Republican Matt Van Epps will fill Tennessee’s open 7th District Congressional seat, in the last showdown election of 2025.

Early results are showing 36-year-old liberal state Rep. Democrat Aftyn Behn with an early lead over Republican U.S. Army combat veteran Matt Van Epps in the special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District — a stunning development in the area considered safe Republican just a few weeks ago.

Republican Matt Van Epps has won the special US House election for Tennessee’s 7th District, preventing an upset but emboldening Democrats as they were on track to over-perform in a normally deep-red district.

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Matt Van Epps, who was backed by Trump, is projected to defeat Democrat Aftyn Behn in a congressional district the president won by 22 percentage points in 2024.

President Donald Trump and top Republicans are making a last-ditch push to prevent embarrassment in a hotly contested Tennessee special election for Congress

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Wednesday that Republicans face political “headwinds” after they avoided a Democratic upset in a Tennessee special election Tuesday. He told reporters that it’s “not uncommon” in midterm elections for the party in power to face challenges heading into a midterm election.

Tennessee's special election in District 7 to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green has elected a winner, but not quite how Republicans imagined.