{"id":421723,"date":"2025-12-03T11:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421723\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:49:12","slug":"republican-matt-van-epps-defeats-aoc-of-tennessee-in-house-special-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421723\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Matt Van Epps defeats ‘AOC of Tennessee’ in House special election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Matt Van Epps <\/a>held off Democrat Aftyn Behn in Tuesday\u2019s hotly contested special election for Tennessee\u2019s 7th District House seat, giving the GOP a much-needed electoral victory to close out a bumpy 2025.<\/p>\n

With 99% of the expected vote in, Van Epps \u2014 a former Army helicopter pilot endorsed by President Trump \u2014 led Behn by 8.9 percentage points, well below the 22-point margin that Trump carried the district by in last year\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n

Behn, a 36-year-old state representative, had raised Democrats\u2019 hopes for a stunning upset in the conservative stronghold<\/a> 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.)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Van Epps led by about 9 percentage points with 99% of ballots counted Tuesday night. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to Matt Van Epps on his BIG Congressional WIN in the Great State of Tennessee,\u201d Trump posted on Truth Social. \u201cThe Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother great night for the Republican Party!!! President DJT\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians 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,\u201d Van Epps said at his victory party. \u201cNo matter what the DC insiders or liberal media say, this is President Trump\u2019s party. I\u2019m proud to be a part of it and can\u2019t wait to get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behn defeated Van Epps by a margin of more than three-to-one in deep-blue Davidson County \u2014 where Nashville is located \u2014 but the Republican more than made up the difference in the rest of the district, which includes staunchly GOP counties across central Tennessee.<\/p>\n

At her own campaign party, Behn \u2014 who was dogged by resurfaced comments from a 2020 podcast in which she said \u201cI hate country music\u201d \u2014 took the stage in a western-style rhinestone suit while singing Dolly Parton\u2019s \u201c9 to 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight isn\u2019t the end. It is the beginning of a next chapter of Tennessee and American politics \u2014 one of possibility, one of power and one of progress for the people that we love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement that the outcome showed the party is \u201con offense and Republicans are on the ropes\u201d ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

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

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

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.<\/p>\n

Republican Matt Van Epps won the deeply red Tennessee district. @MattForTN\/X<\/p>\n

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<\/a> survey showed the Republican topping Behn by only two percentage points (48%-46%) last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big deal, because right now we\u2019re like, three votes up on the radical left [in the House of Representatives], and this would be a wonderful victory for us,\u201d Trump said on one of the get-out-the-vote calls. \u201cIt\u2019ll be really a positive sign.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Johnson acknowledged \u201cevery seat matters more than ever\u201d in the lower chamber, adding that \u201cit is no secret my majority in Congress is razor-thin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s presidential race, a reflection of the special election\u2019s outsize importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Tennessee, it\u2019s been a long time since we thought about beating Democrats,\u201d Chip Saltsman, a political strategist and former Tennessee state party chair, told the Associated Press \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot more important to beat Republicans in a primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters look on as results are announced during an election-night watch party for Democrat Aftyn Behn. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time,\u201d he added, \u201cwe had to pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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

Behn was branded by Trump as the \u201cAOC of Tennessee\u201d after she refused to disavow anti-police social media posts from the summer of 2020 and condemned the Volunteer State as \u201cracist\u201d in a 2019 op-ed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democrats are spending a fortune, and we don\u2019t want people that want to raise your taxes,\u201d Trump said Monday. \u201cBut [Behn] said two things above all else that bothered me. Number one, she hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson stumped for Matt Van Epps. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the hell can you elect a person like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump supporter Anthony Bordonaro, 37, acknowledged that Behn\u2019s comments \u2014 \u201cI 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 \u2018it\u2019 city to the rest of the country\u201d \u2014 gave him extra motivation to vote for the Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t really like what I was hearing about the other candidate not liking Nashville,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Matt Van Epps held off Democrat Aftyn Behn in Tuesday\u2019s hotly contested special election for Tennessee\u2019s 7th…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9642,327,69,90,8119,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,196903,1229,67,586,132,5230,68,5621,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-421723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-campaigns","10":"tag-congress","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-mike-johnson","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-special-elections","22":"tag-tennessee","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","29":"tag-us-news","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115655486196355768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}