Posted on 12/03/2025 4:51:02 AM PST by MtnClimber
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 by which Trump carried the district 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 the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
SNIP
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.”
“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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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If Republicans have pathetic turnout like this in the midterms the Rat party will easily win enough to impeach Trump.
Hello
The Guy won by 9 % and the district is 10 % Gop .
He was right on the numbers .
You are peddling the Leftist media that Pushed that Fate Emerson Poll showing the Nashville hater ahead and now spinning a Gop win as a defeat .
Stop falling for the Leftist media BS .
The district lines changed since 2024 .
9 points is a landslide for a off year special election. He won comfortably despite the astroturfing and hype coming out of the recent wins by Dems in Dem states.
There were like fifteen counties that overwhelmingly voted for Epps...in the 70% and only one county, Davidson, that went for the communist liberal. The liberal Democrat stronghold in Nashville went the other way otherwise the other part of Tennessee slammed her. Nashville and Memphis have significant ethnic populations.
Being in a Republican state kept the Democrats from “counting until they win”. Nashville was late so they were definitely padding.
I hope the Democrats spent all of their borrowed money for this loss.
Watching the media continue to claim this was “close” is beyond comical. He won by nearly 10 points. Despite being outspent nearly 2-1 by largely out of state Democrat groups.
By nine points...
Certainly wasn’t what the enemedia was peddling yesterday, was it...
You are the Pathetic one. Democrats got the votes out in Nashville and got slaughtered in the outer counties.‘Typical!
I’m sure Dems are stomping their feet like Rumplestiltskin.
The NY Post is far from leftist!!!!!
It was a typical off-off-year special election in which the Republican won by almost 10 points in a GOP plus-10 district. The fake news propaganda clearly worked on you, but this race predicts not a single thing about the midterms, good or bad. The doomage is hilarious, though.
It wasn’t close. You TDS buttwipes need to clutch pearls elsewhere.
Thank you, Lord! And we used to think the likes of Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi were bad. They seem moderate & sane by comparison now.
Great to hear.
NSDQ!
I know the Cook Report has Tenn 7th as R+10. It looks like independents did not turn out. Trump won in this district by what? I think it was about 20%. With as bad a candidate as Behn was I thought she would get trounced.
Agreed.
The media is claiming it was close because the win wasn’t as big as Trump’s........when the hell has that ever been done before?
Comparing a special election to a presidential one?........we don’t hate the news media enough.
10% is “trounced” in the typical off-year election.
“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.”
I’ll take a win of 9 points any time. That’s the kind of “on the ropes” outcome I like to see.
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