(CN) - The final high stakes U.S. election of 2025 resulted in a narrow Republican victory in Tennessee Tuesday night, with Matt Van Epps beating Democrat Aftyn Behn to represent the state's 7th Congressional District.
The seat had been vacant for nearly five months after Republican Representative Mark Green resigned in July in order to take a position in the private defense sector.
Trump won the district by 22 points in the 2024 presidential election, but the margins were much tighter in Tuesday's special election. With more than 95% of precincts reporting, Epps had a nearly nine-point lead with 53.9% of the vote compared to Behn's 45.1% of the vote.
Behn did appear to win a single county - Davidson (which includes Nashville) - with 77.7% of the vote compared to Van Epps' 21.6%.
The district, redrawn by Republicans in 2022, stretches from the affluent suburbs of Williamson and Dickson counties through Clarksville and parts of five rural counties south of Nashville.
The Democratic nominee and runner-up was state Representative Behn, age 38, who flipped a Nashville-based state House district in a 2023 special election. Behn focused her campaign on restoring abortion access after Tennessee's near-total ban, expanding Medicaid to close rural hospital gaps, eliminating the state sales tax on groceries, and increasing public school funding. She was backed by national Democratic groups and several labor unions as party heavyweights including Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for her in recent days.
Van Epps is a 48-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services from 2019 to 2024 under Governor Bill Lee. He campaigned heavily on border security, opposition to new gun restrictions, support for veterans' benefits, and continued deregulation of energy and agriculture. In recent weeks, he received endorsements from President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Governor Lee.
Van Epps raised just under $1 million for the effort, according to the Federal Election Commission. But Behn brought in more than $2.8 million, nearly half of which was from individual contributors.
In comments to supporters after his win, Van Epps said Trump's endorsement "made the difference" in the race and promised to serve all constituents during his term.
"Tonight we showed that running from Trump is how you lose, and running with Trump is how you win," he said, emphasizing that affordability, public safety and veterans services will be among his priorities.
In a concession speech, Behn said although she lost, the party "outperformed every metric that we needed."
"Although tonight is not the final result of what we wanted, it is the beginning of something so powerful in Tennessee and across the South," she said, adding the GOP drew the district to be uncompetitive. "You put them on the run in a district they thought they could buy and win with double digits, and we showed them that is not the case. We may not have won tonight but we changed the story of what's possible here and we're not done."
Because it was a special election, Van Epps will have to run again in 2026.
Source: Courthouse News Service
