NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A December special election in Tennessee will take place to fill an opening left by Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green's retirement, putting the focus on a district that has reliably favored the GOP in recent elections but includes a chunk of Democratic-voting Nashville.
State officials on Thursday announced that the primary election will take place on Oct. 7 and the general election on Dec. 2 in the 7th Congressional District contest. Green, who was the Homeland Security Committee chairman, resigned July 20.
The race already features contested Democratic and Republican primaries. For state lawmakers, the off-year election is enticing: Running for the congressional slot won't mean forfeiting their seats or trying to run two races at once to keep theirs.
A special election before the midpoint of President Donald Trump 's term adds intrigue as well. The race could test whether Trump's record in office so far can change the margins while it is fresh on voters' minds.
Here's a look at how the race is shaping up.
District 7 was one of the three seats that carved up Democratic-voting Nashville in the 2022 Republican redistricting efforts. The new lines allowed Republicans to flip a long-held Democratic seat centered on Nashville. Republicans hold eight of nine House seats in Tennessee, with Rep. Steve Cohen in Memphis being the only Democrat.
In a district spanning 14 counties from the Kentucky northern border to the Alabama southern border, Green defeated Democratic opponents by more than 21 percentage points in 2024 and by nearly 22 points in 2022. Trump beat Biden in 2020 by 12 points among voters in those boundaries.
The district also includes Fort Campbell and has drawn multiple candidates with military backgrounds.
On the Republican side, the lawmakers who have already joined the mix include state Reps. Jody Barrett of Dickson and Lee Reeves of Franklin.
Former Tennessee Department of General Services Commissioner Matt Van Epps has also launched a campaign. He has drawn Green's endorsement.
The field also includes Montgomery County Commissioner Jason Knight, health care industry businessman Mason Foley, and real estate businessman Stewart Parks, who was pardoned by Trump after entering the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Democrats have recruited state Reps. Bo Mitchell, Aftyn Behn and Vincent Dixie, all from Nashville. Democrat David Jones, who works in the Nashville district attorney's office, is running as well.
Jon Thorp, an air ambulance pilot from Springfield, is listed as a Republican candidate in federal campaign finance filings, but has said on social media he will run as an independent.
The field could quickly change with the qualifying deadline of Aug. 12 still weeks away.
Green announced last month he would leave Congress once the House voted again on the sprawling tax and budget policy bill backed by Trump.
Green has said he was offered a private sector opportunity that was “too exciting to pass up” and will be starting his own company, but hasn't offered many specifics. He said he will be doing something "specifically designed to help America compete against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), but this time in business."
Green had said in February 2024 that he would not run seek reelection, a decision revealed a day after the impeachment of then-President Joe Biden’s Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But many fellow Republicans called on him to reconsider, and he jumped back into the running just two weeks later.
Green previously served as an Army surgeon and in the state Senate and is from Montgomery County.
FILE - Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., center, is joined by from left: Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., right, during a news conference at the Capitol, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.
Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.
On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.
No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.
After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
