representatives to serve for a season and then go home,” Green said in an interview. “We’re not intended to be here to grow old in Congress. So there’s that constitutional piece that really kind of honestly probably is what pushed me over the edge.”
Green’s retirement announcement came on the heels of the historic vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, led by the House Homeland Security Committee. Completing the monthslong effort partly played a role in Green’s decision to step down at the end of his term.
Throughout the investigation into Mayorkas, Green said he spent much of his time examining the Constitution to charge the Biden administration official with high crimes and misdemeanors, the pinnacle of his career, he said.
Green wouldn’t be the first to reverse his retirement decision in the House should he run for reelection. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) made a similar move last month when she announced her reelection bid despite saying a year earlier she would retire.
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More than 40 House incumbents have already announced they won’t seek reelection in 2024, marking one of the highest retirement rates at this point in an election cycle over the last decade. That number includes 21 Republicans who announced they won’t run for another term, as well as 23 Democrats, according to a list compiled by the House Press Gallery.
The number of retirements is approaching but has not reached 2018’s total, in which 52 members stepped down from office. That marked the most incumbent retirements recorded since the 1993 cycle, when 65 members opted not to run for reelection.
