Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry launched her campaign for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District on Wednesday.
Barry is looking to unseat U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who is currently serving a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Families in Tennessee are struggling, and Mark Green continues to do nothing. I’m fed up, and I know many Tennesseans are too. That’s why today I’m announcing my run for Congress,” Barry wrote on social media Wednesday.
Barry, a Democrat, served as Nashville’s mayor from 2015 until 2018 when she resigned in disgrace after it emerged that she spent nearly $175,000 of taxpayer money while carrying out a two-year affair with her bodyguard, and used taxpayer resources and vehicles to facilitate the affair at the Nashville City Cemetery.
Barry pleaded guilty in criminal court to felony theft of more than $10,000. She agreed to pay $11,000 in restitution and resign as mayor as part of her plea agreement.
In 2021, after serving the terms of her probation, Barry’s criminal record was expunged.
The former mayor vaguely addressed her troubled past in her first campaign video, saying, “During that time, I made mistakes. I owned up to them and I took responsibility. And my husband Bruce and I worked through it all together.”
“I don’t think anybody should be defined by their worst moments. It’s what you do next that counts,” Barry added.
Congressman Green’s campaign responded to Barry’s campaign bid in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star, saying, “From three tours in combat, to the emergency room, to public service, Congressman Green has always put his fellow Americans before himself. In Congress, he has been a champion for Tennesseans—leading the fight to secure our border, fix our healthcare system, and defend our constitutional rights. He is honored to serve and looks forward to continuing to fight for our values and principles.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Megan Barry” by Megan Barry.
i can see the bumper stickers now. sex in a graveyard.vote democratic.
What a piece of work. You know when your “husband” is a philosophy professor the conversations around the dinner table are mindless. Of course if you think the guvment is the source of all that is ‘good and fair’ and your ability to not think on your own two feet is a part of your makeup, you vote for these clowns. I would be willing to bet she can’t tell you what a man or women is using 10th grade biology. Get a job at Walmart and use your skills.
Better increase security patrols at Arlington National Cemetery . . . just in case
This is all just a ploy to once again get a security detail that she can……well…you know….
Good luck, you’re going to need it. Another democrat lacking in morality.
HAHAHAHAHA.
‘vote for me, i swear i wont have more liasons in the graveyard’
It takes a great deal of (misguided) of belief in your self, along with a great deal of belief that the voters of Nashville are really dumb to think that with her history she can be elected again for anything. On second thought, the people of Nashville have a track record for HER to run on.
Why would anyone, in their right mind, vote for this woman who is a proven thief and liar?
Of course many in Davidson county will just because she is a democrat.
How about ambassador to Greece?
I daresay that almost all of the people in Congressman Mark Green’s Seventh Congressional District who have been looking for any excuse to criticize President Trump will vote for Democrat Megan Barry for Congress. The Marxist Democrats are shameless and hypocritical if they are anything.
From and after her election as Mayor of Nashville in August 2015, the very politically left-wing Barry was on the ‘fast track’ to become Governor and U. S. Senator of Tennessee someday. After she pled guilty to felony theft and resigned in disgrace as Mayor in March 2018, all of that seemingly came to a screeching end. Barry’s election to Congressman Green’s congressional seat would reverse all of that and put Barry back in contention for one or both higher offices.
If Barry is elected to a two-year term in the U. S. House of Representatives next year, and if she continued to be re-elected to that seat, she would be well-positioned to someday seek the seat in the U. S. Senate of Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn who will be 72 years of age at her re-election to the U. S. Senate in November of 2024 would probably be Barry’s likely target in November 2030 at the end of Blackburn’s second term in the U. S. Senate when Blackburn would be 78 years of age and Barry would be 67 years of age. In the eyes of the political matchmakers, this would probably be the perfect political setup. And if Barry made and won that 2030 race, the future would be unlimited for Barry. And if she lost, well there would always be the Tennessee gubernatorial race.
Governor Lee was first elected Governor in November 2018. Lee was re-elected Governor in November 2022 and he is now term-limited and will leave office in January 2027. Lee’s successor will seek office in November 2026, and would be eligible for re-election in November 2030. This would mean that a U. S. Rep Barry could seek the Tennessee Governorship in November 2030 (if Barry chose not run for U. S. Senator that year) or in November 2034 (if Barry did run for the U. S. Senate and win in 2030, or even if she was not first elected to the U. S. House until 2026). And as Governor of Tennessee, Barry could name her successor in the U. S. Senate if she were to be earlier elected to the U. S. Senate.
And if Congressman Green were to defeat Barry for election to the Seventh Congressional District seat in November 2024, no one would be better positioned than Barry herself to seek the Democrat nomination for that same seat in August 2026 when, as it is widely rumored, U. S. Rep. Green gives up that seat to run for Governor of Tennessee. At which time all of the previously mentioned possibilities for Barry would still come into play if she was elected then instead of two years earlier as aforesaid.
The Democrat party today is NOT your father’s, or your grandfather’s, Democrat party. Things have changed. The Democrat party today has been radicalized. The Democrat party today, in my opinion, can truly be called the Marxist Democrat party. In my opinion, this new party is utterly shameless. Would Megan Barry ‘glom on’ to this new Marxist Democrat party? Again, in my opinion, she would do so in a ‘New York minute’. Not bad for the woman who when she left office in disgrace said (I still so clearly remember her comment), “I am leaving Nashville and Tennessee and going to Canada, and I am not stopping until I see polar bears.” Well, the girl born in California and who grew up in the greater Kansas City, Kansas area came back.