Former Democratic Nashville Mayor Megan Barry on Wednesday introduced a U.S. Home bid to unseat Rep. Mark Inexperienced, R-Tenn., looking for a political comeback greater than 5 years after she confronted now-dismissed legal fees linked to her having an extramarital affair along with her city-employed bodyguard.
In her announcement video, she cited a number of causes for attempting to return to elected workplace: a spate of mass shootings at colleges, together with earlier this yr at a Nashville Christian elementary school, which was carried out by a transgender activist and former scholar; Tennessee’s abortion ban; the closure of rural hospitals; and the opioid epidemic.
“Today, I’m announcing my campaign for Congress because working families have been ignored for far too long,” Barry stated in a video posted on her marketing campaign web site. “We need an economy and a government that works for everyone. If I can save even one other parent from burying a child, it will be worth every effort.”
Barry, elected in 2015 as the primary feminine mayor of Nashville, resigned from that workplace in 2018 after pleading responsible to felony theft for dishonest the town out of hundreds of {dollars} to hold on an almost two-year affair along with her then-police bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest. She agreed to reimburse the town for $11,000 in illegal bills. After finishing three years of unsupervised probation, the cost was expunged from her file in 2021, in accordance with The Tennessean.
Within the video, Barry stated she had “made mistakes,” however she took accountability and labored by means of them along with her husband.
This March 6, 2018, file photograph reveals Nashville Mayor Megan Barry asserting her resignation in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photograph/Mark Humphrey, File)
“I don’t think anybody should be defined by their worst moments,” Barry stated. “It’s what you do next that counts.”
She is working in one in every of three congressional districts that carved up Nashville throughout Republican-led redistricting final yr.
Attributable to line-drawing efforts by Republican state lawmakers that favor their very own social gathering, the GOP final yr received one other seat that beforehand centered on Nashville and was lengthy held by Democrats. Barry is working as a Democrat, marketing campaign spokesperson Brian Córdova confirmed to the Related Press.
“I take a look at the overall dysfunction in Congress and its failure to make any sort of distinction within the lives of our households,” Barry stated. “It’s outrageous. We don’t have to tolerate it.”
Barry’s announcement additionally focuses on the dying of her solely youngster, Max, who died in July 2017 after an overdose of a mixture of medication, together with opioids. Since leaving workplace, Barry has extensively shared her son’s story in an effort to fight disgrace and stigma surrounding substance abuse issues.
Rep. Mark Inexperienced, R-Tenn., speaks throughout a Home Committee on International Affairs listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 8, 2023. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has introduced a run for the U.S. Home seat held by Rep. Inexperienced. (AP Photograph/Andrew Harnik, file)
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Barry will attempt to make inroads in a district that extends out of Nashville and into 13 Republican-favoring counties. Final yr, Inexperienced received his third time period in Congress over a Democratic opponent by almost 22 share factors. Voters in that district favored former President Trump over President Biden by 15 share factors in 2020.
Tennessee’s congressional map is going through a federal lawsuit, however that case is not scheduled to go to trial till April 2025.
Megan Barry attends the “Take On America” dialogue panel introduced by Ozy Media on October 15, 2018, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jason Kempin/Getty Pictures)
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After Barry’s announcement, Inexperienced’s group stated that he’s “honored to serve and looks forward to continuing to fight for our values and principles,” mentioning securing the border, well being care and “constitutional rights.” “From three tours in combat, to the emergency room, to public service, Congressman Green has always put his fellow American before himself,” Inexperienced’s chief of employees, Stephen Siao, stated in a written assertion.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
