The chief of staff role, usually a highly coveted position for ambitious Capitol Hill staffers, was always a bit of an odd fit for Hilleary. After all, Hilleary had been a representative from 1995 to 2003, representing a similar Nashville-area district.

Still, Hilleary quietly returned to Capitol Hill in a staffing position, albeit a high-ranking one, rather than as an elected official. And the new role had a different sort of perk, in the form of compensation.

Hilleary earned more than $213,000 in 2024 as Rose’s chief of staff, similar to several years prior, House office financial disbursement forms show. Notably, that was considerably more than his boss was earning as a House member, $174,000.

That’s because congressional pay for rank-and-file members hasn’t been adjusted since 2009. A 1989 federal statute includes an automatic pay raise to account for the cost of living, similar to that of other federal workers. But Congress has long blocked that increase from taking effect, with lawmakers from both parties fearful about the political fallout of voting themselves a pay raise.

At the same time, Capitol Hill staffers’ pay continues to rise. And Hilleary’s situation of earning considerably more than the member of Congress he worked for wasn’t that unusual in Washington.

So, Hilleary will be in the odd position of facing a significant pay cut for getting a big promotion on Capitol Hill. That is, if he wins the all-important Republican primary in a district where, last year, President Donald Trump beat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris 67%-32%.

Hilleary, 66, recently entered the GOP primary race, a few days after state Rep. Johnny Garrett. There’s also Ronnie Dale Braden, an Army veteran who has worked in multiple industries, and Joe Reid, a businessman based in the 12,000-plus city of Crossville, Tennessee.

And in late August, the father of conservative political activist Riley Gaines filed for the seat. The barebones campaign website of Brad Gaines touts his history as a football player in high school and at Vanderbilt University. The website does not list a policy platform.

Riley Gaines is a former University of Kentucky swimmer who competed in the 2022 NCAA Championships in Atlanta.

She tied for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle event with a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who previously spent three years on the men’s team. Riley Gaines has lobbied for bills in several states that would prevent biological males who identify as women from competing in women’s sports.

That leaves Hilleary as the Republican candidate with the deepest Washington experience. It’s an open question whether that will be helpful or a liability ahead of the crucial GOP primary on Aug. 6, 2026.

Hilleary, at a July 12 kickoff event, told supporters that he is running to ensure that Trump, during his second, nonconsecutive term, can undo the damage inflicted on the nation by the administration of former President Joe Biden.

“At the national level, I think our country in many ways is hanging on by its fingertips,” Hilleary said. “Our nation has been on a slow decline for years, and that decline has been gaining steam during the Biden years.”

Hilleary, at the campaign event, also harshly criticized Biden’s immigration policies and his administration’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Party like it’s 1995

Hilleary took on the House chief of staff role years after his own time in office ended. He gave up his House seat in the 2002 election cycle to run for Tennessee governor. He won the Republican nomination but lost that November. In 2006, Hilleary sought the GOP Senate nomination in Tennessee but finished third.

A House return after 24 years out of office would make one of the longer absences between congressional stints, though hardly a record.

A 19th-century Maryland Democrat named Philip Francis Thomas waited 34 years, from 1841 to 1875, to return to the House. Unlike Hilleary, however, Thomas got to serve as governor of his state during the intervening time.

More recently, Minnesota Democrat Rick Nolan returned to the House in the 2012 elections after a 32-year absence. The one-time Iron Range rising star was a congressman from 1975 to 1981 but decided to forgo reelection just as Ronald Reagan was winning the presidency. Nolan began a business career that included being president of the Minnesota World Trade Center and owner of Emily Wood Products, a small sawmill and pallet factory in the state’s northern tier.

Nolan made a successful political comeback as then-President Barack Obama won a second term. Nolan’s second House stint played out under considerably changed congressional circumstances. During his first six-year House tenure, Democrats held commanding majorities in the midst of the party’s 40 years straight in control of the chamber. When Nolan returned to office in January 2013, Republicans were in charge, as they had been for much of the prior two decades. He didn’t seek reelection in 2018 and died in October 2024 at 80.

As for Hilleary in Tennessee, his return to the House would restore GOP representation from the Republican Revolution class of 1994. That was the year House Republicans finally ended the majority Democrats had first won in 1954. Hilleary was a legislative foot soldier in the House Republican push for smaller government, having captured a longtime Democratic seat in the 1994 elections.

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The 1994 freshman class had 87 members — 73 Republicans against 14 Democrats. The only remaining House member seeking reelection is Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). A Hilleary return would be a throwback of sorts, not just to the days of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who led the GOP charge against Democratic President Bill Clinton, but to Hilleary’s old job, after an advisory role on Capitol Hill for more than six years, in the office of another Tennessee Republican.

Though the money won’t be as good.