Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced Friday he would not seek to be the next Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) October 20, 2023
“After prayerful consideration, and incredible gratitude for my colleagues who’ve asked me to run, Camie and I have decided not to seek the position of Speaker of the House,” Green said in a statement. “I have unfinished business as Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and in my ultimate mission of defending Tennesseans against an overreaching federal government. I look forward to helping whoever we nominate to unite this conference and advance freedom for every American.”
Green’s statement came hours after the House convened for the weekend.
On Friday, the House GOP conference voted via secret ballot in a closed-door meeting to remove Ohio U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) as speaker-designate after he lost three rounds of voting for the position.
Green voted for Jordan in all three rounds.
After his loss on the ballot, Jordan said Republicans “need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be.”
He added, “I’m going to work as hard as I can to help that individual so that we can go help the American people.”
Shortly after, Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) told reporters that House Republicans will meet on Monday evening for a candidate forum and again on Tuesday morning to both vote for a nominee and hold a floor vote to elect a speaker.
“House Republicans will return on Monday at 6:30 p.m for a candidate forum, followed by an election process on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.,” McHenry said. “The reason why I made that decision is we need space and time for candidates to talk to other members.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Mark Green” by Mark Green.
