Republican Matt Van Epps held off Democrat Aftyn Behn in Tuesday’s hotly contested special election for Tennessee’s 7th District House seat, giving the GOP a much-needed electoral victory to close out a bumpy 2025.

With 99% of the expected vote in, Van Epps — a former Army helicopter pilot endorsed by President Trump — led Behn by 8.9 percentage points, well below the 22-point margin that Trump carried the district by in last year’s presidential election.

Behn, a 36-year-old state representative, had raised Democrats’ hopes for a stunning upset in the conservative stronghold after late polling showed her within striking distance of Van Epps and forced a last-minute surge of campaigning from both the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)

Republican candidate Matt Van Epps interacts with supporters at a watch party after announcing victory in a special election for the U.S. seventh congressional district, on Dec. 2, 2025. AP

Van Epps led by about 9 percentage points with 99% of ballots counted Tuesday night. AP

“Congratulations to Matt Van Epps on his BIG Congressional WIN in the Great State of Tennessee,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars.

“Another great night for the Republican Party!!! President DJT”.

“Politicians who run from the president or abandon the common-sense policies that the American people gave us a resounding mandate on do so at their own peril,” Van Epps said at his victory party. “No matter what the DC insiders or liberal media say, this is President Trump’s party. I’m proud to be a part of it and can’t wait to get to work.”

Behn defeated Van Epps by a margin of more than three-to-one in deep-blue Davidson County — where Nashville is located — but the Republican more than made up the difference in the rest of the district, which includes staunchly GOP counties across central Tennessee.

At her own campaign party, Behn — who was dogged by resurfaced comments from a 2020 podcast in which she said “I hate country music” — took the stage in a western-style rhinestone suit while singing Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”

Aftyn Behn delivers a concession speech during an election-night watch party at Marathon Music Works on December 2, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. Getty Images

“Tonight isn’t the end. It is the beginning of a next chapter of Tennessee and American politics — one of possibility, one of power and one of progress for the people that we love,” she said.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement that the outcome showed the party is “on offense and Republicans are on the ropes” ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The seat was previously held by former Rep. Mark Green, the onetime chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee who resigned earlier this year for a private sector job.

The Tennessee race took on greater importance after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced last month that she would leave Congress come January.

Once Van Epps is sworn in, Republicans will temporarily have 220 House seats while Democrats will have 213. There are two vacancies in Democrat-controlled districts where special elections will be held in early 2026.

Republican Matt Van Epps won the deeply red Tennessee district. @MattForTN/X

On Monday, Johnson stumped for Van Epps in the middle Tennessee district while Trump held two tele-rallies urging voters to head out to the polls after an Emerson College survey showed the Republican topping Behn by only two percentage points (48%-46%) last week.

“This is a big deal, because right now we’re like, three votes up on the radical left [in the House of Representatives], and this would be a wonderful victory for us,” Trump said on one of the get-out-the-vote calls. “It’ll be really a positive sign.” 

Meanwhile, Johnson acknowledged “every seat matters more than ever” in the lower chamber, adding that “it is no secret my majority in Congress is razor-thin.”

Van Epps benefited from nearly $1.7 million in spending from Make America Great Again Inc., according to a memo from the Trump-aligned group, with nearly half going toward digital advertising targeting people streaming video online. It was the first time the organization spent money on a campaign since last year’s presidential race, a reflection of the special election’s outsize importance.

“In Tennessee, it’s been a long time since we thought about beating Democrats,” Chip Saltsman, a political strategist and former Tennessee state party chair, told the Associated Press “It’s been a lot more important to beat Republicans in a primary.”

Supporters look on as results are announced during an election-night watch party for Democrat Aftyn Behn. Getty Images

“This time,” he added, “we had to pay attention.”

Behn had national support of her own, with the Dem-aligned House Majority PAC putting $1 million behind her. Martin visited to campaign for Behn, and former Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a canvassing kickoff while in Nashville on a book tour.

Former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) headlined a virtual rally for Behn Monday night.

Behn was branded by Trump as the “AOC of Tennessee” after she refused to disavow anti-police social media posts from the summer of 2020 and condemned the Volunteer State as “racist” in a 2019 op-ed.

“The Democrats are spending a fortune, and we don’t want people that want to raise your taxes,” Trump said Monday. “But [Behn] said two things above all else that bothered me. Number one, she hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music.

House Speaker Mike Johnson stumped for Matt Van Epps. Getty Images

“How the hell can you elect a person like that?”

Trump supporter Anthony Bordonaro, 37, acknowledged that Behn’s comments — “I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘it’ city to the rest of the country” — gave him extra motivation to vote for the Republican.

“I just didn’t really like what I was hearing about the other candidate not liking Nashville,” he said.

GOP leaders had hoped for a convincing Van Epps victory to scuttle Democratic claims that even red districts are now in play as Trump struggles with dropping approval ratings and persistent economic dissatisfaction following emphatic Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia off-year elections.