Tennessee special election for House seat draws national attention

Franklin, Tennessee – Republican nominee for Congress in a special election for a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that is hotly contested and controlled by the Republican Party. Ruby Red Tennessee He says he is receiving “amazing reports all over the region.”

Matt Van Eps described “a huge turnout for us” while speaking with Fox News Digital Tuesday morning after greeting supporters outside the polling station. “We have been in early voting, and we will continue to push for victory today.”

Van Epps faces Democratic candidate Aftin Behn in the race to succeed former Republican Rep. Mark Green, who resigned in June to take a job in the private sector.

With the Republican Party clinging to a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, the election is viewed as an election Republicans must win.

Decision Day: Trump, Speaker Johnson, AOC campaign blitz on eve of major showdown

Republican congressional candidate Matt Van Epps greets supporters outside a polling place on Election Day, in Franklin, Tennessee on December 2, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

president Donald Trump The Seventh Congressional District – located in central and western Tennessee, extending from Kentucky to Alabama, and including parts of Nashville – scored 22 points in last year’s presidential elections. Green won the district by more than 20 points for re-election in 2022 and 2024.

But Democrats are active after the 2025 election, and public opinion polls indicate a close race between Van Eps and Behn in a showdown seen as a key gauge ahead of the 2025 election. Midterm elections next yearWhen the Republican Party defends its majority.

Watch: What Aftin Behn told Fox News Digital on the eve of the election

Asked by Fox News Digital whether he needed to win the election by a certain margin, Van Epps said: “A win is a win.”

But the military veteran and former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services added, “We’re going to push as hard as we can to win by the largest possible margin, and then we’re going to maintain the majority in the ’26 election.”

Democratic congressional candidate Aftin Behn speaks to supporters at the party office on election eve, in Franklin, Tennessee, on December 1, 2025 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Behn, a state representative and former health care community organizer, has been called the “AOC of the South” compared to the progressive hero Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez“No matter what happened, whether you won or lost, you inspired the country. You showed people that the South had something to say,” he told supporters at a local Democratic Party office in Nashville on Tuesday morning.

“For me, we’ve already captured the hearts and minds of a lot of Tennesseans and across the country,” Behn told Fox News Digital minutes later when asked if she was a winner even without winning the election. “What starts here changes this country.”

“I think voters are shifting to accept a candidate like me with a progressive record,” she added.

With so much at stake, outside groups aligned with both parties spent millions of dollars to run ads in the race. Both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the rival Republican National Committee (RNC) poured resources into the standoff, which included sending staffers to the campaign trail.

Democrats and Republicans, all in the final 2025 congressional ballot showdown

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson Van Epps spent the entire day on election eve, joining the GOP candidate at a slew of rallies and stops throughout the district. He was joined by RNC Chairman Joe Gruters.

House Speaker Mike Johnson joins Republican congressional candidate Matt Van Epps at an Election Eve rally in Franklin, Tennessee on December 1, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

“We will win this seat, but we can’t take anything for granted,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“Special elections are weird because a lot of people take it for granted that in a deep red district like this that a Republican will automatically win. Nothing is automatic. So we’re here to help increase the vote and make sure we get this great candidate right over that line,” Johnson said.

Aiming to motivate low-propensity Trump supporters, who often do not vote when the president is not on the ballot, Johnson emphasized that “we need everyone to participate.”

Before introducing Van Epps at the first rally on Monday, Johnson called Trump on his cell phone, and the president spoke to the crowd for more than four minutes.

“Let’s make it a sweeping victory,” Trump said. “The whole world is watching Tennessee now. And they’re watching your district. The whole world. It’s a big vote. It’s going to show something. It’s got to show that the Republican Party is stronger than ever.”

Trump joined Van Epps later in the day for an evening conference call.

In another sign of the importance of holding the seat, Republican Gov. Bill Lee, Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as Republican members of Congress from Tennessee, state GOP lawmakers and rival candidates who lost to Van Epps in last month’s primary, showed up to support them.

Behn also enjoyed last-minute support from high-profile replacements.

Ocasio-Cortez; representative. Pramila Jayapal from Washington State, who has chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the past four years; Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown and former Vice President Al Gore, a Tennessee native, both spoke at a virtual rally on election eve.

Click here to download the FOX NEWS app

“The reason this race is competitive is because I’ve been to community gatherings, potlucks, funerals, weddings with voters in the 7th District, and they remember that,” Behn told Fox News Digital.

But Van Epps, referring to his election eve appearance with Johnson, told Fox News: “I think we were probably at 10 events yesterday to be here with us and campaign for him. The momentum is real. He’s been endorsed by over 50 local leaders across the district. We’ve built momentum since the primary, and we’re going to move forward with this.”