House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green not running for reelection

By Annie Grayer and Morgan Rimmer, CNN

House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green is not planning to seek reelection for his congressional seat, he announced Wednesday, in the wake of the House voting to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“At the start of the 118th Congress, I promised my constituents to pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable,” Green said in a statement. “Today, with the House having passed H.R. 2 and Secretary Mayorkas impeached, it is time for me to return home.”

Shortly after announcing that he would not be running for reelection, Green told CNN that he had “accomplished” all that he “promised he would accomplish.”

“You go out with a win,” he said. “I wanted to get a great border security bill done, we did that,” he said, referencing H.R. 2, which passed the GOP-majority House in May but is unlikely to move forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Tennessee lawmaker also touted the House Republican impeachment of Mayorkas, an effort he helmed from his committee, telling CNN he had sought to “hold the administration accountable, and we just impeached for the first time a sitting cabinet secretary, who deserved it.”

“I feel like there are other fights for me to get into,” he added.

Green’s retirement comes as a wave of prominent House Republican lawmakers including GOP committee chairs have announced they are heading for the exits.

Asked what his departure says about the state of the House Republican Conference, Green argued that any dysfunction is due to the slim margins in the House.

“The other side votes their ideology, and it makes it very hard to get stuff done with a thin majority,” he said. “That’s just the way that is. What we need to do is win more seats, and have a bigger majority, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Multiple sources told CNN that Green has expressed interest in running for governor of Tennessee. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s term ends in 2027.

“I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington, our fight is with Washington,” Green said in his announcement. “As I have done my entire life, I will continue serving this country – but in a new capacity.”

This report has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Manu Raju and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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