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Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee prepares before the start of a House Homeland Security Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Jan. 10, 2024. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
A special primary election is being held in Tennessee on Oct. 7 to fill a U.S. House of Representatives seat in a Republican-leaning district that is crucial to the House Republican Conference’s control of the body.
Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District, which covers suburban Nashville and the towns of Clarkesville and Franklin, was represented by former Rep. Mark Green, a Republican, from 2019 to 2025. Green, a retired U.S. Army doctor who once interrogated Saddam Hussein and later was elected to the U.S. House and served as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, resigned on July 20 to start a new company, Prosimos, a government relations firm.
The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) score of R+10, indicating that it is heavily Republican and a Republican nominee is likely to win the special general election on Dec. 2.
Here are the leading candidates for the Republican nomination.
Matt Van Epps
Matt Van Epps, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, took office in 2024 and resigned in 2025 to run in this election. He is also a U.S. Army officer, previously a helicopter pilot on active duty and currently serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Tennessee Army National Guard. He was also an aide to Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, and was the state’s deputy chief operating officer in the governor’s office.
Van Epps was endorsed by both Green, who has campaigned for him, and President Donald Trump. Lee has also endorsed him, as has former Gov. Bill Haslam, who was Lee’s predecessor. Trump’s endorsement, which has often been decisive in Republican primary elections, was issued on Oct. 3.
The Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative organization that has often been criticized by Trump administration officials such as Vice President JD Vance, has also endorsed Van Epps, as has state Rep. Lee Reeves (R), another candidate in the race who had led fundraising and racked up several local endorsements but withdrew.
The singular polling on the race taken before Trump’s endorsement by Americans for Prosperity showed Van Epps with 7 percent support, behind several candidates.
Van Epps is running on a slate of conservative issues common to many Republicans: opposition to abortion, opposition to transgender athletes in women’s sporting competitions, support for the Second Amendment, and support for the Trump administration’s immigration and border policies. He has also emphasized agricultural issues, which are relevant to the Seventh District, home to many farms.
Jody Barrett
Joseph Michael “Jody” Barrett is a Tennessee state representative from the 69th District who took office in 2023. He is currently leading polling by a small margin, with 10 percent support.
Barrett is running on a Christian conservative platform emphasizing his nationalist views. He has claimed to be rated as the “most conservative legislator in Tennessee history” and has promised to “fight the liberal elites trying to destroy our way of life.”
Barrett has been endorsed by two notable figures in the primary. One is retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served as U.S. national security advisor to Trump for 22 days during the first Trump administration. The other is Camie Guenther-Green, the wife of Green who is separated from him due to his alleged extramarital affair.
Barrett is also being backed by the House Freedom Fund, a campaign arm of the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative grouping in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gino Buslo
Gino Buslo is a trial lawyer and a Tennessee state representative from the 61st District, having also served since 2023. He is polling second to Barrett, with 8.9 percent support.
Like the other candidates, Buslo has highlighted his support for Trump’s political priorities, which he terms “Tennessee values.” He has also promised to vote in favor of cutting federal government spending.
Other candidates in the race are polling at low rates with little fundraising and limited media visibility. Early voting ended on Oct. 2, with about 18,000 ballots cast, a low number typical of a special election.
Arjun Singh was a reporter for The Epoch Times. He covered national politics, legal controversies, immigration, the U.S. Congress, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
